Leviton Dimmer Controls Lose Marbles

[Abe M.]

I have five of these in my home, and one afternoon they all stopped functioning. No breakers were tripped. Since I did not install these myself, I was unfamiliar with how this could happen or how to remedy the problem. The led's were lit, so I knew power was being fed to the dimmers. They happen to be controls with a fat rocker switch that dims up or down, and have an on/off at the bottom. After much fiddling, i.e., turning breakers off then on again, the controls were returned to their normal operating mode. I also discovered a pull tab to the left and bottom of the control that shuts it off and allows it to be reset without something as draconian as futzing with the breakers.

Here are two questions about such controls: (1) Is this normal behavior, and how does an ordinary consumer deal with it without calling in an electrician? (I am not an ordinary consumer, so don't count me in this lot). My wife was panicking. (2) Are there any dimmers with an on/off switch and soft ramp-up available that are not subject to getting hung up due to a line glitch? The microcontroller in Leviton's dimmers does not inspire confidence in me if it can globally enter neverland like this.

[RBM]

I've never had good luck with Levitan dimmers. My suggestion would be to replace them with Lutron dimmers of the style of your choice.

[TKM]

I've never had it happen with either Lutron or Leviton dimmers (only a White Rogers programmable thermostat); but it sounds like a good question to ask of Leviton Product Service -- particularly if they can tell you what kind of glitch (low voltage, a spike, lightning, etc. causes it).

Someplace in a house IMHO there ought to be a consumer guide sheet (maybe on the CB panel) that has a few helpful hints like:

- exercise circuit breakers and test GFCIs once a year

- replace smoke alarm batteries and test

- test CO detectors

TKM

TKM

[Art]

You are probably lucky. They obviously protected themselves agains a surge. Another brand might have burndt out.