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Posted by John Grabowski on May 23, 2006, 8:09 pm
> I have a dimmer switch installed for the bathroom light at my cottage.
> The light fixture itself has 6 small 25W lightbulbs. For the past three
> years, the dimmer has worked perfectly. Three weeks ago the dimmer
> stopped dimming and could only be used to switch on and off. I replaced
> that dimmer with a similar (inexpensive) switch that worked quite well
> for three weeks - then the same thing happened - the switch was blown
> and would only turn off and on. This weekend I replaced the second
> blown dimmer with a more expensive ($20) dimmer. It worked long enough
> to show my wife how brilliant I was, and then stopped altogether. I
> replaced it with a normal switch for now.
>
> I suspect two things - a short in the light fixture or a short in the
> wiring. On my next trip up to the cottage I plan to replace the light
> fixture with a simple fixture and install a (cheaper) dimmer to see if
> it the fixture that is causing the issue.
>
> Any thoughts or advice on
> 1) what could cause the dimmer to fail after working fine for 3 years?
> 2) how will I be able to identify if there is a short in the light
> fixture (ie what do I look for)?
> 3) how can I determine if there is a short in the wiring?
>
> Thanks!
>
If there was a short the circuit breaker would have tripped. I've seen this
happen before where a dimmer burns out for no apparent reason. Check to
make sure all of your splices in the switch box and the light fixture are
tight. I'm guessing that the light fixture has gotten a little old and the
sockets are generating excessive heat and possible arcing. Might be time to
replace it with a new one.
Is there any thing else on this circuit such as receptacles with a heavy
duty appliance plugged in?
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