PD-5WS-DV with ceiling fan/light combo

[John_N]

Hi,
I am installing Caseta switches and dimmers in my 1950s house. So of course there are no neutrals in any switch box. I have 4 rooms (Kitchen and 3 bedrooms) that have combo ceiling fans with lights. They run off the same switch, so I can't use a dimmer. Not a big deal except the 4 PD-5WS switches cost as much as the rest of the system I think. Anyway, the first one I installed in hte kitchen works just fine. That one is a manual fixture with pull chains for the fan on/off/speed and the light (the light never gets shut off with the chain so no big deal). Works great. Two of the three bedrooms, and the first of the the bedrooms I went to do this morning has a fan/light that has a wireless remote module for fan speed, and no pull chain. With the switch wired up, I got the blinking red light which means I need the LUT-MLC. The person I talked to said that this switch would not work with a 3-speed fan unless it was on high all the time. When I said I had one already installed and working fine, he said that it was the wireless speed control module that was not compatible, but I could try anyway, it wouldn't hurt anything. I'm willing to give it a shot, but I really don't want to drop the fixture on the chance it *might* work. Anyone have any experience with this kind of setup? I would really like to have a smart switch on this light, but I don't want to have to replace the fan with one I have to get out of bed and then climb up on top of it to pull the chain to change fan speeds. If push comes to shove, I'll forgo the smart switches in those two bedrooms and just keep using the proprietary remote control.

Thanks.....

[Joy L.]

Hello John, welcome to the Forums. We believe this should work once the LUT-MLC is installed. The PD-5WS-DV is on/off-only, and therefore does not have to abide by the same restrictions regarding pull chain vs. remote-controlled fans like our fan speed controls do (like Caseta model PD-FSQN), since this -5WS just turns the power to the light/fan on and off. Let us know if the LUT-MLC resolves the issue, but we are confident that it should. We hope this helps!

[John_N]

Hello John, welcome to the Forums. We believe this should work once the LUT-MLC is installed. The PD-5WS-DV is on/off-only, and therefore does not have to abide by the same restrictions regarding pull chain vs. remote-controlled fans like our fan speed controls do (like Caseta model PD-FSQN), since this -5WS just turns the power to the light/fan on and off. Let us know if the LUT-MLC resolves the issue, but we are confident that it should. We hope this helps!

Thanks for the reply. It will be a day or so before I have a chance to move the bed and furniture and get up there and lower the fan to get to the wiring. My concern is that since the wireless control module in the housing "wakes up" when power is turned on (my theory based on the fact that there is about a half-second delay between turning on the mechanical switch and the light coming on) and then sets the lights and fan back to the same mode (on/off, brightness, speed), that during that initial power-on there is little to no current draw. Does installing the LUT-MLC eliminate the 25 Watt minimum load that is listed in hte spec sheet for the PD-5WS-DV specs?

[John_N]

Hi, just an update. Because I really want this to work :D I decided to tear into it today. I dropped the fan fixture down and wired the LUT-MLC across the hot and neutral coming into the fan remote control receiver in the fan. Now instead of a blinking red LED, I have a blinking green LED. I tried replacing the dimmable LEDs in the fixture with 60W incandescent lights and it still won't power on. Looks like this is not going to work for these fixtures, which is a real shame as I am really pleased with the other switches and dimmers I've installed over the last couple weeks, including two other fans with manual pull chain fan control using the 5WS switch. The bedrooms, hallways and possible the basement were going to be the last rooms to get converted.

[Brandon W.]

Thanks for the update! We are very sorry to hear that the issue still persists with one LUT-MLC. Up to three of the LUT-MLC's can be used. We are curious if adding one or two more capacitors might resolve this. If more are needed, you are welcome to reach out to our support at support@lutron.com or by calling us at 1(888)588-7661!

[John_N]

Thanks for the reply. I did reach out to support and with the gentleman on the phone, we did try to install a second LUT-MLC with no success. The switch still blinks green. We didn't try a third one, because while I *might* get two to fit inside the housing, I am pretty sure that three just won't fit. Unfortunately the remote receiver takes up most of the space in the bracket housing. I did not try removing the remote receiver and wiring the power directly to the lights in the fan. It just seems that it won't work with this setup, and I am mostly OK with that, and I may in the future look into replacing the fixtures with others that will work. In the mean time I'll keep moving forward with other lights in the house and re-purpose these switches elsewhere. Seems overkill to use one on the garage lights, but that's a place I definitely can't see needing to dim the lights :). Thanks to your support team who spent several hours with me on the phone trying to make it work, it seems just to be a compatibility issue with the remote receiver, and definitely not a lack of effort on their part.

[trigas76]

Thanks for the reply. I did reach out to support and with the gentleman on the phone, we did try to install a second LUT-MLC with no success. The switch still blinks green. We didn't try a third one, because while I *might* get two to fit inside the housing, I am pretty sure that three just won't fit. Unfortunately the remote receiver takes up most of the space in the bracket housing. I did not try removing the remote receiver and wiring the power directly to the lights in the fan. It just seems that it won't work with this setup, and I am mostly OK with that, and I may in the future look into replacing the fixtures with others that will work. In the mean time I'll keep moving forward with other lights in the house and re-purpose these switches elsewhere. Seems overkill to use one on the garage lights, but that's a place I definitely can't see needing to dim the lights :). Thanks to your support team who spent several hours with me on the phone trying to make it work, it seems just to be a compatibility issue with the remote receiver, and definitely not a lack of effort on their part.

snow rider 3d

I'm in the same situation as you. I want to use the switches but I don't think they're of good quality or performance, so I should probably buy a new one.