Varilight LED Dimmer Switch - V-Pro Series, 1 Gang (Single), 1 or 2 Way, 0-120W (1-10 dimmable LEDs) [Energy Class A+]

Having recently decorating our front room we purchased two different halogen 'feature' style light fittings, but both came with quite high wattage bulbs, so really we wanted the ability to dim them when required. Both light fittings supported dimmer switches, but with halogen low voltage lights (the ones with built in transformers), you have to have a compatible dimmer switch.I tried a standard one which we already had and that made the lights strobe when dimmed. I then purchased a dimmer from B&Q which supported 'low voltage' and that made both the dimmer switch and the light fittings buzz...and buzz loudly! I then found this, and it was my final shot at it but thankfully, these worked like a charm. No buzzing and no flickering! I have since ordered a second one for the other light fitting and again, it works perfectly.These switches are a little more expensive, but by the time you've bought two or three cheap versions and found they don't work, you'd have wished you went straight for these!One final note though; if you're wanting to dim low voltage halogen lights you do need to check that the light fitting itself supports dimming...not all of them do.

I have started replacing my Halogen GU10 bulbs with Philips Master LED 2700K ones as I believe that Philips have finally come up with a bulb that is virtually indistinguishable from the halogen ones in size, colour and brightness. Only thing is that once you have replaced all the bulbs you will probably find that your old dimmer switches need replacing because the new LED bulbs don't exceed the minimum load (often around 60 Watts). This leads to flickering or a lack of dimming. Enter the Varilight V-Pro series. Now the V-Pro hasn't formally been given the green light by Philips but as Varilight claims that their switches work with Philips LED bulbs I thought I'd give it a go. The default setting for this dimmer switch is to operate in trailing edge mode (not recommended for Philips LEDS). The switch worked, but the bulbs didn't dim down by much from the maximum setting. So I changed to the leading edge mode and they worked perfectly - dimming down to almost nothing. The only minor niggle is that the dimming range is a bit uneven in leading edge mode with a very sudden fall off about half way through the turn. The overall build quality of the switch is great and the dimmer module fitted in my rather shallow 16mm sockets. Given the very reasonable price I would recommend this switch for anyone changing over to LED lights. Just be sure to do your homework!

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.

My wife really wanted a dimmer for our baby son's bedroom. I'm a fan of energy efficient bulbs and they don't tend to work great with dimmer switches. Read about £50 led dimmer switches but thought that this one was cheap enough to be worth a try. Tried first with a dimmable fluorescent and it didn't work well with that at all. Not happy but then tried with a 7w led (not specifically dimmable but thought worth a try as I had one spare). Worked reasonably well (dimmed but didn't go very dim). The info said 10w or higher load required so I ordered a dimmable 10w led bulb and this works great. Goes really bright to really dim. No noise from dimmer so far and has a push on/off which I like. Slight delay on light dimming which is by design, I think. Just avoid with fluorescents (unless I was unlucky with mine). This helps with one of the remaining limitations of led bulbs (another being angle of lighting, which is improving).