3 way dimmer problems

serdar13

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I have just got an electrician to rewire my new home and install halogen low voltage lights in the dining and living rooms (4x 50w in each room).

Also, 2 uplighters as side wall lights (100w each).

My problems started when I tried to install a push on 3 way dimmer to control the living room 4 low voltage lights and the 2 side wall lights. The dimmers work but the range is not that good. Once I push them on the lights come on but once I try to dim the lights it decreases quickly so not using the full range of the dimmer leaving me turning it past half way with nothing happening.

I have a single dimmer for the dining room controlling 4 identical lights and it works fine. All 4 sets have transformers installed and have swapped the 3 way dimmer just in case the dimmer was faulty.

I am considering installing a 2 way dimmer and a 1 way dimmer to see if the problem goes away or makes no difference at all. The dimmer states that it has a range of 60 - 400w

Can anyone help........PLEASE????
 
Could it be a volt drop problem...are the lights in the sitting room on similar cable lengths between the transformer and the light as the ones in your dining room?
 
If you've swapped the dimmer switches over then the next thing to suspect would be a high resistence joint somewhere so check all the connections.

If that doesn't work then I have no more ideas!
 
i assume you mean a 3 gang dimmer?
Have you wired up the dimmers correctly?
is the dimmer designed for an inductive load?
have you tried the 1 gang dimmer from the dinning room on each of the 3 individual circuits?
 
Most dimmers are designed for use with normal bulbs. You need a special type for ones that dim halogen lights with a transformer (well that's what it said on the back of the packet of the dimmer I bought from B&Q). Maybe that's your problem??
 
I will be trying a single and double gang dimmer tomorrow to see if the problem is still there.

Fingers crossed!
 
Most dimmers state 400w but look in the small print and it says if halogen used max load 200w. Well mine does anyway.
 

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