Inovelli Red Series Switch	Inovelli Black Series Switch

Overall Rating 

The Inovelli LZW30 on/off switch comes in two flavors, red and black. The Black Series switch is the utilitarian little brother of the Red Series switch. It’s nice that they decided to provide a basic version (that’s still very capable) for those customers that don’t want or care about all the extra features.

Before you go crazy and purchase a bunch of either model, it’s a good idea to understand the differences to make sure you get what you need. The price difference is under $10, so when in doubt, spend the extra money (in my opinion). What you get as a result will be sure to please.

An important thing to keep in mind is that these switches require special device handlers to unleash their full potential. If you plan to run them on hubs that don’t allow custom device handler’s, you can set many of the options from the switch itself. However, many of the advanced scene capabilities that exist on the Red Series wont work.

This is the first switch that I’ve seen with a built in signal strength indicator. I’ve seen this feature in range extenders, but not a switch. This is a nice touch that shows Inovelli’s attention to detail.

General Features 

The LZW30 switches are packed full of  my favorite features and many many more.

Scenes & Power 

The switch has a powerful feature set. My only disappointment is that without the custom device handler you get no scene control, including no double-tap. Also, the Black Series should at least offer double-tap in lieu of full scene control like the Red Series.

1. To take full advantage of all the capabilities in the firmware custom device handlers are required. Many cool features can be programmed from the switch itself, but those that rely on the hub will not be available without the handler.
2. Native Double-tap is not available. Once the custom device handler is installed on the hub, you’ll have access to full multi-tap scene control.
3. Scenes are controlled with multi-tap and the small config/favorites button. 5-taps up, 5-taps down, 1 tap on the configuration button.

Dimmer Capabilities 

No dimming capabilities. See the LZW31 for dimming.

Wiring Options 

This is a neutral wire required switch. Three-way installations can use with a dumb (mechanical) switch or an aux switch. For more information, check out the three-way how-to section on this website.

1. Smart Load Sensing is a feature where the switch automatically determines the line and load regardless of how the switch was wired.
2. This switch has several options for 3-way control. Please refer to the Three-Way wiring option in the How-To section of the website.

LED Indicator 

This is probably the most configurable LED on the market. It has a unique solid bar that gives the illusion of the bar shrinking and growing as the dim level is increased and decreased.

1. The notifications feature (Red Series only) allows virtual switches to be created at the hub level. You can then add these switches to your automations to turn the notifications on and off based on rules.

Connection Reliability 

There were no problems with the connection during lab testing.

END