Cync - Smart Switch, On/Off Button Style, No Neutral Wire Required, Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz Wifi - White

My wife and kid has a bad habit of leaving the lights on when they leave for the day or go to bed. I couldn't use the wemo light switches because 2 of my lights switches didn't have the red wire inside the wall and playing an electrician to wire it would have been more than the switches themselves. When I saw these C by GE switches I grabbed 2 of them, 1 regular on/off and the other a dimmer. They took no time for me to install and they did not require the red wire I've been missing. I also have mostly Nest products in my house and it works great with it.

Works well. You have to make sure all light fixtures controlled by the switch are the same type for it to work. Also, because there is no neutral wire you have to screw one of the bulbs into an adapter before you screw it into the fixture. Fortunately I could hide it under the glove of the porch light fixture.

After doing the research, this looked like a great option for an older home with older wiring (no neutral wire). Installation was pretty straight forward. My problem is that after having worked with Insteon and a Z wave hub, the app and setup doesn’t feel that intuitive or easy to use. Other reviews don’t mention that you also need to connect with Bluetooth for the setup. After getting it set up, it works fine. The app just takes a bit of getting use to.

Great switch. It was easy to install. I purchased both the four and three wires. They have a great look and feel. Quality metals and plastics versus other switches I've used. Here is a great review on the switch https://youtu.be/ZwUBw_h25-k . I would recommend.

The C by GE (now just called Cync) 3-wire smart switch has a sleek design and the build quality is pretty good. However, I think it's an over-engineered and over-priced device, and unless your existing light switch installation absolutely lacks a neutral wire you should not use this light switch. I thought a light switch should be straightforward until I used this light switch. I am not sure how exactly this 3-wire switch works, but clearly it can steal some power/voltage from line/load only without needing the neutral wire. Maybe as a result of this, this switch is not quite compatible with fluorescent lights which have trouble stay steady when used with this switch. It is also indicated in the user manual that this switch is not compatible with non-dimmable LEDs unless you use the included adapter. There is only one adapter included so if you want to you use this switch to control multiple non-dimmable LEDs you will be out of luck. Subtleties like these suggest that whatever trick this light switch uses to power its electronics without the neutral wire, it is not transparent to the downstream devices. If your existing light switch junction box has a neutral wire you will be much better off purchasing a regular 4-wire smart switch which will both be cheaper and give you much better compatibility.