# Sylvania RT6 retrofit failing



## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

About a year ago I installed two sets of Sylvania 6" gimbal retrofit type RT6. One set of 4 in my living room and one set of 4 in a family room. Each set is on a Lutron Caseta dimmer.
I noticed that one set of lights, family room wasn't responding very well. I eventually set the low end of the dimmer down a bit and thAt seemed to solve the problem.
They are programmed to come on at about 30% 40 minutes before sunset.
This has worked fine for a few months.
4 weeks ago, I noticed a circuit board or plastic burning smell and one of the RT6 stopped working. I thought it was a fluke and returned it to my wholesaler. They exchanged it, no problem. This was in the family room group.

A couple of weeks later, the burning smell happens again. This time the living room. Strange, removed, returned and replaced.
This week another one has failed in the living room. 
This might be a lost cause.

The only thing between the failures and the kinda working OK is the trim adjustment I made on the dimmer.

I'm not sure how an LED is dimmed and what would be so different between one dimmer and another.
I have 7 -4" Sylvania retrofits in my kitchen and they have always worked good with no failures.

It might come down to having to either change dimmers or trims, both I took time to choose what I liked the best on the market. Dimmers would be cheaper I guess.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

I have a house full of dimmers and I never see anybody really using them at any setting other than full bore. Waste of money in my opinion, but my customers always want me to put some in so hi oh silver and away we go.


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## Kyrton (Feb 2, 2016)

It sounds like a driver malfunction. They do have build in surge protection to help protect the driver. The RT6's you have (from my own experience) got best performance from a magnetic low voltage dimmer. Also they have a max 104deg F ambient operating temp.

Dimmer compatibility chart


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

Kyrton said:


> It sounds like a driver malfunction. They do have build in surge protection to help protect the driver. The RT6's you have (from my own experience) got best performance from a magnetic low voltage dimmer. Also they have a max 104deg F ambient operating temp.
> 
> Dimmer compatibility chart


Both Sylvania and Lutron said that they might not be on the list as they have not been tested as a set.
For me, they work very well except for, uh the whole burning thing.


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