This is an example of one that has the adjustment.
Member
This is an example of one that has the adjustment.
Contributor
With Matt's post it may be the suggestion to use a Lutron dimmer might actually mean to use a specific Lutron dimmer. Lutron is surely making more than one model of dimmer.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
Yes, Lutron makes several LED compatible dimmer models. Only a few have the adjustable threshold. Another thing to add, is that if your LEDs are flickering, it will drastically decrease their lifespan.Originally Posted by Jim Koepke
[OP]
Contributor
Yes, my Lutron dimmers have the adjustable threshold and I have tinkered with it to no avail. The flickering is very subtle and is caused, I believe, by the way the dimmer switch cuts off the sine waveform of the voltage. I may try another style of Lutron dimmer to see if it makes any difference but I think I'll eventually retrofit the cans for screw in lamps and experiment with bulb size and lumen output to eliminate the dimmer in this location.
We have about 3 dozen of the Home Depot Commercial Electric 75w equivalent trim ring fixtures in the house and so far in about a month, two have failed so far. The failure mode is that they heat up and then begin strobing, then go out. Over all I'm pretty disappointed in the performance of these lights.
Member
I'd be willing to bet that the drivers in these fixtures are the problem.
Member
Try doing what Steve P suggested - replace one bulb in the circuit with an incandescent bulb of equivalent lumens and color. That is what I did to curtail strobing in my 12 can light circuit in the kitchen. I tried adjusting the limit dimmer, moving the dimmer to a different location in the circuit (3-way), and even replacing the dimmer. Only thing that worked was installing an incandescent bulb in the circuit.
I have strip LEDs under the upper kitchen cabinets and they flicker sometimes at different dimmer settings or for no apparent reason. I can not so easily install an incandescent bulb in that circuit to stabilize the sensing. I suspect that the flicker is because of other circuits tied to the same breaker circuit but the flicker can usually be stopped by changing the amount of dimming.
Moderator
Most of the control out there for LEDs to get dimming or fading (to start or stop) or flashing is via PWM--Pulse Width Modulation. You can Google and learn a little bit about it if you like.
Contributor
replace one bulb in the circuit with an incandescent bulb of equivalent lumens and color.Another problem is LEDs do not always draw enough current to keep the switch's electronics on, causing a misfire which is seen as flicker.An incident of mine with a mis-wired capacitor blowing up in the very early hours still gives me cause to chuckle at times.Out of all of the failures, only one was a catastrophic one, were the bulb literally blew apart from its base.
This makes me wonder if it could have been a capacitor that blew up in Matt's case. It may be the feedback from the capacitance of the LED lamps is tricking the switch's electronics into seeing no load for an instant or two, causing a failure to turn on, thus the flicker. The incandescent bulb provides a constant load thus no tricks to the switch's circuitry.
jtk
Last edited by Jim Koepke; 08-15-2018 at 3:02 PM.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
[OP]
Contributor
I did try adding an incandescent bulb in the circuit earlier and it didn't make any difference, plus there's no mounting plate in the recessed cans to hang a PAR lamp from.
I have made progress. Home Depot had the 65 watt LED trims on clearance so I got two boxes of four and installed four in the office replacing the 75 watt (equivalent) trims. Little to no flickering now, so apparently the driver in the lower wattage lamps works better with the Lutron dimmer I have. I also got a Lutron Maestro dimmer which I'll try out tomorrow. The 65 watt trims are more appropriate for the smaller room and relatively low ceiling as well.
Contributor
So far we have had 4 LED lamps fail. 3 died and one started to flicker. They were replaced at no cost to us by the maker. We only needed the code from the packaging, which we had saved just in case. Most of the others have done well and we switched to LEDs about 8 years ago. Other than a string of outdoor lights only a few lamps are still incandescent or CFL. My shop has some T-5 fluorescent, but they will be replaced with LED fixtures over time.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
For the past 10 years or so, retrofitting old technology lighting with LED, has made up the largest part of my job here at the University where I work. We now literally have thousands of LED lights here on campus, ranging from type A tubes, flat panels, and just screw-in lamps. We have had many many failures, but it is not near the rate that we had with ballasts and bulbs of other types. Out of all of the failures, only one was a catastrophic one, were the bulb literally blew apart from its base.
It also destroyed the dimmer, and the socket.
Member
It may or may not help the OP, but I had a flicker problem with 4 LED bulbs on a particular dimmer. 3 bulbs were perfectly fine, but adding a 4th bulb would cause them to flicker.
All of the zones had 4 lights, so I would either take out one bulb or replace one of the bulbs with incandescent.
Steve
Steve
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