VarilightLED Dimmer Switch - V-Pro Series, 1 Gang (Single), 1 or 2 Way, 0-120W (1-10 dimmable LEDs)

This item is for our bedroom, we had a standard dimmer switch for many years with three lights connected, but it is getting harder to source the incandescent type bulbs. We had a 40watt bulb and two downlight fittings with miniature 30 watt reflector bulbs. Total of 100 watts. This resulted in our bedroom lighting consuming nearly as much power as the total of the rest of the house. When the 40 watt bulb failed I decided to look for an LED replacement. Our local Aldi have stocked a German brand Mullerlicht LED bulbs, and I have a few of these around the house. Until recently these were Non dim able. However they now sell dim able versions and have reduced the price to £5.95.You can't use older type triac dimmers (now called leading edge dimmers) with these even if you buy dim able lamps, because the dimmer and the power circuit of the LED lamp won't work properly together and may both be damaged. These bulbs need a trailing edge dimmer like this one. (This one is programmable to work as a leading edge or trailing edge)I also replaced the mini reflector bulb down lighters with 2 dim able GU11 from Philips 3 watts each.I was aware that the Philips were rated as warm white at 3000K and the Mullerlicht were a bit yellower at 2700K, but I thought this would not be a serious problem, and indeed although the difference is noticeable I can live with it. I followed the manual to ensure that the dimmer is set to trailing edge and found that it works well. The dimmer manual explains how to modify the bottom level of switch on because different lamp models turn on at different rates. This would be fine except I have two different makes of lamp connected. As a result as you turn up the brightness the GU11 lamps come on first, while the Mullerlicht build remains dark until the control is turned up a bit further. The different lamps also vary in brightness at different rates, and the Philips flicker very slightly at the lowest level. This annoying problem is a result of mixing different types of lamp and the dimmer cannot really be blamed. In retrospect, I should have realised this might happen, and we will live with it, because the led lamps should last much much longer than the old incandescent ones and cost about a tenth of the electricity to run. Once adjusted the room looks just as good as before.So be aware that the Mullerlicht dim able bulbs from Aldi work well as do the Philips 3watt GU11, just not too well together. Also note that the dimmer requires a minimum load of 10 watts for it to work properlyI think this dimmer is excellent for the price, and is a good solution to most of the problems created by new technology.

The product itself works great. I wanted to change an old dimmer switch that was causing horrendous flicker when trying to dim traditional 40w incandescent bulbs. I took the opportunity to change to 6w LED bulbs along with the change of switch. The switch is brilliant it is programmable so you can set the minimum and maximum brightness you require. Once set the dimming/brightening is very smooth. There is also no hum. I would recommend this switch it is worth the extra cost. Where I do have an issue was the packaging of the item. As you can see the box the switch came in was crushed Fortunately this does not seem to have impacted on the switch itself. The item was fulfilled by Amazon so presumably it was them that crushed it inside their packaging or it squashed in transit. Either way, more care should have been taken. The switch itself is 5* lose a star for packaging.

This is the sort of electrical product where you really must read the manual especially before giving it a negative review.I will start off just by saying some of the advantages and disadvantages.Advantages:Very good value for moneyHas 3 different modes to suit different types of LEDsYou can adjust the minimum brightness to solve the issue that some LED lamps have when not enough current passes through themDisadvantages:Doesn't work well with certain brands of LED lamps even if they say they are fully dimmableAbout a half second delay whenever you adjust the dial before the lamp dims or gets brighter (this quite often is the case with some LED lamps with dimmersI found out that it didn't work very well at first with the LED I have. I was expecting this as I had read that the default mode 1 the switch comes with isn't what is designed to suit my LED.I have an Auraglow 13w dimmable LED bulb.This switch has 3 different modes it can be programmed to to suit different bulbs. Nobody should really give this product a negative review saying it doesn't work unless they have tested all 3 modes with their bulb. Also, you tend to need to make sure your LED brand says it is completable with this dimmer before buying.A video as well as the manual that came with the switch helped me out a lot.If you search "varilight v-pro" in Youtube, you will find it there.This video does answer a lot of what I describe below. What I have described is very detailed and technical so you may just want to watch the video but if you are wanting to find out more, it is probably worth reading.The switches default mode 1 is trailing edge. With my LED lamp, this didn't work very well with it. It went very bright but wouldn't go very dim. You can adjust the minimum brightness but it didn't solve the issue in this mode. I will explain how you can change the minimum brightness later in the review.It will be best to use a GLS lamp to change the dimming mode as they work fine in all 3 modes. To change modes on this switch doesn't seem simple at first but eventually you can work it out. You need to turn the dial to the maximum position when the lamp is on. You then need to turn the switch off and back on 3 times. The lamp pulses from minimum brightness to maximum and back to minimum to show that you can program it to either of the next 2 modes. As soon as the lamp goes off after showing it is in the programmable mode, turn the dial fully anti-clockwise. The bulb then flashes twice to show it is in mode 2. This mode is leading edge.With my lamp, this one is better as you can go much dimmer. The strange issue for me in this mode was that the bulb creates an irritating buzz and that seems to go through to my H-fi system and speakers. Very unusual but mode 3 seems to solve this completely.Annoyingly, you need to go back to mode 1 first before you can program it to mode 3. Again, you just need to turn it off and on 3 times exactly the same way as I said before and turn it to minimum brightness. This takes it back to mode 1 (trailing edge).To get to mode 3, you need to yet again turn it off and on 3 times until it flashes from dim to bright and back to dim and then off to show it isin the programmable mode. This time, as soon as it has done this, you need to turn the dial fully anti-clockwise, then instantly fully clockwise. The lamp with then fade on and off 3 times to indicate it is in mode 3 (alternative trailing edge).This mode suits my lamp very well. It can go as dim as you want it to go as well as very bright.As you are changing dimmer mode you may need to keep swapping between your LED and GLS lamps as only one of my LEDs behaves normally when changing the dimming modes. Others flicker making it very difficult to work out if the switch is actually on or off.Now I will explain how to adjust the minimum brightness. I found this useful as It didn't go very dim in any of the 3 modes at first. It is the same process in all 3 modes. It won't matter which one it is currently set to.This time you need to have the light turned on and turn the dial to the minimum position. You then repeat the process that I said before to set the switch into programmable mode. After it indicates it is in programmable mode, turn the dial fully clockwise. The light will then come on in a fairly dim position and you can then turn the dial anti-clockwise to however dim you want the lamp to go. You then leave it in the position that you want the minimum brightness of the bulb to be. After 3 seconds, it will go back to full brightness and then turn off. Then it comes back on again. you can now turn the dial fully down and the bulb will only go as dim as you set it to. The main purpose of this feature is if your LED has problems flickering when not enough current is passing through it. One of my LEDs does have this problem and I can solve it by setting the minimum brightness to a slightly higher level.Even when you switch to different modes, it will remember the minimum brightness you have set for each which is pretty advanced.If you ever get to the point where is start doing unusual things, there is an option to reset it to the default factory settings.It is quite similar to before. You need to set it to the maximum position and then do the same process as before. This time however you must wait until the light comes on fully before turning it off each time. It will then show you it is in the programmable mode. You then within 5 seconds, do exactly the same thing again. After this, the bulb will flash twice indicating that it has been set to the default factory settings.That may seem very complicated and it did take quite some time to figure it all out even with the video and the manual to help me.I am really impressed with it considering it doesn't cost much more that a standard dimmer for incandescent lamps that have none of these features.