Was over at a family friend the other day.

They have a finished basement with some LED canister lights. Lights are on a dimmer. They can not get the lights to dim far enough. Don't know the brand of the dimmer or lights but can try and find out.

It is a dimmer made for LED's, it has the adjuster knob on the switch under the switch cover. It's been adjusted all the way down. I've install a bunch of dimmers and understand how they work. I did not put this one in. Do not think it's overloaded. Don't think there are more the 8 lights on it but will check with them.

It has been like this since it was installed and does dim all the way up and down pretty far just not enough. The adjuster works but again can not make it adjust all the way down.

What am I missing? Different dimmer. This is a name brand dimmer eighter Leviton or Lurton. Toggle type with slider next to the switch.

Some of the LED compatible dimmers have a “gain” closer to a rheostat dial that will allow to dim further. I just installed one myself the other weekend and it was under the plastic plate

It is probably the bulbs.
Not all LED bulbs are dimmable. The packaging should be marked but you can tell because the bulbs never go fully off.

Check the labeling of the lamps/fixtures and figure out what their dimming range is, this may take a call to the manufacturer. You may desire to dim them further than they are capable of being dimmed.

Unscrew the bulbs from the sockets, they will dim right down to zero.

Both the lights and the switch need to be compatible. Some LEDs are not dimmable (even if they might dim partially, they will fail much faster) and some dimmer switches are not LED capable.

It took me a few go-rounds to learn this in my house, but everything is working correctly now.

My LED compatible dimmer switches have a gain control that you use to set the bottom limit of dim. If set too high, the lights will never dim all the way, if set too low, the lights will never be all the way off.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Check the labeling of the lamps/fixtures and figure out what their dimming range is, this may take a call to the manufacturer. You may desire to dim them further than they are capable of being dimmed.

For some reason I didn’t know this. Will have to check. Thanks