Slowly killing recessed lights

Lighting General Discussion
#1

I have 5 different circuits in the house that are very similar. They consist of a Red Dimmer LZW31-SN controlling some number of recessed lights. All lights are Sunco DL_SL4. Of these 5 circuits 1 of them seems to be slowly killing the sunco lights. (All lights are under 2 yrs old) What I mean by killing, is that the bulb doesn’t flicker, but at 50% dimming it’ll be either off or much dimmer than the rest of the bulbs on the circuit. Then sometimes it comes back on. At full power, it’ll be slightly dimmed, or off and it might periodically change its mind.

The circuit in question has 8 lights on it, and is currently killing its 3rd bulb. (a different bulb each time) Its a brand new circuit. (we just remodeled that room) Even though these Sunco lights aren’t on the compatibility list, the rest of them on the other 4 circuits have been working flawlessly with the LZW31-SN.

So my guess is that I should swap out the dimmer and see if that fixes the issue, but I wanted to check here to see if anyone else had any ideas before I took out what otherwise appears to be a perfectly functioning dimmer.

Any thoughts?

#2

It’s probably just cheap LED drivers dying. I’ve had some do that too.

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#3

That is in fact what is dying. I have replaced the drivers without replacing the bulbs and that works just fine. I still find it curious though out of five circuits and a total of 32 identical lights that all three that have died are on the same circuit.

#4

Are the drivers dimmable and are you dimming the dimmers to dim the drivers?

Haha, but seriously.

#5

The ones I had dying were on a switch, not a dimmer. So, cheap driving dying just because they are cheap.

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#6

I’ve just noticed this same issue. Dimmable bulbs yet my lowest set value which was just barely lit previously is now off. I always set my minimum dim to the lowest usable range and if you want it off you actually tap instead of press and hold. But within the last week I’ve noticed the living room. Lights which are dumb leds have started turning off at the minimum setting.

#7

I’ve seen that too, but I resolved that by just setting a minimum dim level on the switch.

Here’s what I’m currently seeing at 50%

IMG_20220226_065352__01
IMG_20220226_065352__011920×724 22 KB

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#8

The drivers are dimmable. I’ve seen the same lights on an analog dimmer and they work just fine.

#9

I appreciate the consensus guys. I think I’m just going to replace this one and hope for the best. If one more goes out, I’ll swap out the Red Dimmer to see if that stops this from happening.

#10

Anything about leading edge vs trailing edge compatibility on the dimmer info? The Inovelli is leading edge, but then I would expect a dumb dimmer to also be leading edge.

#11

I had a bunch of Sunco 4-inch can LEDs (rather than the slim-mount ones), and had similar issues with the drivers dying over time. Had them fail on some GE Zwave dimmers, on dumb switches, on dumb dimmers. with 22 in the basement, ended up replacing 16 of them the first year because of bad drivers. After the first few, started putting in Phillips units, an never replaced one of those.

#12

Wow that’s an awful failure rate!

#13

Little update on this for future documentation. I replaced the light and the red dimmer. 3mo in and no more failures. Unfortunately, this doesn’t definitively point to a bad dimmer or just a series of bad lights. But all the lights are functioning properly and the wife is happy. So we’ll call it a win.

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