Bulb Advice PD-6ANS

I installed four of these switches across 3 switch boxes. Initially I had an issue with one of the switches not lighting green with the incandescent filament bulb that was in it. Replaced it and all the others with CFLs and everything worked great. Today, I swapped them with with these LED filament bulbs: https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart...GD03/304351459. Only one switch seems to work. The other three report that they are on but do not illuminate. Any advice on what do do? Is this a bulb compatibility issue or did I do something wrong?

Make sure you have the neutral connected and do not have anything connected to the blue wire. You can only have 1 controlled switch per zone.

If any of the switches are multi-location, the wiring is slightly different.

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Originally Posted by randyc

Make sure you have the neutral connected and do not have anything connected to the blue wire. You can only have 1 controlled switch per zone.

If any of the switches are multi-location, the wiring is slightly different.

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Thank you, i will check. Doubt it is the neutral, as I would have had to mess this up on 3 switches. I wrapped electrical tape around the blue wire. That's OK, right?

Also, I noticed that I can get the new bulbs to work temporarily if I play around unscrewing/screwing them in. This seems to work OK for a few power cycles, and then stops working. Does this make any sense?

My older (much older) brother once told me 99% of electrical issues are related to the neutral. It can make weird and explainable things happen. It is the first thing I check when weird things happen.

Depending on the layout, the neutral in 1 box could affect all 3. If all the switches were in the kitchen, a loose neutral in box A could affect all 3 since all the kitchen lights are probably on 1 circuit.

It may not be a connection that you touched. Cramming all that in a box causes stuff to shift around.

Tape is ok. I prefer wirenuts. Wire can sometimes work its way through the tape.

Unscrewing the bulbs doesn't make any sense. I believe it. I just don't know what would cause that. Maybe some corrosion in the socket but that should not be affected by power cycling.

Thank you. I will take a look at the neutral in one of the boxes to see if it became disconnected. Both the two gang and four gang were a nightmare to get everything to fit. I wish Lutron designed the Caseta switches to allow wires to be inserted like their "dumb" switches. Having all those wirenuts takes up a lot of space and the thinner braided wire is not always easy to connect with the solid, heavier gauge wire running into the box.

Is their any rhyme or reason to why CFLs would work so well? Do they have a higher tolerance than other bulbs? I guess I thought this would be more binary - either the switch works or it doesn't.

There were only a handful of companies involved in the development of CFLs and their ballast. Fluorescent had been around for a long time and there were well defined standards for the bulbs and the ballast. CFLs are basically smaller versions of traditional fluorescent.

In the LED era there are countless manufacturers. Most of them have multiple driver designs. There are absolutely no standards.