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Review on πŸ”† Sunco Lighting 6-Pack 4 Inch LED Recessed Downlight: Dimmable, Energy Efficient, Easy Installation - UL + Energy Star Certified by Marshall Dickinson

Revainrating 4 out of 5

A near perfect upgrade, just be careful which dimmer you pair it with.

I just installed 8 of these modified 4 inch Sunco glasses in my new bedroom. The cans came in relatively easily and for the most part the bulbs/light engines are great. The finish is nice solid metal with a smooth clean paint job and the spring clips are just enough to hold the sign very firmly in the glass (if it wants to sag a bit, lift it and rotate it about 15 degrees in both directions). it should "bite" and then latch on to the ceiling.) I use it with the Lutron Maestro CL dimmer that I already have to control the lighting on the ceiling fan it will replace. They dim from full brightness to barely noticeable with no flickering, Buzzing or other disturbing factors. The problem occurs when the switch is off. Maestro is a computer controlled/electronic dimmer and has no neutral wire. Even when it's off it consumes 0.15 watts (according to specs) and the only place , at which it can deliver this power is the load (light). If only one of these is installed, it is still noticeably "on", yes or with the switch off. When 8 are installed they all have a very weak pulse when the room is completely dark (each bulb added reduces the light intensity when they are off as the trace amount of energy is spread across more individual lights). I believe this is a by-product of the excellent dimming capability of these lamps. You need to be able to handle very low input power to dim well. It's just that this switch (and other similar ones) don't turn off the power completely, as they need standby power. I contacted Lutron to see if they could offer an alternative dimmer that might work better. I would expect a dimmer that doesn't draw standby power (i.e. a fully mechanical switch) to be fine. I suspect the Lutron Diva CL meets these requirements. Another option could be a neutral switch; thus it can get its own power without passing it through the load side; I suspect ELV dimmers will work this way. I'll try to update as soon as I know more.

Pros
  • Great Construction
Cons
  • Crumpled Packaging