We are installing dimmer switches in a new house and I’m wondering if anybody has any feedback from a user’s perspective of which design style works the best. One by Lutron has a large rectangle switch with a slider alongside the switch; another has the dimmer slide directly underneath the switch; another is the smaller one inch size switch with a small slide to the side of that. The smaller ones are less conspicuous on the wall (which I like) but do they work as well as the new, larger-type ones? Anybody have pros and cons to pass along in choosing these dimmers?
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For me, I prefer to select the type by the use. For others, a uniform appearance for all the switches is desired.
So, for situations where the setting will not vary very often, a simple on/off with a side slider to set the level works quite nicely. For places where the light level may vary frequently, a switch which is also the setting will work nicely.
Now, whether to use slider on the side, or slifer on the top/bottom (or to use the slider with an on/off toggle)--that's more to taste.
There are more options in cover plates, particularly gang plates, if you use the toggle swithes rather than the big 'plate' units.
Quality tends to follow price, too--at a similar price level, the style is not that important. The thing that seems to be most important is box size--the units are just larger evern without heat sinks & the like; followed by the end user not overloading the fixtures on the dimmers (100w of lamps in a 60w fixture just doesn't work that well on any circuit).
As the owner of a couple, I recommend the lutron gliders or something like that. It's a vertical slide dimmer, and if you push the slide button, it turns on and off. That way I can leave it where I want it, and just hit the button to turn it off. Also, I'm fairly picky about cover plates- I don't have very many white plastic ones. So it's easier to have a switch that uses a standard toggle plate, rather than a decora rectangle.
There are a lot of places in a house where the dimming feature is seldom used, and the switch would ideally be designed to reflect that, and make simple on and off switching more natural.
zak
Do you happen to know the name of that vertical slider one that also pushes on/off? I really don't like the look of the large rectangle switches (in our Tuscany style stone house) and what you describes better. I have only looked at the Lutron website and don't see anything like what you describe. Is there a brand you recommend I look at to find that?
http://www.prolighting.com/luglsedi.html
There it is- I got mine at Lowes, I remember it being about $12. For most locations you only need the 600 watt, and I think the preset model is what they call the one with the push on/off.
I agree with whoever said they like the dual pushbutton dimmers- they look nice in an older house.
zak
I'm a traditionalist when it comes to switches (don't like paddles, slides or rotaries), so I like the Lutron Ariadni series. The dimmer slide is small and unobtrusive, and the switch looks pretty much like any other toggle switch. You can set the dimmer where you want and then use the switch as normal. I have one in my bathroom, one in my wife's parent's house, and will be putting at least two more in my house when I get a few minutes to install them.
I also like the retro pushbutton dimmers...
You can just get the kind that has a regular toggle switch to control the dimmer.
Looks like any other toggle.
The only downside is there is no 'memory' of where it was set last.
If you wanted something really interesting, you can get the kind that look like old fashioned push button switches, except one of the 'buttons' is the switch, and the other is the dimmer knob that you turn.
I have push button switches throughout my old house, and I put in some of these to match, but I really like the action.
http://www.classicaccents.net/caswitch.html#dimmer
Edited 4/8/2006 7:18 pm ET by csnow
We have one of the ones that is a regular toggle switch with the dimmer slider beside it. I find that the slide dimmer gets moved unintentionally a lot.
We also have one of the push button ones. We really like that one.
One thing I've noticed with some speciality switches is that the color selection might be limited. So if color coordination matters, be sure to pick the dimmer first. I found out too late that the ceiling fan switches only come in white, and my ivory volume control knobs look terrible beside the white.