Nightmare with Varilight V-Pro (Eclique2) dimmer failures

Having a bit of a nightmare with what should have been a simple job.

Back in January I replaced some old Varilight dimmers which had failed after 15 years or so - and the client chose the newer V-Pro multitouch type:



With master and slave units. Feeding two separate 3 lamp units, with halogen G9 lamps.

Fiddly to set up, but all seemed to be fine. A week later one of them was not correctly dimming but still working. I fiddled and got it working again, but 2 days after that one channel died completely and refused to power on at all.

I raised a ticket through Varilight, who were good in fairness once they responded, and sent me out two replacement units, which I fitted and all was well.

At the same time I reduced the halogen G9s to 3x30W, from 3x40W, to be sure I was within their stated 100W halogen limit.

About 3 weeks later, the replacement master failed in a similar way and I replaced at the time with normal switches while I sorted out a solution.

I Finally went back today and had purchased a brand new master to put in. All worked fine when installed, but while testing again one of the channels completely died and refused to be reset or come back to life.

I can't believe that a company like Varilight can have such bad QA that multiple units are failing so quickly (unless others have similar experiences?), but I cannot see anything about the install that would explain the 3 failures within at most weeks of install.

I tried using just the masters, and switching circuits between the sides, so could completely verify that it was the single master unit that had failed.

Wiring all tests fine, and worked perfectly for months when put back to normal switches. There is 60s wiring from switch to the light fittings, but newer 3 core 2 way wiring to the second switch, installed at the time of an extension, and perfectly serviceable earth loop at both switches.

The only thing I can think is that the product was designed with LEDs in mind, and that the 90W of halogen is overloading one of the electronic components - However Varilight have confirmed that the product should work with halogen loads of less than 100W.

The client likes the look of these switches, and I cannot find anything similar to suggest as an alternative, but naturally she's getting tired of having to call me back and I'm getting tired of the unpaid return visits!

Any thoughts on alternative options, or experiences similar to mine with Varilight?

Can you not talk her in to some leds?…..cost of energy etc etc, I’m with you I can’t believe 3 units failed on the trot and my first thought was halogens?….

I’d agree that showing the client the meter spinning with them on and off might help matters!
On the other hand they should be capable of dimming that load and I feel your pain.

Try LEDs "just for testing purposes" and if the dimmers don't fail then I can't see the customer wanting to change back.
Maybe try just one unit.

I can't imagine Varilight have done too much testing using Halogens, I wonder if they've tested with 1 single 100w load and it's 3 x 30w that's causing issues.
Multilamp olde stylee fittings were notorious for constantly blowing 1 single lamp, especially candle lamps.

If they won't go for LED try with only 2 halogens , maybe the 40w.

Glad to hear that I wasn't missing anything obvious, though annoying if it is the halogens since I am within their stated limits.

I did want to go to LEDs at the start, however the problem is that the light fitting has very short clear shades:



And all the dimmable G9 lamps i could find were slightly too long so protruded from the shade.

Any ideas for dimmable options that are the same size as normal G9?

Don't know how short you need the G9 to be but Osram do a 47mm one warm white dimmable 320 lumens

Here's a link: P PIN 30 2.6 W/827 G9 | OSRAM DS - https://www.osram.com/ecat/PARATHOM%20LED%20PIN%20G9-Professional%20special%20LED%20lamps-LED%20lamps-Lamps-Digital%20Systems/com/en/GPS01_1123051/ZMP_2925899/