Merten Z-wave wall switches. An overview

[olof]

System M overview part I

Merten Overview System M part I.png (202.94 KiB) Viewed 12397 times

End of last year we started to remodel our house, and I wanted to find new wall switches which looked more modern and were able to do z-wave.
We ended up choosing a range from Merten (in our case, M-Smart). We had to special order it (in NL), because most of the more interesting designs
are not easily available outside Germany.

Understanding how Merten's range of Z-wave designs work was for me time consuming and frustrating. Merten's catalogs and brochures don't make it any easier for the simple end-user.

So, hereby an overview of Merten z-wave wall switches. I think there are more than 40 design possibilities.

1. Merten wall switches (Z-wave or standard) consists of 3 parts:
1.1 INSERTS (i.e. the technical part which is screwed into the wall and hooked up to the wires)
1.2 ROCKERS ('Wippen' in German): the actual button/dimmer to push. These are mostly the actual Z-wave related component. Merten calls its z-wave CONNECT
1.3 FRAMES ("Rahmen" in German): here is where all the design variations become possible.

2. Z-wave ROCKERS (or Dimmers)
2.1 Merten has 5 types of Z-wave Rockers/Dimmers: Rocker, Dimmer, Roller Shutter, battery-Rocker, and battery-Dimmer
2.2 There are 2 types of surface choices: Glossy or Matt. The most sold is Glossy. I prefer Matt as my wall are also Matt and I find it to be more modern.
2.3. In Glossy the color choices: White, Off-White and Antibacterial White
2.4 In Matt: White, Off-White, Anthracite, and Aluminium-look

3. Z-wave FRAMES
3.1 Merten has 2 design categories relevant for z-wave: 'SYSTEM M' and 'SYSTEM DESIGN' (System Fläche' in German catalog)
3.2 To make things confusing, within System M there are several series such as 1-M, M-Smart, M-Arc, M-Star, M-Plan, M-Plan II
3.3 Also with SYSTEM DESIGN there are two series: ARTEC and ANTIK. Very traditional designs and not my taste

Please see the enclosed pictures to get a better idea of all the z-wave possibilities.
Personal opinion: the 1-M and ARTEC series look like all the other z-wave series (Duwi, ACT, etc..). But the other Merten series are IMHO unique and very nice looking.

4. Suggested approach to picking a Merten Z-wave wall switch solution:
4.1 Start with choosing within the ROCKER group; choose your desired surface/color
4.2 Then go to the FRAMES and pick the best one for you.

I hope this little overview will help.
Cheers,
Olof

[Alexander]

tremendous work!

[TANE]

I have done lot with Merten this year.
I't always a big challenge for finding the wright product.

I hope they will update the super dimmer that this one will also suport modern led spots.
The minimum load is 40 watt...when using the zwave paddle this will increase to 75 watt..

[olof]

Alexander, thanks for the reaction. Always nice to know somebody out there takes an interest

Enver ('Tane'), thanks for the support this year

[Wim2008]

Thanks for the information. Nice to see the overview of wall-switches.
I use several 1-gangs and 2-gangs switches. They are all polar white System-M.

B.R. Wim

[olof]

Hi Wim,

I use a lot of 1-gangs and 2-gangs switches. They are all polar white System-M.

Just out of curiosity, (1) which design serie within System-M do you use? (2) did you go Glossy or Matt?

Olof

[Wim2008]

It is glossy.

B.R. Wim

[ralhop]

I had before i started with Z-wave already Merten artec Edelstahl-look, only Merten is expensive so i put Düwi switches in and rebuilded them to fit the Merten Design(takes 5 minutes for one switch)
so now it slill looks like Merten Artic only düwi inside. I say it is not better then merten but less expensive.

[TANE]

@Ralph,
Do you have any pictures and how did you rebuild them so that Duwi will fit

[ralhop]

i´ll make some pictures when i´ve got my new switches i ordered. basicly it is simple, i use the busch & jeager duro 2000 Düwi switches and use only the "wippe" from it.
they are smaller then the merten ones. first i place the düwi switch in the wall, then cut if necessary the little nutches so that the coverplate fits flat on the wall.

to tighten the coverplate you can use smal screws or little glue from a gluegun. my me it is often that it is a 3 or 2 coverplate with a wallplug that wil fix the plate too.

then for the "Artec edelstahl" version i place the B&J "wippe" on the duwi switch, remove the edelstahl part from the plastic inside of a merten "wippe" and glue it with a gluegun on te B&J "wippe".

now it looks like original merten.

for the plastic ranges from Merten i cut the inside away from the B&J"wippe" so only a window is left with the 2 nudges on the side.
remove the inside from the Merten "wippe" and glue the 2 parts together

the reasen that i use the busch en jeager is that the "wippe" is most stable with a good feel, sadly i can not order the "wippe" alone somewhere.
so if someone knows where to get them please tell me.

i tried the düwi everlux "wippe" because the can be ordered sepperate but they suck big time , too mutch movement, feels like a sponge and if you dont click in the middle they fall off.


i have one picture where it is installed. the middle switch is on the picture still an original merten switch, the other 2 are the düwi rebuildes.

düwi to Merten conversion

zwave merten small.jpg (22.25 KiB) Viewed 12294 times

more pictures will follow.

[Wim2008]

Hello Ralph, looks good.
If you have some more technical pictures, would be nice.

B.R. Wim

[TANE]

nice work..
More is welcom..