Maestro inconsistently working

[jccaclimber]

I have recently moved and our new to us house has four maestro fan/light switches. They all appear the same with model number MALFQ35 on the one I've taken out.

All three worked when I moved in a few months ago. Shortly the three upstairs sometimes work, and sometimes don't. The 14 little LED lights on the switch always work when the buttons are pressed, but the fan or light do not always turn on accordingly. Whenever the light does not work the fan also does not work.
Pulling the tab at the bottom always turns things off.
With the tab in the lights are generally stuck off, although one is occasionally stuck on. I have not yet seen any fan stuck on.

Tonight the one in my downstairs office refused to turn the light/fan on and the seven LED lights in the "light" (top) portion of the switch is stuck scrolling like it does when you first push in the tab at the bottom.

Is there anything common I should look for or have all four of these units in my house gone bad? I like their function and was considering adding more, but I'm not going to be in the position of replacing every switch in my house every 10 years, particularly at the cost of these.

[bytemastab]

I have recently moved and our new to us house has four maestro fan/light switches. They all appear the same with model number MALFQ35 on the one I've taken out.

All three worked when I moved in a few months ago. Shortly the three upstairs sometimes work, and sometimes don't. The 14 little LED lights on the switch always work when the buttons are pressed, but the fan or light do not always turn on accordingly. Whenever the light does not work the fan also does not work.
Pulling the tab at the bottom always turns things off.
With the tab in the lights are generally stuck off, although one is occasionally stuck on. I have not yet seen any fan stuck on.

Tonight the one in my downstairs office refused to turn the light/fan on and the seven LED lights in the "light" (top) portion of the switch is stuck scrolling like it does when you first push in the tab at the bottom.

Is there anything common I should look for or have all four of these units in my house gone bad? I like their function and was considering adding more, but I'm not going to be in the position of replacing every switch in my house every 10 years, particularly at the cost of these.

I have the exact same problem, I have the Maestro 300W fan/light controller. I have one installed for 6 months, and it has always worked perfectly. It has 4 60W A19 bulbs (for what thats worth).
I installed a second one, and the switch wiring was a bit more complicated (3 hot wires wire nutted together in the box). The fan wiring was very straightforward and i'm sure I did it right. After installation, everything worked great. But then I noticed it was inconsistently working. After LOTS of experimentation, I've found that if any other light on the same circuit is on, everything works perfectly. If however every other light on the same circuit is off (these are hallway lights and lights in another room), then the light switch cannot talk to the fan. When it cannot talk, the symptoms are, when going through the association process, the lights just scan up/down. Neither button does anything. The fan originally had 40w halogen bulbs in it, and i've replaced those with brighter LED bulbs.. not sure if that could be the reason but I don't think so.. because it works fine as long as another light on the circuit is on.

Finally -- if I turn on the light/fan, then power off the other lights (hallway, etc). the fan remains on, so it isn't as if the other light switches somehow control power to the fan.

Any ideas?

[dbre2]

Same issue here, a few times a year the switch just stops working, sometimes the switch works with no changes to the light/fan, this morning the light stopped working, when I reset it the fan comes on full and the switch is unresponsive. Over the past few years I've purchased 3 new controllers and swapped out both the canopy modules and switches, and the problem persists. The only thing that works is removing power with the built in switch and trying it a few days to a week later it and it will just start working again.

Interesting to hear about the other lights on the same circuit, I'll have to see what else is on that circuit and see if it changes how mine works. Would be nice to hear from lutron for troubleshooting tips on this issue. My house was built in the 1970's, I'm curious if people who are having these issues also have houses from that era, maybe there is an interference issue with how wiring was done then vs. now.

[jccaclimber]

I've tried all other lights on the floor and it makes no difference. I don't know if they are on the same circuit, but if they are I've tried it. The one in the office is working for now, which is good as it is the one I use the most. The three on the second floor however are all stuck off at the moment. Rather disappointing that nobody from Lutron has jumped in thus far.

[jccaclimber]

RESOLVED!!!!
In short, a device on the other end of my house was putting too much noise in the power signal and a low pass filter on that outlet should fix the issue.

In detail:
I finally called the Lutron help number, (800) 523-9466, and to my great surprised had a pleasant and constructive conversation with what sounded like a native english speaker. They sent me through a diagnosis mode (set of button presses and cycles of the "FASS" tab). One of the four lights displayed a set of blinks that apparently translates to "dirty power signal" and the other three showed no error, but still did not work. I then turned off all breakers in my house except one of the ones with a light and discovered the dimmer worked correctly. While my wife kept testing the switch, I turned on the breakers one by one until we isolated the issue. From there I tested every item on that circuit and found that one of my two identical (same make/model, different manufacturing dates) aquarium lights (4x T5HO with a built in clock/controller) was the cause.
Narrowing that down more the LED portion of the light causes no noticeable issues. When all four bulbs (48" T5HO) are on the dimmers in the room we were testing (other end of the house) does not work (stuck on or stuck off). When all are off the dimmer works. When two are on (either set of two) it sometimes works. The solution is apparently to put a low pass filter on the outlet (available online). I may dig a bit into the light to see if I can isolate the issue, but I have a workaround for now of turning off the lights on that end of my aquarium.

[dbre2]

Awesome, very helpful post! Playing with the breakers narrowed it down to some LED bulbs (Triangle brand) in my bathroom on a different circuit. I swapped those to halogen and the dimmer is working again.

[sreese]

I just got off the phone with Joe at Lutron Customer Support. Here is the info he supplied:

If the seven little LEDs for the light control are scrolling up and down, look at the fan LEDs and identify which one is lit.
- 1st (from bottom): Electrical interference from another device on the same circuit breaker.
- 2nd (from bottom): RF (radio frequency) communication interference from another device in the area (but not on the same circuit).

In both cases, shut off or remove other devices until you determine which is the culprit.

[Mark Fink]

I had the Maestro fan light controller switch installed in 4 rooms , never had any problems. All of a sudden the light and the fan switch stops working. It will shut off when the master off at the bottom is pulled. After reading this posthttps://forums.lutron.com/showthread.php/1119-Maestro-inconsistently-workingwe did some experimenting. With a phone charger that was plugged into the same circuit. Once we moved this charger to another circuit it corrected the problem. And It was just that one phone charger.