Blue Series High Pitched Whine

Hello!

I purchased a 10-pack of the new blue switches, and literally on the 10th one, I have an odd issue (the other 9 work great!).

This switch is installed in a simple on-off, power->switch->light configuration. When the switch is off, there is no issue. When I turn the switch on, the switch itself seems to emit a ~7600Hz whine (as measured by my phone). It is very quiet, but unfortunately this switch sits right above the sofa, so there is usually a head right nearby to hear it, and boy does it get annoying after more than 10 seconds of it.

The switch is hooked up to one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZN6BV43

Things I have tried:

  • Putting it into dimmer mode (the whine didn’t go away, but the pitch did change as it dimmed)
  • Swapping it out for an old red switch that I have (that worked, so this is a regression compared to the red switches)

Things I have not tried:

  • Swapping the switch out for another blue (this was literally the last switch I had to install, so swapping would require unwiring a switch from somewhere else. I’ll likely try tomorrow though if there isn’t a solution by then).
  • Swapping the light out (it is hard to reach and is an integrated unit rather than one that has bulbs).

Curious if anyone else has ran into this or if anyone knows of a possible solution. Thanks!

Update: This seems to just be the switch itself, maybe just a case of random faulty hardware.

I spent the last hours uninstalling switches from elsewhere and testing them, to summarize:

  • This switch in its intended location: whine
  • A red switch in that same location: no whine
  • A different blue switch in that same location: no whine
  • This switch in that other blue switch’s location: whine

I could have maybe swapped a few more around as both locations are LED lights which may have something to do with it, but I got tired of running up and down stairs to flip breakers, and at this point I can confidently say that I have a switch that exhibits a whine in the exact same scenario where other red and blue switches do not, which I would call a faulty switch.

What is the best way to go about possibly getting a replacement for this switch? (one switch out of a ten pack) @Eric_Inovelli ?

I would recommend opening a support ticket, that’s likely going to be your quickest path to an RMA. I think especially with your testing a mix of switches in the same fixture as well as this one elsewhere that would definitely point to something up with the switch itself.

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Thanks for the link, I will do exactly that!