Dimmer Switch Blowing Out

glock40

Hello fellow members,
I have just recently installed lightolier 5 inch cans 1004icr in my dining room. Prior to putting these cans in I had a chandalier with existing 14/2 romex wire and a old dimmer switch on th wall. Well after installing the cans and putting my lutron 600 p multi switch diimer in the gang box I was enjoying my lights for about 5 days until a loud "pop" went off in my dimmer switch.

I for sure realized that my dimmer blew out and the led lights on the 70.00 dollar lutron dimmer switch was not working. I smelled the foul odor of a burnt dimmer and now went down stairs to check my breaker. My breaker which is a 15 am for sure tripped and I reset it and still no dimmer was working.

I thought it was just a bad dimmer switch and even possibly the wrong one. Well like I said it was a multi switch dimmer and now went to a single pole lutron with a led lights on it. I now shut the breaker off and replaced my new dimmer switch and turned my breaker on and away it went again " Pop" another dimmer switch gone.

Guys I really need help on this one what is going wrong. I am using sylvania 65br30 so the out put on watts is only about 365 watts on a 600w dimmer.

Please help?

mdshunk

Just guessing here...

Perhaps one of your romex clamps at one of the fixtures or one of the staples was too tight? Sometimes this can take days or weeks or years to show up, as the pressure of the staple or romex clamp finally parts the insulation on the conductor and causes a short. Replace your dimmer in the mean time with a regular snap switch to check the circuit's integrity. If all seems well with a regular switch, take the dimmer back as defective and get a new one.

macmikeman

That is a bit of a hazardous way to check a circuits integrity. Check the circuit for a short circuit first before installing another switch. Do not re-energize until you are certain there is no short. Remove the light bulbs before doing a continuity check. Once you are sure there is no short then replace with a regular switch and check again as mdshunk says. Dimmers do go bad on occasion.

RobertWilber

One way you can check is to introduce a circuit tracer between the breaker and the hot wire [which you took off the breaker first] and remove all your lamps from the circuit. Then if you put a standard switch in the circuit, there is a load at the breaker, not a dead fault.
Now, if you get a signal through the circuit tracer, there is a fault, and the sensor unit will help you locate it!
I have an old Pathfinder PF610 I use when I hit stuff like this

glock40

Thanks everyone for your reply I just ripped all the cans out and ran new romex and cans. Works great now.