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Thread: In-wall dimmer, lights turn on and off randomly

  1. #1
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    In-wall dimmer, lights turn on and off randomly

    I just installed some caseta in-wall dimmers, replacing some lutron non-caseta switches that already were there. After turning the power back on, all seemed to be working fine, but now the lights turn off and on randomly. One room seems pretty stable (only turns off for a couple seconds at a time every few minutes), but another room is much less stable (turns off for much longer and more often). I'd read some other posts in the forum, but many of those seem to have extenuating circumstances (i.e. Turning on a hair dryer or non-standard wiring). Mine should have been a simple swap out especially since the previous light switch was already lutron. Any help? Thank you.

  2. #2
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    Curious...

    Can you provide some specifics regarding the original in-wall dimmer model numbers and which Caseta models you replaced them with? Also, what are the loads themselves? (Inc/Halogen, MLV, ELV, LED, etc.)?

  3. #3
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    The original in-wall dimmer is a Lutron Maestro C-L MACL-153M (120V - 60Hz). The lights are recessed lighting, LED 120V 60Hz 10W 0.1A lights, Feit brand LEDR4/927. They worked without any problems with the previous dimmer switch. I've installed the PD-6WCL dimmers in 3 different locations in my house. In the hallway, they work perfectly (3 total lights). In the living room, they work almost perfectly (6 total lights), only a very rare case of the off/on. In the office, they work terribly (7 total lights), pretty much a constant random pattern of off/on. I checked the compatibility list of LEDs, and the brand/model is technically not on there (the 827 is, but not the 927), but everything I've read online says they are pretty much equivalent. Not sure why one room would be totally fine and one would be completely haywire. Thanks for your help atma28.

  4. #4
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    Dreaded LED's.

    I've seen it, too where bulbs have shown on the report card... but in installation it doesn't function as expected. My guess is there was a change in how the bulb was made since the testing was performed by the (according to your research) identical bulb construction/differing model was tested by Lutron. Typically I'd check to see if it's a minimum load issue... especially since it sounds like the dimmer is rebooting itself. But it sounds like you have enough load on each of the circuits.

    Another thing is there could be enough of a difference in the actual dimming circuit between the Maestro and Caseta dimmers to cause the abnormal (or "different") behavior. I'm not sure they'd be able to provide a solution, but typically if you call Lutron's tech support line, they'll confirm this and could even tell you if they've tested this particular bulb with the Caseta dimmer and it failed the tests. Lutron doesn't post failures on LED report cards... just bulbs that pass. It could at least give you some closure.

    Here's to hoping the industry consolidates on one synonymous way of making a bulb/dimmer so these surprises happen no more. Sorry for not having a silver bullet. Perhaps someone else might chime in with it!

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