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I recently purchased 24 Halo RL560WH6930R LED lights. Almost all of them buzz. On the back of the box it says "dimmable to 5% with select dimmers". The instruction booklet says
"please see the Halo Dimming Reference sheet at www.cooperlighting.com". We took one of our buzzing lights and plugged it into 110 directly, there was no buzz, it has to be the switch.
Imre
The $100 MAELV-600 dimmer did quiet the buzzing down a bit (not completely though). Too pricey and a slight buzz was still there so I returned all the Halos and got CREE BR30 LEDS (4 pak is $68) and ALL PRO metal baffle/trim kit ($4 each) that look just like the Halos. Saved a ton of money and no buzzing at all with the Maestro CL Dimmers
I printed the Halo RL56 and ML56 Dimming Guide. It is 2 pages of very small print. There are 3 sections, I'm not sure which section applies to me. The guide is not much help.
What a disapointment Halo has been. CREE is 1/2 the price and they do not buzz. I have 22 dimming switches, does Halo expect me to spend $2200 on switches so their lights won't buzz ... I don't think so !!!!
I guess the RL56 lights did not go thru QA testing.
I liked the one piece all in one feature of the HALOs. Having the spring clips made them easy to install compared the the one piece Ecosmarts. The $4 ALL PRO metal baffle/trim kits that I bought have the same exact spring clips so they go on very easy. I am using the HALOs RL560WH-R35s in the home office without a dimmer. They were special order from a local lighting store. At the time HD did not carry the 3500K color.
I am very happy with the CREE BR 30 LEDS. I am using them in out TV/HT room and game room They dim down pretty low. I adjusted the Lutron CL dimmer a little lower that the factory setting. Working great.
We sell a lot of the Halo RL series and Lutron. The ELV has been our fix for both the Maestro and Diva series dimmers if the problem occurs.
I stress "if" because we sell these combinations all the time and only occasionally have the buzzing issue. Most popular combo it the Halo RL560 and RL460 with the DVCL and 90% it works perfect.
On a side note, Cooper/Halo keeps making a lot of changes on the RL series power supplies, we've seen at least 3 different ones this year. So I would suggest this problem may evolve or be solved eventually. Until then plan for the ELV....
You can't expect someone to buy $100 EVL dimmers to fix a defect. Every other LED bulb I tested did not buzz. So Halo/Cooper is doing something wrong IMO or need better engineers.Quote:
Originally Posted by paulhanks
I am very happy with the 20 CREE BR30 LED bulbs. Cheaper than the Halo RLs even with the cost of a metal trim/baffle kit.
I agree, just adding it isn't always necessary. Would love to know the real reason because most of the time they do not buzz.
Just an FYI, the MRF2-6ND (Maestro Wireless) seems to also work and is a bit cheaper than the MAELV, maybe a Lutron person can tell us if we should or shouldn't use that one, but it is what we've went to for that problem and min. load issues....
I special ordered 8 RLs 3500k from a lighting store and purchase 2 RLs 3000k from Home Depot earlier this year when I started my basement remodel. I am not able to return them now since so much time has past so I plan on using them in places that will not have dimmers, like my home office and in the hallway. Maybe over the wet bar too.Quote:
Originally Posted by paulhanks
I'm actually wiring the dimmers now. Will have to loosen them up and pull them off the wall a little when we paint but working #12 wire in these gang boxes is tricky.
I choose to use Ideal push connectors instead of wire nuts in this 4 gang. I crimped a sleeve on the grounds to help save some room.
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You will need to buy dimmer with neutral(white) wire and connect it. It should be hidden in electrical box since it doesnt needed for the regular switch. I used electronc voltage dimmer Lutron MAELV-600 or DVELV-300PH.