Two dimmers in series?

I am in the UK (230V) and have a 100W standing lamp with a dimmer wired in line with it's mains lead.

I have recently got a remote controlled dimmer which plugs into the wall mains socket and then I plug the device into the dimmer.

This means I would have two dimmers in series. Could this cause a problem?

If it might be troublesome then could I leave the inline one on its maximum setting (it does not "click" at max so I guess it does not truly bypass the dimming circuit). Then I would use only the remote dimmer.

Thanks for any info.

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Reply to
Andy
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Hard to say how ever, I would say this though, if the second dimmer is a phase control type it's possible it may not work off from another dimmer unless it passes through a xformer to clean up the phase control switching.. That's just a guess and would need testing..

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Reply to
Jamie

Why not remove the inline dimmer, seems like a safe bet.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

For what it's worth: I once observed a significant failure of a dimmer module in a 300-watt halogen torchiere lamp, after the lamp was plugged into a separate dimmer (an X10 "lamp module" remotely controllable dimmer).

The lamp's own dimmer failed - the rotary switch and potentiometer jammed and refused to turn. I pulled out the dimmer module to replace it with an ordinary rotary on/off switch, and found that the plastic case of the dimmer potentiometer had actually gotten hot enough to soften and sag!

I don't know whether this was due to a defective component in the dimmer, or whether running such a dimmer from a triac-dimmer-chopped mains supply was somehow the cause of the failure. In either case I'm grateful that the failure wasn't severe enough to actually cause the dimmer module to catch fire.

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Dave Platt                                    AE6EO
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Reply to
Dave Platt

Two ordinary dimmers in series works fine if one is left full on. I would be less certain of the X10 dimmer working in this setup. They can have problems without anything complicating the circuit.

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Andrew Gabriel
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Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

The only real answer there is to test it and see if anything gets hot. Setting hte one full on and using the other is a possibility, but not being able to see them from here ...

Reply to
TWayne

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