LZW31-SN keeps shorting out internally and becoming unresponsive

I have a LZW31-SN red dimmer switch for my front porch lights. It has been working for months, then all of a sudden it seems like an internal circuit breaker in the switch is tripping. When I use the air gap method, power to the switch comes back on. soon as I turn on the front porch lights, all power to the switch goes out and have to air gap reset it again.

@EricM_Inovelli @Eric_Inovelli any ideas on this ?

I swapped it out with an extra red series dimmer that I have that hasn’t been used for anything and get the same behavior.

I have AC power type set to Neutral and switch type set to Load Only

I am using a hubitat hub and using the following driver

It’s likely not the switch, particularly since you swapped it out with an unused spare. The odds of two switches failing in exact same way are pretty poor, unless they’re being influenced by some outside factor.

Have there been any changes to the bulbs? Electrical or other work on the lights or the box in which the switch is located? Any recent changes to anything else of the same circuit?

The only thing that changed is putting echo smart LED bulbs in

Do you still have the old bulbs that were working fine for months? Put them back in and see if that makes a difference.

Tomorrow I thought about take out one set of bulbs at a time

the switch controls 3 sets of lights

two lights by the front door that have 3 candle light size bulbs then one light between the garage doors

Did you enable the Smart Bulb Mode on the dimmer?

what do you mean ? the bulbs are not smart bulbs, just regular LED bulbs

Oh, OK. You first said that you put in “echo smart LED bulbs” so that sounded like smart bulbs to me.

Sorry was typing to fast

I meant to say EcoSmart which is a brand of dumb bulbs

Got it. If you changed the bulbs and then this happened, it might be the bulbs. You never know with LEDs. The quickest test is to either put the old bulbs back or temporarily swap out with incandescents to see what happens.

Another thing to try with the new bulbs is that if you have the max set to 100%, try cranking it back to 80%.

I will give the 80% a try

It’s puzzling because everything worked fine for months with the new bulbs in, one day out of the blue somethkng started tripping the switch when the lights turn on.

Thought about taking all bulbs out, id it works fine start putting bulbs back and figure out which set of bulbs might be causing an issue.

Yep, that makes sense. When you said you changed the bulbs, I thought it was in close proximity to when the issue started occurring. If you have an electrical issue in one of the lights, simply removing the bulbs may not expose it. You might have to start unwiring them to isolate the issue. But simply removing the bulbs might be worth a shot. Certainly easier than unwiring.

1 Like

Check for a loose connection. You changed the switch so the connections at the switch are likely OK. Check all the marette connections, especially the ones on the hot and neutral side that are early in the circuit and common to all the devices.

I am having the EXACT same problem. It started about 3 weeks ago. The difference, in my case, is that nothing had changed. It was still lighting the exact same LED bulb (my switch controls just a single fixture with a 10W, non-dimmable, LED bulb) that was there when I installed the switch (AT LEAST 6-8 months ago).

After installing a new bulb (obviously assuming the old one had burned out) to no effect and then realizing that the neighboring door lock (meshed through the switch) was no longer “available”, I assumed that the switch had just completely blown and I was planning on replacing it.

When I saw this post in my email update, I went over and “air-gapped” the switch (I had not considered that approach). POOF, it came right back on and started working normally again. It even meshed itself right back in with the door lock and SmartThings without any action on my part.

I will monitor it to see if it is a recurring problem and update as needed.

1 Like

I solved, my problem. I went and removed all the light bulbs and found the 3 bulbs that were causing the light to trip.

My environment all on one light switch

  • 2 light fixtures by front door (3 bulbs per fixture, candelabra size)
  • 1 light fixture on garage (1 Bulb)

There was 3 bulbs all together in the same fixture that were about 3-4 years old that keep tripping the switch. Once I replaced them with matching bulbs it stop triping.