Has anyone found a zwave dimmer that is compatible with led bulbs? I have some in my living room and the dimmer that is on there now is not compatible. They flicker and do not dim low enough. I would like to replace and get something with zwave so I can control with SmartThings. I already sent an email to Jasco asking if the 45612 is compatible, so waiting for a response from them.
Thanks!
Jeff
Edit: Jasco replied to me and they are not compatible. Does anyone know of any? I’m looking to get 1 dimmer and probably 2 just zwave on/off.
Thanks!
Jeff
Yes… there are two options that I know of… probably more too.
The first is extremely hard to find. The Jasco/GE 45606 or maybe 45607. (I never got a definitive answer on which number it is.) It’s a dimmer with a neutral. I ended up getting used one on eBay and I use it in my computer room with LEDs. Works great.
The other option is more common. The Evolve LRM-AS. It looks VERY similar to the GE/Jascos, but it uses a green light instead of blue. Just like the very rare 45606 or 07 it has a neutral and I’ve used it with LED bulbs.
I am using the Jasco/GE 45609 (just an on/off switch) with LED bulbs and it works fine.
As far as I know, anything with a dedicated neutral will work fine, because it won’t have to rely on a trickle output, which LED bulbs won’t allow *. Of course, your LEDs will have to be dimmable, as well.
I guess I am breaking the rules but I am using a 45612 with dimmable LEDs. I found in my research that as long as you have enough bulbs in the circuit(6 in my case) the trickle voltage will be dispersed. My LEDs dim and turn off completely with no problem.
Like FlorianZ, the rest of my LEDs are on 45609s.
I’ve heard that as well from someone else. If you have enough of a load with the LED bulbs the trickle will get dispersed and it’ll be okay. I don’t know if there is any danger of damage to the electronics of the LED having a small trickle running through… that would be my only concern. I’d tend to think this won’t be an issue, but I don’t know for sure.
Thanks for the replies guys! I appreciate it. I’ll keep an eye out for some on Ebay. As for the dimmer, I think I’m going to wait and try to get my hands on some of these: http://myube.co/
I believe @chrisb is correct. I picked up a dimmable LED bulb and put it on a GE Dimmer without a neutral that was controlling some overhead lighting. I took a normal 60 watt bulb out and tossed in the dimmable LED with no issues.
I think the minimum load is 40-Watts and it has to be a dimmable LED.
Thanks guys. I am currently using this http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lutron-Maestro-IR-600-Watt-Single-Pole-Digital-Dimmer-White-MIR-600THW-WH/100399015#.UqAXnmRDtjg
I have it controlling 4 Cree LED BR30’s. I get flickering and they don’t dim down as low as regular old par30 bulbs.
I use the Evolve LRM-AS with LEDs. No flickering, but they won’t dim to nearly 0 like incandescent bulbs. The minimum dim level may depend on the bulb itself, because 10% what my bulbs said they supported, dimming-wise. But then, LED’s dimmed down are kind of creepy anyway, because they don’t change color as they dim, unlike that lovely orange tone that incandescents get, so the light feels very cold. I’ve only gone to LED’s in areas where I don’t plan to spend a lot of time in the room with them dimmed. What I’d love is a color changing LED bulb, kind of like the Hue, but wall dimmable, that changed color as it dimmed to mimic an incandescent.
I just ordered 1 45612 and 3 45609’s from Amazon. Should have them by Tuesday next week. I’ll let you know my results! Thanks for all of the replies on this.
2 45609’s added and 1 45612 added! Very easy process to do, once I figured out the wiring. The old switches did not use a Neutral, so I had to get some wire and connect that. Luckily the neutral was there, so I didn’t have to re-run anything to the box. Very happy so far, we’ll see how the dimmer works with the LED’s. I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have gone with the Evolve dimmer for those… We’ll see. Thanks for all of the recommendations and help!!
Check this dimmer switch matrix at: http://store.homeseer.com/store/HomeSeer-Z-Wave-Dimming-Wall-Switch-Comparison-W16.aspx
Also, they have a similar matrix for on/off switches at: http://store.homeseer.com/store/HomeSeer-Z-Wave-OnOff-Wall-Switch-Comparison-W7.aspx
I ordered some of the Cooper Aspire RF9540 switches that are supposed to be delivered Monday, so I’m eager to see how well they work.
I have done quite a bit of testing with various Z-Wave switches using a few common brands of LED bulbs. To date my tests have been with the following dimmers, GE 45612, Linear WD500Z-1 (Evolve LRM-AS which are rebranded Linears but 20% more expensive) and Leviton Vizia RF VRI06. I will be doing CFL tests with these and more in the future. The 45612 and VRI06 are 2-wire dimmers and the Linear are 3-wire.
If anyone is interested in the results, you can view them on my blog, or I would be happy to post them on here but they are quite long so I didn’t want to make a HUGE post on here directly without some interest.
Hello @haworld. I recently replaced my GE/Jasco 45612 dimmer with an Evolve LRM-AS dimmer. The flickering I had with the Jasco is almost completely gone, but still happens a little. Any thoughts? I’m using these bulbs from Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-65W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-BR30-Dimmable-LED-Flood-Light-Bulb-BBR30-06527FLF-12DE26-1U100/204366182
Jeff, I actually tested the LRM-AS with a Cree as well but it was only 6W (40W equivalent), but did not have any flickering with it so I am not really sure what could be causing yours to flicker. Dimming was difficult to control at the low end but that may be due to the single bulb I tested and only a 6W load. This is the kind of thing can happen as different bulbs can perform differently for the same switch, the environment can have an effect on how the bulbs perform depending upon that homes wiring.
Unfortunately I don’t have much of a solution other than to try a different bulb, number one, or perhaps installing a dummy load may help, number two. Any chance you could either swap out one of the led’s with an incandescent or halogen (dummy load) in that circuit so that it isn’t noticeable? Or maybe throw in an extra light fixture (like maybe in the ceiling of a closet) so that you can put in an incandescent bulb there and it wouldn’t be seen?
Also, what is your total load or wattage for that circuit with those bulbs? They are 9.5W so you may need as many as 4 or 5 of them in the circuit to meet your min load requirements, I have seen that happen alot for CFL’s, the larger the load the better the performance was. The Cree LED I tested didn’t flicker with the Evolves or Linears, but it did not perform great at the low end of the dimming scale, 0-5 or 10%, whereas other LEDs were quite good all around.
Not much help, I’m afraid. 
I have this in my living room and is controlling 4 can lights. I can try to add in a halogen to see if that helps. It is much better now with the Evolve dimmer. With the GE the flickering was awful.
As a follow-up to my post earlier in this thread, I purchased some Cooper RF9540-N switches earlier this month. The switches seem to be good quality and the z-wave control with instant status is nice. The problem is that all my dimmable LEDs connected to these switches buzz unacceptably, throughout all levels of brightness. I have tried 7 different brands of A19-style dimmable LED bulbs, including CREE, Philips, Sylvania, Utilitech, EcoSmart, etc. Every bulb buzzes, although the EcoSmart bulbs were much quieter at full power than others, but the models I tried seem to be discontinued. I’ve tried different fixtures on different circuits. I’ve tried 3 different RF9540-N dimmers thinking I had a bad one or two, but they all do it. Although, they are all from the same date/batch. I tried a non-z-wave Lutron C*L Maestro dimmer. Same behavior.
I’ve spoken with tech support at CREE, at Cooper, and at Leviton. Cree says the bulbs will hum less on an ELV dimmer. Not that they won’t hum, but they’ll hum LESS. Cooper says it’s normal to have the bulbs buzz on a dimmer. Leviton won’t assure compatibility of their switches with LEDs. Still, I think I’m going to try the Leviton VRE06-1LZ, (an ELV dimmer) to see how much less the bulbs hum.
My wiring is right, I have neutrals on everything. The buzzing and flickering is not OK with me or my wife.
I’m at the point of sending everything back.
Have you tried the LEDs with a non-zwave dimmer? I’m curious if it’s a dimmer thing or a Bulb thing.