Any ideas why dimmer stopped dimming?

[Dackers]

In my kitchen I've got two ceiling light fittings each containing four halogen bulbs. It's been there since before I moved in a year ago. About six-eight months ago I fitted a dimmer switch which worked fine until the other day. I turned it on and got a big pop, a flash and one of the bulbs blew. I'm used to bulbs blowing so that wasn't the problem but not the dimmer won't dim. It will turn the lights on (to max) and off but nothing when you turn it. Has anyone got any ideas why this happened and how I can prevent it from happening again?

Cheers.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

What probably happened was that when the bulb blew it generated the usual surge that they do when this happens, and this surge was too much for the dimmer.

Your dimmer is now baisé.

The way to fix it is to replace the dimmer with one designed to cope with halogen loads, adequately rated for your halogen load (in the absence of any specific statement from the maker, go for a dimmer rated at twice the load of the lights), and with a soft-start feature. Some dimmers are internally fused, which is also a good thing.

 

[SwindonSpark]

TLC do an excellent dimmer guide here: -

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/DataSheets/Systems/DimmerGuide.htm