How To Program 2 Zooz Switches In a Virtual 3-Way With Regular Bulbs

Zooz switches were designed to connect to regular mechanical wall switches in 3-way installation to simplify the installation and reduce your product cost. But in some cases, you may want to use 2 smart switches to control the same light instead. Never use the wiring diagrams in the manual to connect 2 or more Zooz switches together. Please follow these wiring instructions if you would like to use 2 smart switches in a 3-way set-up with regular bulbs (click here for instructions featuring smart bulbs).

You can connect any Zooz models in a virtual 3-way when using regular bulbs. Remember that dimmers need to be connected to high-quality dimmable LED bulbs or incandescent bulbs only. The recommended models for virtual 3-way installations are the ZEN71 On/Off switch, ZEN72 Dimmer, ZEN75 Heavy Duty Switch, ZEN30 Double Switch, ZEN32 Scene Controller, or ZEN35 Scene Dimmer. These models don't rely on current readings to change and maintain status and will allow you to program your smart switches with the most flexibility, regardless of the hub you use.

Here are the most common use cases for this scenario:

Dimming from both locations in a 3-way. Instead of using an on/off switch, you can use 2 Zooz dimmers and have one of them control the bulbs directly and the other dimmer control the primary one via Z-Wave using direct association or central scene commands (scroll down for detailed programming instructions).
Uniform look and feel on all of your switches. All of your wall controls will look the same and the light will always be turned on by pressing the top paddle and turned off by pressing the bottom paddle. Looking at all of you Insteon folks out there!
Multi-tap triggers aka scene control available from both locations. Both of your switches can now be programmed to trigger scenes and other devices with double tap or held-down triggers.
You only have a 14-2 romex with 2 wires instead of 3 traveling between the 2 boxes which prevents you from installing your smart switch with a simple on/off switch safely. To address this limitation, it's always easier (and cheaper!) to create a virtual 3-way rather than pulling an additional wire between the boxes.

Please click here for wiring instructions of your virtual 3-way set-up.

Once the switches are wired, you'll be able to control your lights from the primary switch or dimmer. This is the dimmer that has the load connection in. The remote switch/dimmer (the one that only has line, neutral, and ground in) will need to be included to your hub and programmed to control the main device via Z-Wave first.

You can program the virtual 3-way in 3 different methods:

1. Direct Association

With this method, the switches are linked together and communicate outside of the hub. Your Z-Wave system needs to support this feature and both switches need to be added to your hub with the same level of security. We recommend that you use the ZEN71 On/Off switch, ZEN72 Dimmer, ZEN75 Heavy Duty Switch, ZEN30 Double Switch, ZEN32 Scene Controller, or ZEN35 Scene Dimmer models with the latest firmware for this scenario and program them according to the instructions below for the best experience:

Dimmer Instructions
- Main dimmer or on/off switch (connected to load): no changes in settings
- Remote dimmers or on/off switch (not directly wired to the load): no changes in settings (as long as you are on the latest firmware).
  - If you have an earlier firmware, you will need to set Parameter 7 to value 11 (ONLY if your firmware is earlier than 3.30; this will break the direct association if used on firmware 3.30 or later.
- Home Assistant Users Only: If using 2 x ZEN77 (possible, but not the recommended models), you will need to Enable Smart Bulb Mode on the REMOTE dimmer only (Parameter 15 set to Value 0)
- Set direct association for Group 3 only, adding the device ID's for other dimmers in the group. So if dimmer A is your main dimmer and dimmer B is your remote dimmer, add dimmer B to Group 3 on dimmer A and add dimmer A to Group 3 on dimmer B.
- IMPORTANT: The remote dimmer can then only be used from the paddles (you need to hide it in your interface not to trigger it via Z-Wave) while any Z-Wave or wireless control of the light needs to happen from the main dimmer A. This will ensure both devices stay in sync at all times.
  - SmartThings users: Group 2 can be programmed in the Basic Set Assoc. Device Network ID setting, and Group 3 can be programmed in the Multilevel Set Assoc Device Net ID setting.
On/Off Switch Instructions
- Main & Remote switches: no changes in advanced settings
- Set direct association for Group 2 only, adding the device ID's for the other switch in the group. So, if switch A is your main switch and switch B is your remote switch, add switch B to Group 2 on switch A and add switch A to Group 2 on switch B.
- IMPORTANT: The remote switch can then only be used from the paddles (you need to hide it in your interface not to trigger it via Z-Wave) while any Z-Wave or wireless control of the light needs to happen from the main switch A. This will ensure both devices stay in sync at all times.
  - SmartThings users: Group 2 can be programmed in the Basic Set Assoc. Device Network ID setting

We've included Virtual 3-way Direct Association programming instructions for the most popular Z-Wave hubs below:

2. Central Scene Commands

This option uses Z-Wave’s built-in command structure. When you tap, double-tap, or hold a switch button, the switch sends a Central Scene notification directly to the hub. The hub interprets these commands and executes the linked automations, such as turning another switch on or dimming a light. Central Scene programming happens at the protocol level—it’s part of the Z-Wave standard—and doesn’t require you to manually build multiple automations for each possible action. However, in a virtual 3-way the switches themselves don’t stay perfectly synchronized because the LED indicators rely on local device states, not hub commands. Central scene uses the status reported by each switch.

This option would be selected if your switches are included to your hub via Z-Wave Long Range.

Here are detailed Virtual 3-Way Central Scene programming instructions for the most popular hubs:

How to Program a Virtual 3-Way on Z-Box with Regular Bulbs
How to Program a Virtual 3-Way on Home Assistant with Regular Bulbs
How to Program a Virtual 3-Way on HomeSeer with Regular Bulbs
How to Program a Virtual 3-Way on Hubitat with Regular Bulbs
How to Program a Virtual 3-Way on SmartThings with Regular Bulbs (no support for remote dimming with this method)

3. Smart Rules

In most interfaces, this is simply called scenes. This is a higher-level automation feature managed entirely by the hub. Instead of using Central Scene commands, you manually define a set of actions for each event—turn this device on, set that one to 50%, etc. To make two switches behave like a 3-way, you’d typically need four separate scenes: one for turning on from switch A, one for turning off from A, one for turning on from B, and one for turning off from B. While this keeps both switches synchronized, it generates more Z-Wave traffic and adds complexity, since every state change must be processed by the hub and distributed to all devices involved.

If your hub support Direct Association or Central Scene, these are recommended before resorting to Smart Rules. The only benefit to Smart Rules over Central Scene would be synchronized LED indicators. With Central Scene, the LED indicators will not be in sync because the LED indicators rely on local device states, not hub commands. Smart Rules would keep the LED indicators in sync, but cause more Z-Wave traffic.

Here is an example of the 4 rules you would need to create to sync the 2 switches:

If switch A is turned on, then turn switch B on.
If switch A is turned off, then turn switch B off.
If switch B is turned on, then turn switch A on.
If switch B is turned off, then turn switch A off.

Here are detailed Smart Rules programming instructions for the most popular hubs:

How to Program a Virtual 3-Way on Z-Box with Regular Bulbs

How to Program a Virtual 3-Way on Home Assistant with Regular Bulbs

How to Program a Virtual 3-Way on HomeSeer with Regular Bulbs

How to Program a Virtual 3-Way on Hubitat with Regular Bulbs

How to Program a Virtual 3-Way on SmartThings with Regular Bulbs

If you have any questions about setting up a virtual 3-way installation, please contact our tech support team and we'll be happy to help you.