The Thing About Third Reality Gen3 Switches

Posted on by Curt

Generally, I love my Third Reality Smart Switches. I currently have three single-pole light switches configured (garage, kitchen, and hallway) and a three-way light switch for the stairs, all without having to do any electrical work. The app for the most part works well and only rarely does Alexa fail to communicate with Third Reality servers.

But I cannot figure out why they went with these mini bracket spacer things for mounting on Gen3. They are effectively consumables at the rate I have to swap them out (fortunately sold in a pack on Amazon).

The wall rocker with the Third Reality mount removed, broken screw rings left behind

Cracked mount on top and remnants of bracket around screw on bottom.

The back of a Third Reality Gen3 switch in hand, its actuator collar visibly cracked

Found the rest of it still attached to the Third Reality.

For those who haven’t installed one of these, the process is simple:

  1. Unscrew the two screws holding the switch plate
  2. Select two spacers, two brackets, and the included longer screws
    • There are three thicknesses of spacer, I often try thinnest first
  3. Install the brackets
  4. Mount the Third Reality and press the button
  5. If it turns on/off the light without stalling or popping off the bracket then you’re done
    • Often this is not the case
  6. If not then figure out which bracket (or both) needs to be tightened or loosened
    • Or possibly swap out the spacers for a different thickness
  7. Repeat until the Third Reality always turns on and off the light without issue

It can take some trial and error to get this working. It also may mean overtightening one of the screws to make everything fit just right. Overtightening stresses the plastic up front, and every press after that flexes the switch on its mounts as the servo moves back and forth over the rocker, until the plastic fatigues.

Could it just be that the switch boxes in the walls of all three apartments I’ve lived in are so sloppily placed that the alignment is out of spec?

Note, I have a Gen2 with a different full bracket solution and it works perfectly even when the screws are overtightened. It also doesn’t pop off the mount the way the Gen3s do.

All I’m saying is, if I ever get the opportunity to design my own system, I will spend more time engineering a solution that doesn’t result in repeated Amazon orders of spare brackets.