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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 found the following review helpful:
 Flexible and Powerful Feb 06, 2008
By J. Gottschalk
UPDATED: I give this dimmer a 5 star rating because of its great value and modularity for the price, despite the gotchas below.
What makes this 600 Watt dimmer so great is the flexibility to use it by itself, or program it to work with other Insteon dimmers throughout the house. Put one in the dining room, living room, bedroom or bathroom; wherever you need to dim the lights. You replace the existing light switch with this electronic dimmer, which is a little bulkier but will still fit into any existing wall box. Unlike cheaper dimmers, you can easily set and the initial lighting level and ramp rate.
Now for the fun part. With the addition of a couple of Insteon Access Points (these are included in starter kits with the dimmers), your dimmers can control each other. For example, if you want to switch off all of the lights in the house and turn on the porch light from your bedroom, you can link the dimmers together with a couple of button presses on each dimmer switch. Then with one button click in your bedroom, everything turns off or on as desired.
The price is the next best part. Installing an intelligent whole-house system will cost thousands of dollars, but with the Insteon approach, it costs about $50 per room. And the average homeowner with a a wiring book from Home Depot can replace a switch in 15 minutes to a half hour.
Some gotchas:
Wires - Most light switches only require 3 wires: hot, load and ground. Because there are electronics in the dimmer, you need hot AND common, plus load and ground. Sometimes common (white) is not in the switch box.
Connecting - These dimmers are not bullet-proof! Don't reverse the load and hot which are sometimes both black. Just check carefully with a voltage checker to determine the hot wire and label it.
Wattage - If you have more than 6 bulbs being controlled by a dimmer switch, make sure you use the 1000 Watt version (2476DH) since you can exceed the 600 Watt limit for this dimmer. They can be damaged by too much current or heat.
Heat - These things do put off heat. If you put two Insteon dimmers in a 2-gang wall box together, they can overheat if there is inadequate space to keep them cool. This is not a fire hazard or anything, but can damage the electronics in the dimmer. One of my dimmers started pulsing the lights when I would dim or switch it off. This was due to too much heat and I had to replace it.
10 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Great product if used right Dec 05, 2008
By Alexandre Krilov
"ukrainian_kozak"
Excellent product, works great for me. For all automation enthusiasts and DIY-ers make sure you understand the technology. Most of bad reviews are given by people that did not do their homework beforehand. Read about Insteon here: http://www.insteon.net/
Most common problems with Insteon that I heard about was related to:
1. plugging in devices into powerline filters.
2. not using phase couplers/AccessPoints.
3. abscence of neutral wire for wire-in switches.
4. Confusing wireless and wired transmission (bought switch and remote without access point and blamed switch on abscence of RF control) Insteon is capable of RF and powerline transfer, but wired-in devices almost always do not have wireless capabilities, only powerline, and access points work like wireless gateways to connect powerline and wireless devices.
So, make sure that you have neutral wire (most often white) available in the wall or that you know how to get neutral in there.
And make sure you buy access points if you want to use more then one device. It is a MUST.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Excellent capabilities but expensive Oct 30, 2009
By R. Brown
I installed about a dozen of these dimmers and companion switch pads in a large rec room / home theater. They work very well and have almost infinite programming capabilities. One word of caution is to be extremely careful not to short any output of these dimmers as it will likely destroy the unit rather than trip a breaker. Once installed properly they have worked flawlessly despite power surges and outages.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 They wont stick behind their product - because it sticks Oct 16, 2011
By Steve Macwilliams
"mac"
I once told everyone to buy this product, now I have to tell people that visit my homes, not too. I was quite excited about Insteon at first, but after about 18 months or just long enough to extend beyond their warranty period the switch sticks. You literally can not turn them on or off, a reset does not fix it. You then have people that just can not turn lights on. If you take it back to the store, they think you are the problem and will say it's electronic and eventually it could break. If you want a reliable switch, Insteon is not for you.
3 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Excellent Lighting Control Switch - Saves Money & Convenient May 24, 2008
By home enthusiast
I have been nothing but pleased with my INSTEON light switches, thermostat, keypads & timers. I have my whole house set up with these SwitchLinc Dimmers, keypads and timers and we are saving over $100 on our monthly electric bill. I can program my lights to go off when not in use, I program rooms to have "scenes" and dim the lights so everything isn't on 100% capacity and can now turn off lights without going outside and across the house. Excellent look & feel, highly recommend. Other INSTEON products I recommend are: INSTEON-Compatible SwitchLinc Relay Countdown Timer, White 2476STRemoteLinc Starter Kit - SilverKeypadLinc - INSTEON 6 Button Keypad Controller with Dimmer, White
See all 9 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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