INSTEON Paddle Issue - Strange Discovery

As some of you may know, I am moving from Insteon to Lutron, but I still have a few devices left.

One of them is an ICON Relay in my attic. It has the dreaded paddle press issue where it won't turn ON. OFF works fine, but ON doesn't.

I am having some work done on my HVAC system and I have been turing the light on via Houselinc. Well, I forgot this morning and the guys came and asked me how to turn the attic lights on. So I go to Houselinc and as soon press "Turn On", a long log comes up showing what has happened with that switch.

What is interesting is that the log showed all the "paddle presses" as OFF presses. I verified that he was pressing the top of the paddle and he was.

So why are ON paddle presses that don't turn on the lights, being recorded by Houselinc as OFF presses?

If you were to take the paddle off and press the top mini/micro pushbutton switch and this occurred it would seem to be a firmware or electronics problem and not a mechanical problem.

SH tech support had me do this once and after about 20 or 30 mins of playing with the switch they decided to authorize the exchange. For my older switches that I paid $17.99 for (they are $39.99 now) I just throw them out since it such a hassle waiting for a tech and then spending another 20 or 30 mins with them trying everything under the sun. All in all an hour is to much time wasted for known problems.

I wonder what SH did with the hundreds if not thousands of returns? Did they salvage them?

I was having the same issue with an Icon relay, I went to RMA it a few months ago only to discover it was past the 1 year warranty

Luckily, it suddenly started working again and it's been working great for the past few weeks.

I just went to the SH website and cant beleive how much they have increased their prices in hte past 13 months. 100% or more increase on many products. Thats outrageous.

Its dissapointing that they wont replace a defective switch with a known problem.

Digger said:

If you were to take the paddle off and press the top mini/micro pushbutton switch and this occurred it would seem to be a firmware or electronics problem and not a mechanical problem.

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I will give that a try this evening and post back the results. I may try a V2 paddle on it as well.

Luckily, it suddenly started working again and it's been working great for the past few weeks.

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If it is not a mechanical problem then what caused it to work again? Did you shut the power off and turn it back on or do a reset on the device? Interesting that it works again.

I did nothing. it just started working.

Digger said:

I just went to the SH website and cant beleive how much they have increased their prices in hte past 13 months. 100% or more increase on many products. Thats outrageous.

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Although I could be wrong, it appears there has been a shift in their sales strategy... Price higher, and then run frequent sales.

Many retailers are doing this now... Khol's, JC Penney, Lamps Plus, Sears.

If you need anything from SH, just wait. It'll go on sale. Or, buy it from somewhere else.

Eric

Although I could be wrong, it appears there has been a shift in their sales strategy... Price higher, and then run frequent sales

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I originally bought Icons at $19.99 with 10% off. Last time I bought them was this February at $34.95 with 10% off. Now they are $39.95. I would not be surprised if they get to $50 by the end of this year.

Luckily I am about done now (once installed I will have over 35 devices with no other possibilities left). Replacements though will cost me.

I have had a bunch of the Icons die on me. There one year limit on the waruanty is limited for a reason it seems. From now on I will use V2's if I replace any more. I just hated to buy a V2 for the laundry room etc.

All of my devices are operating no wheres near their rated load with the exception of the dining room chandlier. That is rated 480 watts (according to the marking) and I am running 300. Otherwise I am running about 30% of rated load or less (45 watts on a 480 watt rated device etc). yet they still drop dead. Since many are Icons they have to go in the garbage since they are older than 12 months. For $19.95 I guess I should not have expected them to last.

My Insteon switch deaths seem to have slowed down now, but I sure had my share for a while. I've lost track of how many I've replaced, most due to the dead paddles.

The price increases seem outrageous. I've been advising people to consider UPB, etc., more as the price of Insteon gets higher. They're just losing the one real advantage they had, to me.

The price increases seem outrageous. I've been advising people to consider UPB, etc., more as the price of Insteon gets higher. They're just losing the one real advantage they had, to me.

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As the price gap closes and teh competition has longer warranties (5 years etc on some) then who will want Insteon anymore? That and the competition has higher ratings (600 watts etc) on a $59 device. Why pay $49 for a 2 year warranty and a 480 (or less) rating?

I was to heavily into this finacially to abandon Insteon or I would have.

I've never used Insteon, but at one time I had a houseful of Smarthome X-10 switches. Over time I started having this same problem with 5 or 6 or these, where you had to press harder and harder for them to operate. Eventually you couldn't press hard enough for them to work.

I use UPB now and never had that problem again.

Madcodger said:

The price increases seem outrageous. I've been advising people to consider UPB, etc., more as the price of Insteon gets higher. They're just losing the one real advantage they had, to me.

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Unfortunately all switching technologies, including high end X-10 stuff, have gotten too expensive and there are no more bargains out there. Insteon still has an edge with linked switches responding as fast as if they were hard-wired together, but that may also disappear once the "reduced double-tap delay" UPB stuff hits the shelves.

In any case, I think $20 for a solid basic automation switch to $40 for a top of the line super switch, is all the mass market is ever going to accept. Anything higher than that is permanent "niche market" stuff that will never gain wide ipod-like acceptance.

I again brought up the paddle issues with SH that I have had in the past (and present) and that they never took care of. There reply was NOT to replace them when others have had theirs replaced it seems.

To quote them:

"I'd love to replace all of your paddle problems, however, we still do not have a permanent "fix" for this issue. However, please stay tuned, as I'm sure it will be along shortly. Once we have a fix, feel free to let me know and we'll get you taken care of. (if you need to return any recently purchased replacement paddles, let me know, and we can get these returned for refund, etc.)"

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This SEEMS to conflict what other people MAY have been told.

Why is it that SH refuses to swap any of my defective products? I guess I complain TO MUCH.

Oh well I just did it again didnt I.

I soooooooooooo wasted my money.

Digger said:

I again brought up the paddle issues with SH that I have had in the past (and present) and that they never took care of. There reply was NOT to replace them when others have had theirs replaced it seems.

To quote them:

"I'd love to replace all of your paddle problems, however, we still do not have a permanent "fix" for this issue. However, please stay tuned, as I'm sure it will be along shortly. Once we have a fix, feel free to let me know and we'll get you taken care of. (if you need to return any recently purchased replacement paddles, let me know, and we can get these returned for refund, etc.)"

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This SEEMS to conflict what other people MAY have been told.

Why is it that SH refuses to swap any of my defective products? I guess I complain TO MUCH.

Oh well I just did it again didnt I.

I soooooooooooo wasted my money.

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SH followed up with me again when I told them I was disgusted with the fact that I have all of these devices with problems and they wont replace them

To quote them:

"We'll absolutely replace items for you with known issues if and when we have items to replaced them with. I wouldn't want to send you replacement items that contain the same issue you are experiencing. "

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So are they saying that they know they are selling defective products or am I reading into this to deeply?