In the early days of COVID (May 2020) I purchased 37 Red Dimmer switches and three on/off Black switches (all Z-Wave). I got them a month later and installed a bunch of them in September 2020 or so and have not changed anything since. I have 19 red and 2 black installed. I may have overestimated how many switches I was going to change out. I still have the extras and could swap if I have to but this is not preferred.
In my basement I have a red dimmer that controls lights that suddenly will not turn them off all the way. The switch will show it is OFF but the lights stay on. This is just happened out of the blue after nearly 4.5 years. It does not matter if I do this via the physical control or via SmartThings. The lights are all controlled just by this one switch.
If I pull the little fuse thing it turns of off course but goes right back to the lowest setting I can get it when I plug it back in. The lights can get brighter than the “off” setting. So I can brighten them and turning them off does cause it to dim from the max setting. I tried factory resetting it as well a few times. This does not result in the issue being fixed. I am at a complete loss as why this would happen at all or how to fix it. Can someone please advise?
I don’t recall regarding the neutral wire but I do not think so. If it’s critical to know for sure I cut power and unscrew it and check. When it’s turned on and power is all the way up it shows 281.2W under Power Meter in SmartThings. FWIW… it shows 0W when it’s turned off and the lights are still on…so I am not sure how accurate this is tbh. However, similar switches with a similar number of lights are in the same ballpark so I would not think it is far off.
Hi. No need to pull the switch. If you go into the device page in ST, then click the 3 dot menu and Settings, you’ll see the setting under Switch Type.
This is just an educated guess, but you may need a bypass. There have been several reports here describing your situation. I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that over time, the bulbs either mutuate to a lower illumination threshold or the switch mutates to a higher leakage current. If either of those are the case, a bypass may solve the issue. My guess is that this may more likely be the case with a non-neutral.
I don’t think this is the case with you, but just to double-check, you are confirming in the ST app that the switch is off, right? There have been some cases here where a long press down was done instead of a quick tap down. In those cases, the min value was set too low and the long press dimmed down below the bulb’s illumination point, and wasn’t really off.
What is a bypass / how does one do this? The Switch Type in ST is listed as “0” which is “Single-pole (one switch)”. This is the same as all of the rest of my Red dimmers. The settings are not any different for this switch vs the others. In any event, it’s been factory reset a few times too.
Yes, it’s off in the app and shows power meter 0.0w even though the lights are all still on. Everything behaves like expected except the light does not turn off. I can turn it “off” via the physical switch or my phone and the app updates accordingly. If I turn it “back on” via either method – the app shows as much and the lights go to max brightness.
You’re looking for the AC Power Type, P21. In that generation, it was set manually so presumably you set it properly.
A bypass is installed at the light, across the hot and neutral. It helps keep non-neutral switches properly powered and can prevent lights from being illuminated due to current leakage.
Regardless of neutral/non-neutral, I’d still try the bypass.
@crypto one thing you can try is to temp install an incandescent bulb in the circuit. If the light fully turn off the bypass should work as @Bry has suggested.
Maybe I am dense but I still do not understand what this bypass is exactly? It says it installs inside of the light? This switch controls 6 different recessed lights. Is this saying I would need to get six of these? That seems far less than ideal.
I have never heard of this problem happening in general and it’s the first time in my lifetime I have run into it – so it seems not overly common. If I had regular light swich or non-Inovelli red dimmer - would this still be happening? I mean I can just put the old dumb dimmer in. I have prob 20 of these in a box. I also have 15-16 of these Red Dimmers I never opened. If I replaced it with a new one would it possibly resolve? If so … why would that be?
If you had a regular light switch, probably not because 1) they use relays and 2) they don’t leak. Whether or not a non-Inovelli dimmer would have the same issue is difficult to say. It depends upon how much the switch leaks. ALL smart switches leak current, probably some more than others.
No, usually one solves the issue.
Possibly yes, possibly no. If you re-read my post above you’ll recall two possibilities in my theory. If the issue is due to the switch leaking more than it used to, then replacing it probably would fix the issue.
I thought I would update this thread, as I ended up swapping out the physical switch for another one of the Red dimmers I have. After doing the swap the light turns off fine — so it seems something was definitely going wrong with the old switch some how.
With that said — if it makes any difference I did notice that I do in fact have the switches setup with the Neutral wire.
Also, I don’t know how this would make any sense, but after changing out this switch, the LED light I have for my stairs no longer flickers after it’s turned off. When I changed out all my switches I had also put in a new LED light (not just a bulb) at the top of my stairs. However, whenever I would turn it off — it kind of stay on/flicker ever so slightly. I figured it’s prob just not designed to work with the switches. The light is so faint it really didn’t matter. However, since I just changed out the switch discussed in this thread — it turns all the way off. Coincidence? This light is not handled by the switch i just changed out though. It is, however, one of four red dimmers that are side by side. It’s one switch away from the one I just changed. Eg the light that no longer flickers is switch 1 and the one I replaced just now is switch 3.