I’ve had several GE/Jasco Dimmer switches for almost 2 years now. Just in the last 10 days, I have started having them fail on me. The blue light goes off as if I am turning on the light, and if I turn off the light, it waits the requisite time before turning on the blue light again, but nothing happens at the fixture. I’ve got 3 that have failed one after another. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the bulbs because the blue light was still on indicating a complete circuit, but I replaced them anyways just in case with no luck. Any ideas on what may be causing these failures, and have any idea on a way to fix besides replacing them all?
Hi Mikemsd
I have to agree that is very unusual. Like you I have a number (>10) of Jasco/GE dimmers and switches but have had no failures in the past three years that I have had them.
Don
Yeah, I can’t quite figure out what is going on. As I am writing this, the one that controls the lights in my kitchen is flickering on and off, so I’m about to have to increase that number to 4 failed dimmers within the course of 2 weeks. I’m not having trouble with any other appliance or electronic device at my house, just the dimmers. I’m really not sure what is going on.
Hi mikemsd-
What is the capacity of your house wiring? How old is it? Does it use copper wires? Have you monitored your house power for spikes?
Don
[quote=“Don Diego, post:4, topic:175903”]Hi mikemsd-
What is the capacity of your house wiring? How old is it? Does it use copper wires? Have you monitored your house power for spikes?
Don[/quote]
Not sure on the capacity of the wiring, but I’m only running 120 watts on each dimmer. House is 3 years old and uses all US made copper wiring. I’ve been monitoring my houses power with a TED 5000 and haven’t seen any voltage spikes.
Do the dimmers work if you control them manually?
Typical failure mode for a dimmer is for the triac to go short circuit, so the light stays on all the time. Is that what’s happening?
Same problem here guys, everything has been running perfect for 5yrs and all of a sudden all of the GE dimmers are failing.
I’m up to 6 total now.
The blue light appears to work fine with no issues, but it’s not giving power to any of the lights. I replaced several bulbs and still not power to the lights but when I turn off the light the blue LED emits as you would expect.
I sent an email asking for support and they refused because they wanted the original receipt but the Amazon vendor is now out of business.
Hobert
I had the same thing happen, but in my case they took my amazon invoice as proof of purchase no problem. They didn’t seem too surprised at the behavior when I spoke with them, I wonder if it’s more common than we thing?
[quote=“Nasscar, post:7, topic:175903”]Same problem here guys, everything has been running perfect for 5yrs and all of a sudden all of the GE dimmers are failing.
I’m up to 6 total now.
The blue light appears to work fine with no issues, but it’s not giving power to any of the lights. I replaced several bulbs and still not power to the lights but when I turn off the light the blue LED emits as you would expect.
I sent an email asking for support and they refused because they wanted the original receipt but the Amazon vendor is now out of business.[/quote]
My first reaction was to reach for my pitchfork, in anticipation of meting out some internet justice. But, you said you’ve had them for 5 years and, when I checked, the Jasco warranty is only for two years. I’m sorry your switches are failing, but even if you had a receipt, you’d be SOL.
It still appears, based on these forum reports, that the failures are isolated incidents. That there are multiple failures in a house suggests either a per house problem or reporting bias.
I have had a couple of GE switches/dimmers that have stopped working. Normally my first step in troubleshooting is to bounce the power (breaker off / on) to the problem switch/dimmer.
This has resolved most of the instances where the device stops working. Though, I have had 2 go completely bad and this didn’t fix the problem.
Just thought I would throw that out there to see if it helps anyone.
Thank you. Thank you.
Power cycling fixed one of my GE switches that was not configuring properly.
I almost replaced it.
Mine stopped configuring after only three months. Sent it back to the retailer and hoping that I do not receive the same thing in replacement.
I have about 10 of these and recently 3 of them failed on me as well. Ended up replacing them with new ones, still have the old ones. It was odd that I never had any issues. They didn’t fail at the same time, they were probably about…3-5 days apart. Would like to get them working again. Same symptoms, I can remote control them fine and little blue light goes on and off, so I know its responding, but the lights themselves do not turn on.
Do they make the usual thump noise when you activate them On and Off via Z-Wave? If they do, but the lights(load) don’t work my guess would be that the contacts in the internal relay have built up a layer of carbon that is preventing current flow. This is a failure that can occur in any and all switches, but it usually takes high wattage loads and thousands or tens of thousands of On/Off cycles to cause it.
They should have thyristor in them, instead of a relay…
@RoyR - You are correct. The dimmers have thyristors and do not make the thumping sound that the relay switches do.
I lost track of whether we were talking about switches or dimmers.
I installed 3 of the switches and the LED indicator on one stopped working after a few days. Other than that everything’s been fine with them.
I have a dozen+ of the dimmers in use. At least 4 of them have stop working since installed 2 years ago. The controlling part seems functional but the output is dead. On one occasion, pulling the tab (de-energizing) for a week put it back in service.
Most of these failed in conjunction with thunderstorm in the area. After the first three failed I put a surge protector in the breaker panel. It may have helped since only one has failed since. My circuit load is about 50% of rating at 100%.
Have anyone attempted to replace the thyristor(?) ?
I had mine for about 2 years as well with no issues up until recently.
I know it works because I see the blue light going on and off on the dimmer, but the lights don’t follow suit. Plus status in HomeBuddy and MIOS GUI update properly as well to reflect status changes. It’s just not triggering the proper load that it should be anymore.
Old thread… After ~4-5 years nearly all of my old GE 45606 dimmers have failed. Probably 8-10 total across 2 different houses (and Yes, both places have whole-house surge protection). Had picked up a bunch in an old RadioShack clearance.
Been having a devil of a time with my mesh network/routes getting messed up, long lag times in communications, etc. Turns out, it was an old bum GE 45606 that was dropping out then re-configuring periodically. Just pulled it (last one!) yesterday, replaced with a Leviton. All is well in the VeraSphere again…
In case someone is bedeviled, load switching & dimming at the switch worked fine but communicating with it via Zwave was hit/miss. So BuhBye.
.//A.