Kitchen lights are too dim with Caseta diva dimmer

[spacon0]

Hi guys,
I have about 10 lutron diva dimmers installed at home and they all work fine except the one in the kitchen.

Model: DVRF-PKG1D-WH-RC
Link: https://www.homedepot.ca/product/lut...821876#reviews

It's a 3-way switch which I used a pico remote in one and diva dimmer in the other.

It is located in a 2 gang box where one switch goes to the dining and the other to the kitchen

The kitchen switch powers 4 bulbs (2 sets of each in the kitchen) and I'm using these for them.
Link: https://www.homedepot.ca/product/phi...ack/1001663118

I tried adjusting the high end trim and that's not doing anything, it's already at max brightness.

I tried it with a different caseta dimmer switch and same issue, so I don't think the switch itself is faulty. Tried different bulbs of the above brand, same issue. Tried removing 3 of the 4 to see if it's a wattage issue but no dice.

When I try a different brand bulb, it's noticeably much brighter as it should be but it makes a humming sound, which is the reason I went and bought the above 'premium' bulbs.

I had the older bulbs on a non-smart non-dimmer switch and they're perfectly bright.

The new bulbs are very dim that I can notice small flickering when installed as well.

Would someone be able to tell me what the issue is?

Thank you!

[Joy L.]

Hello spacon0, welcome to the Forums. Thank you for reaching out, we're sorry to hear about the issue you are encountering. This does still sound like an LED-incompatibility-like symptom, but this is odd since we did test these Phillips model 574822 bulbs as compatible with the DVRF-6L dimmer, with a high-end value of 100% brightness in our test. Other interferences like line noise and neutral interaction can also cause location-specific LED issues, but we are happy to do more troubleshooting to try to get to the root cause of the issue. Our best recommendation to isolate the issue would be to see if you can put these same bulbs on the same dimmer in a different location, to see if the problem is possibly just local to these fixtures/sockets. We hope this helps!

[spacon0]

The switch and bulb works fine in another spot in a different fixture but same type/brand/size of fixture as in the kitchen. However, there are TWO fixtures in the kitchen so I don't think both fixtures are faulty.

They both brighten up in a different brand bulb but hums as I said earlier which is why I replaced it with this. What could be the issue in the fixture to cause this?

I'm almost tempted to put my original dumb switch back but also really love the smart feature! Spending way too much effort on this!

[Joy L.]

Thank you for that troubleshooting; we are sorry to hear that this one particular location seems to be giving you trouble. The issue we're encountering here is less about the fixtures themselves being faulty, and more about this particular application electrically; because this issue is present despite meeting standards in our testing, and in spite of having confirmed it works with the same bulbs in a different location, this could be line noise/neutral interaction, which is a form of incompatibility that is location-specific and occurs when electrical interference on this circuit manifests as performance discrepancies with LEDs. Therefore, in cases like this, because it is not a type of incompatibility we can account for in our testing since it is dependent upon the individual electrical environment in which it is being produced, we would like to help out with one more possible fix.

If we swapped this DVRF-6L to Caseta dimmer model PD-5NE, its added versatility may help to eliminate the issue present in this location. Specifically, it can utilize both types of LED dimming that bulbs typically communicate with (forward and reverse phase), and it has a neutral wire connection for added stability and for filtering out the line, preventing electrical interference from affecting LED performance.

As long as you have a neutral wire connection (bundle of white wires tucked in the back of your wallbox) in this wallbox location, a PD-5NE can be installed. Please contact our support team via email at support@lutron.com, and we can discuss a possible one-time courtesy replacement to assist with this frustrating discrepancy.

Thanks so much for your cooperation!

[spacon0]

Thank you for the quick replies!

I know I'm nitpicking here but I'm not a huge fan of the 4 button style as the rest of the house is out fitted with the diva dimmers. However, I don't really need the dimming feature in the kitchen, I just need the smart feature. Do you think the claro smart switch would be an option as it uses the neutral wire? (I think it uses neutral, but you prob know better!)

If not I'll contact the team for the old style.

Thanks

[Joy L.]

The Claro Smart Switch should very likely do the trick, yes; because of its neutral wire connection but also its on/off-only function, it should not be subject to the same LED compatibility discrepancies as its dimmer counterpart! So, that would be an excellent alternative to try in place of the DVRF-6L for this application.

[spacon0]

The Claro Smart Switch should very likely do the trick, yes; because of its neutral wire connection but also its on/off-only function, it should not be subject to the same LED compatibility discrepancies as its dimmer counterpart! So, that would be an excellent alternative to try in place of the DVRF-6L for this application.

Just wanted to come back and post. Issue still persists unfortunately. The bulbs are just as dim as the diva dimmer switch using the bulbs below.

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/phi...ack/1001663118

BUT, using the claro smart switch, I was able to use another brand of lights, Sylvania, since it doesn't cause humming noise as opposed to the diva dimmer. The Sylvania is also much brighter with the diva dimmer but it causes humming noise.

I wonder what the cause is. I'm tempted to switch the fixture out to a known one just to eliminate that, just for fun... but for now Claro and Sylvania are a happy couple :)

Thanks for everything!

[spacon0]

Using the new Claro smart switch

Just wanted to add some pictures.


2 Sylvania on the left vs 2 Philips on the right


2 Sylvania on left and right



1 of the same above Philips in a different fixture


Sylvania vs Philips

[Brandon W.]

Hello spacon0,

We're sorry to hear that this issue persists. Can you please try an incandescent in the fixture to verify if that humming persists? Also, are there many other appliances on this kitchen breaker?