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Replaced light fixture and apparently blew a dimmer


Rob

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Posted

So today I was wrapping up a bathroom remodel and replaced the mushroom fixture in the WC with an LED disk light. I air-gapped the dimmer while I replaced the fixture and when I went to test everything, the dimmer made a popping sound like a fuse blowing when I pushed the airgap back in. Circuit breaker did NOT trip. The dimmer module appears to work insofar as the indicator LEDs light up and it turns on other lights in the scene. I pulled the fixture and pig-tailed it to an extension cable and it works fine. Turning on the defective dimmer, I'm measuring 0v on the load line w/ my meter.

Obviously the dimmer switch is no good, and having no spares I had to order a couple from our good friends to the north (thanks to this forum for the hint). 

My question: Before I replace the dimmer switch with a brand new, and apparently now rare, one, do you think the new LED fixture can blow out the dimmer like that? It does state it's dimmable and I have never one had a problem w/ mixing dimmable LED bulbs and fixtures w/ insteon. Do you think it was simply bad coincidence? I may have a few old v1 dimmer switches sitting in a box somewhere. If I can find them I might test the LED fixture w/ a sacrificial switch before I replace w/ the new one.

Thoughts?

thanks

rob

 

Posted
54 minutes ago, Rob said:

Thoughts?

Any chance something was touching something that shouldn't have?  It sounds like you had a dead short that blew the triac in the dimmer, and blew itself open at the same time.  

Posted
22 minutes ago, MrBill said:

Any chance something was touching something that shouldn't have?  It sounds like you had a dead short that blew the triac in the dimmer, and blew itself open at the same time.  

Thanks for the reply. I guess it was possible I had a short though I didn't notice anything amiss when I pulled down the fixture to test it. I was extra careful when I replaced the fixture after testing so I'm pretty confident about the wiring now. I did find the some old v1 switches so I'll definitely be using 1 of them to test before installing the new one.

Posted

The new LED disk light is rated to be on a dimmer and the manufacture did not say it had to be on a dimmer specially designed for it?

 

Posted
29 minutes ago, Brian H said:

The new LED disk light is rated to be on a dimmer and the manufacture did not say it had to be on a dimmer specially designed for it?

 

I conjunction with that thought, did the fixture come with it's own switch or dimmer included with the fixture?

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