200W Low Voltage Toroidal lighting problem

[king.inter]

USES FOR THE SWITCH

Your VARILIGHT intelligent safety dimmer is suitable for: mains voltage GLS bulbs; mains voltage halogen bulbs; fans; most electronic transformers (including those requiring trailing-edge control) and toroidal transformers.

now as far as i can tell, that site is a direct copy of the varilight instructions. If it is misleading, and your instructions do, in fact, say it is NOT suitable for toroidal tx's you will be entitled to a refund, its mis-selling.

Are you absolutely sure it is a toroidal tx? I just dug out the instructions for my dimmer, and it does, in fact, say, not suitable for toroidal tx's but it also says

"If a transformer appears as a highly inductive load, eg. wire wound or toroidal transformers, the dimmer will not work. To protect itself it will turn off within one second. The dimmer will allow this to happen 3 times before blocking further use until it is disconnected and reconnected to the mains electricity."

I'm sure it is a toroidal, it is a big round heavy donut As described by a customer service rep at Dar-lighting. This light was changed from a toroidal transformer, to an electronic one, from April 2005 onwards because the toroidal version was tripping peoples MCB's Bangs head against wall..... And mine has an 04 date sticker on the inside. So I'm taking it back tommorrow to get a refund & try and get hold of an electronic version from somewhere. They should'nt mind too much, its obviuosly been on the shelf nearly 2yrs anyway Heres what Dar-lighting told me if youre interested.

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Dear Mr King,



Sorry to hear you are experiencing some difficulty in getting a suitable dimmer for this product, to be honest with you I have had sales people for dimmer manufactures don’t even know what they are talking about. So you do have my sympathy in this regard, unfortunately we do not sell dimmers as the powers that be have said it’s not something we want to get into and I do appreciate their reasons.



First of all, from April 2005 we changed the transformer used in this product from a Toroidal to an electronic type mainly because consumers were experiencing switch on current surges which tripped their MCB. It would be easy to identify between the two as electronic transformer would have a plastic packaging and would weigh approx 500 grams whereas Toroidal would be over 1Kg and look like a doughnut.



I believe you are most likely to have electronic transformer and in that case I would recommend you use a Varilite IQ range but please make sure it is suitable for electronic transformers. It must be a trailing edged dimmer, if anyone tells you different please be assured they don’t know what they are talking about. I am in the process of actually testing one of these dimmers and have to say I am impressed in both performance and function. I probably shouldn’t do this but follow this link http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/VLIC1401.html

I would recommend you looked at a 400 watt dimmer.



However if you have got a Toroidal transformer I would recommend you use an inductive dimmer rated over 500 watts, you are likely to experience buzzing from either the transformer or the dimmer.



For your information all inductive transformers are basically wire wound, Toroidal transformers are basically shaped like a donut because they are cheap to manufacture and less efficient than the square shaped transformers.

 

[Steve]

rather than take it back, could you change the transformer yourself? I mean, as long as it isn't part of the structure of the light, it should be an easy job. But if they will offer a free replacement, fair enough

That letter's interesting. At least they have improved their design from this one, realising the product is not suitable for the UK electric system. The varilight dimmer you have is definitely suitable for electronic transformers, no problems there and nice of him to link to the tlc website too. They seem to be very well known, makes me wonder how much they make on internet sales.

I will also add that i operated a toroidal transformer rated 80w on a dimmer for about a year, then i realised the buzzing was not a good thing mains voltage all the way for me now.

 

[king.inter]

Ok problem solved

Took light back to the shop & got a refund, then phoned the Dar lighting factory shop to see if they could send me one of these lights, but with an electronic transformer. The kind lady went to the warehouse opened one up & confirmed that it was electronic and sent it to me. Broken.... Anyway they picked it up & I recieved another the next day. Not broken Got it fittied & everthing is fine now. Did try the dimmer that I bought, but was unhappy with the humming that comes from the transformer. So back on withe the standard crabtree 1g switch & no more tripping.

Thanks for the help people

Toroidal is evil

 

[dingbat]

'Designer' lighting.

Says it all; designed by people whose delicate hands are never turned to the task of actually doing. Bless 'em.