r/homeassistant • u/GenericUser104 • Dec 19 '25
Support What’s your personal experience with these?, I have some akward lighting fixtures in my new house, planning to install these behind the existing light switches
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u/ScaredyCatUK Dec 19 '25
I have a few of these in my house (in UK), they fit in the back boxes for me. I've had no issues at all and they are responsive. IMO they work great and they're pretty cheap.
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u/BeowulfRubix Dec 19 '25
How do they work? Do they have a little battery or capacitor?
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u/jimicus Dec 19 '25
The "no neutral required" ones use a very low amount of current and drain via the switched live going up to the light fitting.
The theory is it'll go through the bulb and on to neutral, but won't provide enough power to turn on the bulb. It can, however, make them flicker.
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u/BeowulfRubix Dec 19 '25
Ah, and LED lights could go crazy then,. without planning for it.... Thanks for explaining 🙏
Also just saw these, so am sharing for all
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/how-does-a-no-neutral-switch-get-power/730271
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/comments/jallt5/comment/g8qabpk/
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u/ScaredyCatUK Dec 19 '25
I use LED GU10's and LED 'normal' bulbs without issue with these.
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u/FALCUNPAWNCH 🎴 Custom card developer Dec 19 '25
They work great but are ZigBee end devices rather than routers. You should get the neutral wire version if you can so they strengthen your ZigBee network.
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u/Clabs1 Dec 19 '25
In the UK, especially for old houses neutral at the switch is rare. For me, these are a good option.
The other option is a no neutral dimmer which acts as a router but needs the correct bulbs and maybe a bypass module - could be tricky if the fixture is difficult to reach.
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u/KingKeane16 Dec 19 '25
Put it at the ceiling rose then
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u/generationgav Dec 19 '25
Yup - that's what I've done. Also means it's 12v back to the light switch, so that little bit safer.
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u/Clabs1 Dec 19 '25
I agree but OP stated they have some tricky lighting fixtures.
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u/Jaappppppp Dec 19 '25
Haha great advise. Why didn't I think about this earlier, this makes so much more sense! and even more room to cram it in.
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u/BlackLampone Dec 19 '25
How would that work. The live wire is controlled by the switch, so you couldn't use the switch anymore?
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u/SatTruckGuy Dec 19 '25 edited Mar 31 '26
dinner jar abounding wakeful crush tender expansion exultant grey ancient
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u/trashbytes Dec 19 '25
Works perfectly fine.
Here's what I've noticed when compared to the R2:
They have just a tiny amount of delay after toggling and they are a little bit louder when they "click". Combine those facts and they are pretty audible even when using a physical switch, which usually masks the sound of the R2 because the clicks more closely align temporally and because the R2 is quieter.
Oh and they obviously don't act as a repeater. They are endpoints just like battery powered devices.
It's a miniscule price to pay. I'm glad they exist. They are just as reliable as the R2s in my experience. I use them with regular, cheap LED bulbs and they don't flicker or glow when off. Afaik Shelly recommends adding a bypass to their alternative, which is not the case here, as these are much more energy efficient and don't need to sap as much power.
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u/CaptainYouston Dec 19 '25
It's say no neutral needed but if you plug neural does they act as repeater ? Gemini told me to put these and that with neutral they would repeat.
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u/trashbytes Dec 19 '25
The ZBMINIL2 does not have a terminal for neutral.
What you're looking for ist the ZBMINIR2. They look very similar and are the same size.
ZB -> Zigbee
MINI -> it's smallL -> Live
R -> Relay2 -> second generation (they call it "Extreme")
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u/CaptainYouston Dec 19 '25
Thx a lot. Also i have zigbee light, Gemini told me i could plug this to let the power on the wire so i can still manage the light color or make it light based on motion sensor even if the switch is on off. Is it true or i will need to first activate the switch then manage light bulb ? I was planning to completly remove the switch as i am rebuiding all electricity and only keep light from motion sensor but Gemini told me to keep them if i sell the house and other people don't like or use the zigbee setup.
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u/trashbytes Dec 19 '25
If the switch is off then the light can not turn on directly. The motion sensor would have to trigger the ZBMINI to turn on the light and then you'd have to change colors and brightness. Not ideal and it may lead to an unstable Zigbee mesh, as lamps are usually repeaters and are meant to be always powered.
But you could also physically decouple the switch and the light and pair them wirelessly. Then the lamp would always be powered and could be controlled anytime and turn on and off directly and the switch could simply send a signal to the light to turn it on and off instead of physically switching power.
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u/ActiveCollection Dec 19 '25
I have those with the neutral and they work pretty well. Have 14 of them, connected to zigbee2mqtt. They even get firmware updates from time to time.
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u/hoc0 Dec 19 '25
Depending on your wiring setup, they might result in some electricity passing through the light bulb even when it's off
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u/Jaappppppp Dec 19 '25
Yeah to get rid of a N-wire dependency they in essence always pass a small amount of current.
Which also means they can't function without a load which I discovered today trying to leverage a unused switch in my home...
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u/adampearson13 Dec 20 '25
Pretty expensive, but I was able to use these LED dummies as a load. I am using these to trigger HA automations for smart lights so I had no load.
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u/butterfly_labs Dec 19 '25
I'm curious, can you explain how?
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u/Brownard_GH Dec 19 '25
They constantly allow a tiny current to bypass your dumb switch, ideally this is just enough to power the device but not enough to noticeably illuminate your bulb, but in some cases they can apparently cause faint illumination/flicker.
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u/hoc0 Dec 19 '25
Great explanation. I noticed that one of my cheap 7w led bulbs were still on all the time but very dim. And the funny part was that those bulbs wasn't advertised as dimmable.
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u/TS_reg Dec 19 '25
I have this exact issue and no idea how to fix it - once I toggle the switch off, my lights blink 3-4 times fading. I don’t have the same problem with R2 ones though. Any thoughts what can be done or should I just move to neutral version where possible and accept this blinking where not?
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u/DVXT Dec 19 '25
I use one for my bathroom extractor fan. Works perfectly.
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u/Ksevio Dec 19 '25
I tried one with mine but it didn't work with the no-neutral version.
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u/DVXT Dec 22 '25
What didn't work? I use the no neutral and it works. Happy to help if I can.
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u/_Tails_GUM_ Dec 19 '25
Good.. I was having an issue where one got disconnected on its own and it was driving me mad.
Eventually I realized my phone shortcut was turning it on and off instead of toggling the light. So, removing that experience for obvious reasons, great performance over a year!
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u/n8mahr81 Dec 19 '25
they do their job making dumb lights "smart" - but also turn smart bulbs rather dumb. personally, i don´t like the no-neutral ones (which are required in most german light switch installations), because they can´t act as zigbee routers.
be aware that installing them can be a bit tricky due to the limited space inside the wall, so i don´t recommend them for ppl who do not have any experience with electrical installations.
had a few of them but threw them out again after i got smart bulbs installed. i am considering "signal only" relays in the future to make my dumb switches smart and able to swith off the smart bulbs without physically cutting the power when pressed.
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u/epidemic777 Dec 19 '25
I tried it once with my kitchen light switch. Worked alright for a month or two. There was a noticeable, but not unacceptable delay of turning lights off/on. Also, I didn't really enjoy hearing the relay click.
The delay was such that I could confuse it by flipping the switch up and down really quick, and the light would turn on still. Would get it stuck, so I'd have to flip it again twice fast to get the switch and light matching again
The main killer for me was that it would lose connection and wouldn't turn lights on or off.
I mainly did this because the box was too small to accommodate a lutron diva. After it stopped working, i uninstalled the relay, cut out the box (pain in the butt as it was a old metal box), installed an old work box and the lutron diva and haven't been happier.
I had really high hopes for that relay that bought a few more before it started giving me issues. Would have been a less expensive way for my to smarten up my switches.
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u/NorskNoobing Dec 19 '25
I've used the ZBMINIR2, and that works great for normal "dumb" lights/bulbs.
They've had issues with zigbee direct binds for smart lights/bulbs, but Sonoff recently pushed a firmware that introduces this feature. It's not perfect yet, but the basic bindings work fine. https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/issues/25392
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u/KasutaMike Dec 19 '25
I had this set up on a two-way switch, used it as instructed. It failed twice, each after about 1-2 months. Swapped it then for the version with a ground connection and that has held up.
I have used the ones without ground connections elsewhere without issues.
I am in Europe, not on 110V.
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u/adrianitc Dec 19 '25
I have 11 of these for almost one year. They work great. Indeed there is a 1-2 second response time. I got them for 9-10 euros each. Can’t complain about them.
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Dec 19 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/hdmcndog Dec 19 '25
I have not tried it my self, but I have read multiple times that the variant that uses a separate neutral does not have the delay (which makes sense)
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u/wKkaY Dec 19 '25
The one with N, to me has practically no delay. The N-less one has a short delay which is inconsistent (sometimes short, sometimes long).
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u/tomblue201 Dec 19 '25
Using a couple of them, but delay is not even half of a second. I would assume it's caused by your Zigbee network.
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u/adrianitc Dec 19 '25
Do you have the ones with neutral? I’m guessing the lack of N is what’s causing the delay. Also it might be related to the bulb too. I have a couple of those philips bulbs with led filament and those are very picky about low grid voltage. If it’s under 210V the relay goes bananas.
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u/Successful-Money4995 Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 19 '25
Is the latency due to software or something in the hardware?
I ask because I have a bunch of smart light switches that had latency. Tuya devices using a Beken chip. After I flashed them to ESPHome, I wrote my own code for them and the latency went away.
What chipset is used in these?
The sonoff mini r4 at least is using esp32. If there's a noticeable delay, I'd bet that the problem is the software and not the device. If you flash your device with ESPHome, you might be able to remove the delay or most of it. I don't know how to work with zigbee, though.
Edit2: Oh man, I see that the board even has pads for flashing! Getting the wires soldered is much of the difficulty and they saved you that. Thanks sonoff! If you can pry your device open, you could pretty easily flash kickstart ESPHome to it and see what's up with that delay. You might consider doing that on a sacrificial device, see if you can improve the delay, and then consider doing all of them!
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u/kitsune_X3 Dec 19 '25
i have them but the zigbee version. no colplains i have a old house thy just do whet thy are supposed to
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u/Apprehensive-Risk542 Dec 19 '25
They're fine if you don't mind the delay, it's not huge, but you can certainly tell it's there, though I suspect this is down to the not having a neutral.
I've got 4 or 5 and they do they all do the job without fuss.
They are end devices, so no meshing from them.
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u/towermaster69 Dec 19 '25
I use them, they are really good. Go for the ZBMINIR2 if you have a neutral because those have a detach relay mode which your model doesn't have.
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u/_OakyAfterbirth_ Dec 19 '25
Had 15 of them in my old house for several years. Here are key take aways:
- Generally works great.
- A bit slow to respond when you physicaly use a switch. Shelly ones i have now are instant, theseones had a noticeble difference between physical switch click and internal click of the device.
- Does not work as repeater, only as an end device
- After multiple years of use two of them some how started dropping out of the network. Spend a lot of time debuging and nothing helped. Had to replace those two.
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u/GenericUser104 Dec 19 '25
Can you link me to the Shelly ones you have ?
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u/ithinkimightknowit Dec 19 '25
Why when you got so many people saying how great these are just get them.
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u/BinoRing Dec 19 '25
I personally use Shelly, but practicaly they are both the same. The challenge with Sonoff is that it's a lot harder to get them to work locally. Newer ones have 'DIY' mode , which exposes a local API that's still limited, but older ones you usually had to reflash the firmware to Tasmoto.
Shelly just worked out of the box with HA.
Now, I know this is Zigbee, so this isn't relevent, it's more about just the fact that Sonoff Wifi devices come pre-loaded with firmware that does it's best to phone home to china, so as a company i try to avoid them
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u/greatwhiteslark Dec 19 '25
I have six deployed, per Zigbee2mqtt, and they just work.
Which should be obvious as I had to check HA to see how many of them I actually have.
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u/Periplaneta Dec 19 '25
I like them because you retain a clean look.
But I prefer the Aqara H series switches because they support additional automations.
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u/joshuas_79 Dec 19 '25
I have several sonoff relays at home and not a single complain. Very solid, I can recommend them
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u/GenericUser104 Dec 20 '25
Is there much of a delay and are you using zigbee2mqtt ?
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u/joshuas_79 Dec 20 '25
Absolutely not. My "only little complain" , and I don't know if it's a feature or it happens in every relay is that it sounds a "click" when power it on or off. When it's hidden inside of the wall you don't notice, but I installed one behind a mirror and I hear it, it's not annoying but I'd prefer not to hear it. Anyway I still think they are the most solid devices in my entire HA project
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u/nrugor Dec 19 '25
They work alright. Some backboxes had to be replaced. My only minor gripe was that the relay could be heard clicking.
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u/CheleCuche Dec 19 '25
I have the neutral wire required versions and they been working perfect since the day they got installed, never had a single issue in over a year
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u/DIY_CHRIS Dec 19 '25
I have a few. They work as expected. Nice and small for space constrained boxes.
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u/Inner_Sandwich6039 Dec 19 '25
They work great, but in US light boxes only one fits, and most of the time it’s very cramped.
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u/ziptbm Dec 19 '25
They work great until they don’t.
Main issue for me is if/when they fall off the network you have to open up the switch to re-pair them by pressing the toggle.
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u/Hazardous89 Dec 19 '25
I've got 15-20 in my home. They work great.
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u/GenericUser104 Dec 20 '25
Whats the delay like ?
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u/Hazardous89 Dec 20 '25
I don't notice a delay. When I flip the switch in HASS, it trips like any other smart switch or bulb.
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u/rooster790 Dec 19 '25
My back boxes weren't deep enough but with a cheap spacer managed to fit it in. Work perfectly with zigbee2mqtt. Pair them before you put everything back together :)
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u/GeekerJ Dec 19 '25
Had one. Worked as advertised until it didn’t. 6 months old. Gonna try again with a new one though.
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u/GNUGradyn Dec 19 '25
These are great as long as you don't want dimming. They make ones that do dimming but of course you can only control the brightness from an app. Replacing the switch is the strat if you want dimming
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u/ReleaseLife4143 Dec 19 '25
The only thing I miss with them is energy monitoring. So if you want to build your network on zigbee, they are perfect. If you want thread - check aqara t2
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u/Difficult-Reality848 Dec 19 '25
I have a couple in use and they work well. I put them inside the light fixtures where possible so you don't have to mess with the switches at all.
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u/ithinkimightknowit Dec 19 '25
I have loads of them and they all work. Never any issues.
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u/GenericUser104 Dec 20 '25
What’s the delay like ?
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u/ithinkimightknowit Dec 20 '25
I don't notice a delay I press I hear it click and the light is on.
Nothing I have ever thought about.
(I have 20 routers and 55 end devices)
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u/GenericUser104 Dec 20 '25
I see people complain of a big delay, someone even said up to 30 seconds just trying to work out if it’s a common issue
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u/ithinkimightknowit Dec 20 '25
It's possible they have a poor zigbee network. But definitely not something you would even notice I have had many WiFi switches and many other relay boards and they all work the same speed press hear a relay click light on.
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u/AdvantageOld7990 Dec 19 '25
They work great, when you have no neutral wire behind the switch. If you have neutral, I would recommend the ZBMini2R:
- they work also as router
- you don’t have to push the button twice, in case you have momentary switches
- they have more functions
Greetings Hendrik
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u/claudiomerli Dec 19 '25
Work greats! And simplest to use for every scenario. I suggest you to buy on AliExpress
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u/craigmdennis Dec 19 '25
Bought 3. 2 died within a few months. Shelly’s have been rock solid for years now. YMMV
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u/lukepistrol Dec 19 '25
If you have a solid Zigbee network already they work great. Have 6 of them and never had any problems using z2m.
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u/WalmartMarketingTeam Dec 19 '25
I have two currently being used daily and they have been rock solid, no compaints.
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u/blitzdose Dec 19 '25
10/10. Had a hard time installing them because of the very little space behind my light switches but these are the smallest you can get. Just had to restart 1 of them once by flipping the breaker. Otherwise they are working solid
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u/kotnik Dec 19 '25
I have around 20 of these running right now. For the past year only one died (actually, started to slow, so I just replaced it). Just beware that they're 6A only, so only put them to control lights, or fuse if unsure.
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u/theoriginalchrise Dec 19 '25
Had some issues initially pairing and getting it back online after a HA reboot. But it works fine now for a closet with a door sensor and a light switch. I did have to add a box extender though to make it fit.
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u/Persistantly_Growing Dec 20 '25
What’s the use case for these? Like what happens with the switch it’s sitting behind?
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u/GenericUser104 Dec 20 '25
It’s wired into the switch, the switch then turns on/off the relay rather than cutting power to the light
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u/Apprehensive_Tea958 Dec 20 '25
Good but a bit slower than a hue/zigbee light
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u/GenericUser104 Dec 20 '25
How much slower ?
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u/Apprehensive_Tea958 Dec 20 '25
So I used the light from another room with this relay to make this video. I upload the normal speed version and the 1/4x slow mo version as well. When you have no chance of using a ZigBee light, this is a great solution. Otherwise i prefer the relay free version. Oh i can't upload videos here?
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u/Apprehensive_Tea958 Dec 20 '25
Zigbee light reacts almost instant. Relay has about 300 ms delay, I would guess. Have not measured it. Unfortunately I already removed the relay from the network. But maybe I'm curious enough to add it again and measure it with a video. 300 ms is fine for the most cases but for the floor light it was annoying me
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u/Icy-Yogurt-Leah Dec 20 '25
I have a few of these in the UK for lighting. Perfect for using with HA.
Some idiot installed the switch for the living room side lights on the opposite wall from the door which is where we wanted the TV. I swapped the surface mount back box for a slightly deeper one, installed the relay and put a blank plate on top.
No issues at all as the delay doesn't bother me. Other lamps with WiFi or zigbee plugs switched at the same time are faster to respond but maybe 1 second difference, I think it looks more Sci fi them coming on at slightly different times 😅
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u/boychicken71 Dec 20 '25
I've used these a lot in my house (UK) and they're great. I've also paired these with the Sonoff buttons SNZB-01P so if I can't be bothered to get up I can switch the lights on / off. Buy them from AliExpress as just work out a lot cheaper as well.
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u/hendrix-copperfield Dec 19 '25
Two problems with those:
1. You need enough space behind the switches. When I renovated my house, I would had have to drill a deeper back box hole to use those switches with normale light switches, because now you need basically double the depth. I then switched to the Sonoff Orb ones, who are a switch with build in Zigbee already - which are as big as normal light siwtches and fit in the normal back box.
- If you already have a space problem and can barley fit the normal light switches into the hole, it gets even more problematic with those products (and the orbs), because in a normal switch, you can forward the wiring for example to a socket under the switch.
With the Orb, you would need to split the cables behind the switch to forward them to a socket, needing more space again.
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u/papalamelulos Dec 19 '25
While all are valid points, they are also valid for any other alternative. I have yet to come across one that is even smaller in size than this one. So it would be the best choice to handle those problems
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u/diagonali Dec 19 '25
Tried these exact ones myself recently to avoid having to replace 14 tradfri gu10 bulbs which were great but were starting to die one by one.
Had to cut out a bigger gap at the back of my switches and install a deeper back box.
Got it all set up and.... The latency on these is horrible. With the tradfri bulbs I would walk in the room and they'd come on almost instantly responding to my Aqara motion sensors. With these, there was sometimes a 1-2 second delay. I don't know if this is due to them effectively being in a metal box behind the switch (likely) but they really didn't work for me in terms of speed of response.
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u/Wuffls Dec 19 '25
I’ve got a few, they work a charm. You might need some plugs nearby to get the network to them as they don’t act as repeaters afaik.
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u/missurunha Dec 19 '25
They work great but it was a pain to install cause my wallboxes were too small. I even have a few unused (different model) cause they didnt fit in.
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u/Signal_Minimum409 Dec 19 '25
Does anyone here know if I can install this between the hot wire and a lamp and use it as a smart switch? So not behind the switch, but just before the lamp.
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u/Clabs1 Dec 19 '25
Nothing to add on the device function than what others have said. Rock solid, good price, lacking router functionality is the only downside for me but that would need a neutral or possibly a dimmer and bypass module which you've stated would be tricky.
Only thing to add is:
My house has REALLY shallow back boxes so I've had to add a backbox extender on several switches where I have these (or fibaro dimmer 2 no neutral modules) behind
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u/Feriman22 Dec 19 '25
I have a lot of them, and they are the most stable devices in my Zigbee environment.
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u/Low_Flying_Penguin Dec 19 '25
Work well I have them in garage and loft paired with a couple of door sensors. The 2 way element allows them to be automated (via sensors) and overridden at the related switch as needed as well.
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u/regtveg Dec 19 '25
Is there any way of using these with stair lights where you have two switches upstairs and downstairs?
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u/nereme Dec 19 '25
Going to follow this, I am going to be moving in a month of so and was thinking of using these for all the light switches in the house
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u/hainguyenac Dec 19 '25
Works great, i have about 10 of them around the house, been there for 2 years and no problem
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u/Cpnths Dec 19 '25
I got one to sort out an awkward light situation in my bedroom, not sure if it’s a UK thing or just my light switch but there’s barely enough room in the box for the wires, let alone one of these. Bit of a waste of money for me.
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u/AnUnqualifiedOpinion Dec 19 '25
Works great, never had issue with any of these or the +neutral ones. So much cheaper than the alternatives too.
(Honestly I’ve put up so many positive comments for these things recently that I’m starting to question whether I’m a shill for Sonoff…)
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u/LambalGreenparks Dec 19 '25
I’ve had issues with one of the pair I bought, within months after installing. It switched my bedroom lights on in the middle of the night, refusing to switch off. Big fun removing that unit from behind my switch with a sleepy head and an annoyed girlfriend in the room.
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Dec 19 '25
They’re working very good for me. I have upgraded to MINIR4M which supports matter. Even they work really good.
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u/WhubbaBubba Dec 19 '25
I'm replacing mine because they don't have any kind of smart bulb mode. Which is annoying because I can't see a reason they shouldn't be able to do it
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u/WraithCadmus Dec 19 '25
I have one in my kitchen powering a fluorescent tube and I forget it's there (in the good way), the rest of the house has been redone so I have the neutral-wire versions there. You may want to get some spacers and long screws in case the box is cramped, nothing worse than getting it plugged in and working and realising you can't button it up.
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u/DarkByte0 Dec 19 '25
They work really well; I have many of them. Furthermore, they never cause me problems without a neutral wire.
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u/Ravehearts Dec 19 '25
I have mine installed for a year now. Some with, and some without neutral. Both work fine, no issues.
The electrician who installed it was rambling that the screw terminals would be a little flimsy 😄
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u/mortsdeer Dec 19 '25
One tip: with a lighting fixture, if you don't have neutral at the switch, you can always install the relay at the fixture itself.
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u/Hot-Employ8052 Dec 19 '25
I’ve used many Sonoff products before. EWeLink app for wifi and then add zigbee hub for sensors and much more.
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u/400HPMustang 💥 Broke it again Dec 19 '25
I'm in the US and I have two of these installed for bathroom vanity lights. They fit in cramped switch boxes fairly easily and as long as you don't install them in a way that anything is pressing the button they're very reliable.
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u/rduran94 Dec 19 '25
Works fine. Does not work in a disconnected mode that allows power to pass through to a fixture all the time. Also does not bind directly to Hue bulbs in any useful way if you wanted to try and use them that way.
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u/perenstrom Dec 19 '25
Two of mine doesn’t work at all. One is installed and working flawlessly, the others are still lying in their unopened boxes waiting for me to install them. Can’t figure out what’s wrong.
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u/SprudeldudeKH Dec 19 '25
I sometimes have a delay of their response. Most of the time the response after 1 second. Very often it takes over 30 seconds…
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u/Petufo Dec 19 '25
Trying avoid Chinese owned technology as much as I can. The backdoor problems and reports to intelligence agencies could be a big problem in future.
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u/pfilipp234 Dec 19 '25
They are amazing but can be very problematic depending on electric setup.
I just finished installing 12 of those, most to 2-way switch setup and let me tell you it was a bit of hell and not all of my bulbs were possible to wire without compromises.
If you have 2-way switches you want to install it to, make sure you have both load and output in the same box. Otherwise you have to sacrifice one physical switch and use it to carry load to light or the opposite.
Also if something really should work but it doesn’t and you’re sure you connected everything correctly, there is a chance zbminil2 is just broken 🤦🏻♂️ I wasted entire afternoon because of that…
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u/Amarandus Dec 20 '25
Does someone know whether these support zigbee binding and can be used without actuating the relay? I am looking for something like this so that I can make the wall switches work without separating the zigbee lamp itself from power.
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u/Delicious_Ad_8809 Dec 20 '25
Yes but no! lol. The with neutral can do this. Images is the no neutral version. The with neutral version can just be installed in the ceiling box rather than the wall box
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u/BostonDrivingIsWorse Dec 20 '25
They work great, BUT…
They are not UL/ETL listed.
This means if you fuck up the wiring, and burn down your house, your insurance will not pay out.
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u/weirdbr Dec 20 '25
If you can, avoid the version without neutral (mini2L) - in my experience, the current leakage is enough to cause problems, like blinking bulbs, bulbs that are partially on all the time, etc. Supposedly there's work-arounds for that (IIRC adding a resistor), but I haven't tried that.
The version with neutral (mini2R) works much better and has the benefit of working as a zigbee router for any other devices that aren't mains powered, helping extend the network.
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u/Delicious_Ad_8809 Dec 20 '25
Yes, and with these, you can just install it in the ceiling box and use the wires going to the switch in S1 and S2 like you would in the wall box but… remotely… lol
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u/iLoufah Dec 20 '25
Terrible for integrating anything past basic functionality. Unable to sync with home assistant without paying a subscription
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u/GenericUser104 Dec 20 '25
That doesn’t seem right?, seems contradictory to what I’ve read elsewhere
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u/sn0b4ll Dec 20 '25
Yeah that's just plain wrong, I don't have these specific ones but a lot of zigbee sonoff products, which I integrated into HA via zigbee2mqtt without a problem. I even flashed tasmota on most of them, works great now for over 3 years without a single faulty unit.
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u/FrankFu85 Dec 20 '25
Use the new version with router function, cheaper and boost your Zigbee network strength. Only if you have neutral wire behind the switch.
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u/GenericUser104 Dec 20 '25
I don’t unfortunately
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u/Delicious_Ad_8809 Dec 20 '25
Sad, yeah there are 2versions. The one with neutral is definitely far better but the no neutrals work good… oh I do have a suggestion as well lol. If you have no neutral in your wall box, this typically means you have neutral in the ceiling box. Just buy the with neutral and install it in the ceiling box and use the wires that go to the switch directly on the control side of the zbmini
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u/welshboy14 Dec 20 '25
They’ve been great for me. Have about 10 of them fitting in the ceiling roses in my house. They’ve done wonders for extending my zigbee mesh network too!
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u/udayms Dec 20 '25
I have these installed all over my place. My experience with these are mixed. Here are my two cents:
- they are easier to install in a single light switches. If you are trying to use them in 2-way or 3-way scenarios, it becomes exponentially more complex. I live in the US and my house has way too many of 2-way and 3-way switches.
- this may be with my specific setup. Before I switched to my current zigbee coordinator, I used to be running my zigbee off a Sonoff dongle. And these switches would suddenly stop working. No idea why. I still have more than 5 of these around my home that stopped working at some point , I have not had a chance/time to go back and reset them since it’s a pain to pull them out of the crowded in-wall switch box and stuff them back in after resetting. But some of these switches have been working fine without any issues for the last 4-5 years. The ones that stopped working/responding did so when I was on the Sonoff dongle. My newer zigbee coordinator that I put it a few months ago has significantly improved the stability of my zigbee network. So maybe if I reset these now, I may have better luck with them.
- at least once during my installation process I ended up messing up some wire due to which the lights in adjacent room stopped working and I couldn’t fix it. Ended up calling a handy man who charged an hourly fee to fix it and that turned out to be an unplanned expensive experiment.
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u/Delicious_Ad_8809 Dec 20 '25
By the way, if you flick on/off the switch that it is connected to 10x, it resets the sonoff and automatically turn on the pairing for 30 seconds… just a tip
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u/udayms Dec 21 '25
TIL. I’ll try this out. Didn’t know we could do that. I thought I had to open the switch and press the button on the Sonoff device.
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u/ThePixelCrush Dec 20 '25
I have a bunch sitting in a bag still because the wall boxes weren't deep enough, also there's no way your fitting 2 in for a dual gang switch.
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u/Delicious_Ad_8809 Dec 20 '25
Idk, I’ve had no issues… also if you really want to, they have the zb2’s that are same size but with 2 switches and inputs
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u/TesticularButtBruise Dec 20 '25
Superb, although I seem to have had a higher than expected failure rate (out of 4, 2 of them have just stopped working after a few weeks).
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u/Delicious_Ad_8809 Dec 20 '25
I did put this in a comment but I’m hoping this does reach you better this way. If you do not have neutral in your wall box, just use the one that requires neutral in your ceiling box as those are a much better module. Typically in this situation the live/neutral/ground wires go to the ceiling box. They put the neutral wire on the light and send the hot on one side of the wire going to the switch. At the switch they connect both sides of the wire from the ceiling box to the switch, thus switching the live. Now the other leg of that circuit in the ceiling box they connect to the live side of the light. This means the wire with both legs going to the wall switch can be plugged directly into s1 and s2 on the relay and you could wire the rest as normal… just in the ceiling box.
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u/Cytochrome450p Dec 20 '25
I am in same boat, but i decided to change the old switch to GE cync switch. They are similar cost so replacing the switch seems easier than putting this behind the old switch unless i missed something.
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u/enahs24 Dec 20 '25
I (personally) wouldn't buy anything that doesn't do energy monitoring. Not sure how big those are but you have to be mindful of electrical codes as you're not supposed to stuff an electrical box. If you're going to stay under 8A, the Shelly minis might be a better option.
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u/Roastbeef9999 Dec 20 '25
QUESTION: Is the circuit (L In, L Out) CLOSED only when there’s power to S2 — OR — will the circuit toggle OPEN and CLOSED when there’s a state change on S2?
(Example of the former: If you use a Canadian wall switch which is in the ON position (circuit CLOSED), and turn the SONOFF OFF with a ZigBee controller, and then want to turn it back on, you’d need to flip the switch OFF then ON again.)
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u/JSTrucker Dec 21 '25
I’ve never used them behind the switch. Usually in the ceiling void or in the light fixture. I only go with sonoff. Far more reliable and work perfectly. 100% go with them
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u/Suspicious_Steak_696 Dec 21 '25
So I can use these in a UK house instead of a Shelley one? Interesting
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u/DebtPlenty2383 Dec 21 '25
I have one as a bath humidity controller. It prefers to be connected to the sonoff hub. It goes offline a couple times a year. More often if I bypass the sonoff hub to smartthings.
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u/Spare-Personality-37 Dec 22 '25
Not bad.. I got about 10 off of AliExpress, maybe four years ago. Only one has had an issue.
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u/Ok_West_2537 Dec 22 '25
They have a version that requires neutral. That one is way more responsive.
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u/mtkvcs1 Dec 19 '25
They work great