In my kitchen I have a flushmount light with an integrated led. I put in an LED dimmer on the switch and all is working well.
However, I had to replace it way sooner than I was expecting. Is there a possibly that the dimmer is hard on it?
I have the exact same one on another non-dimmer switch that is still running fine. That said the other one gets much less use so it could just be that.
A lot of the LED bulbs have very cheap power supplies/control circuits. I’ve had the best luck with the filament-style LEDs. I remember seeing a video a while back stating filament-style LEDs tend to have better cooling because the driver circuit is surrounded by the metal screw material and the LEDs are separated from the driver PCB. I also haven’t had a Phillips Hue bulb die on me yet, but they are quite expensive.
This is an in integrated LED fixture. Essentially a LED strip.
You need dimmable LED bulbs. Also it’s very likely both the switch and the bulb will be trailing edge, but it’s worth double checking, because having one be leading edge and the other trailing edge can cause issues
It is a dimmable fixture. I made sure on that as I’ve run into that problem before.
Does it matter if it’s a rheostat or digital dimmer?
LED’s can be very particular about their dimmer. Unfortunately it’s not enough just to go to the store and pick up a dimmer switch that claims compatability with LED’s .
Fortunately most LED fixtures/bulbs come with a list of recommended dimmers, at least if you stick with larger brands and not cheap LED’s from Amazon.
I know a few in my house require ELV dimmers and those sell to the tune of $50/ switch whereas others work fine with a $10 MLV.
Meanwhile my under cabinet lights explicity state not to use an ELV dimmer and to only use MLV or risk damaging the unit.
