GE Enbrighten dimmer doesn't play well with small base candelabra bulbs

I have 3 GE Enbrighten dimmers connected to ceiling fan light kits with small base candelabra bulbs. All three flicker badly at unpredictable times. The only setting that does not experience the problem is 100%. All other settings will occasionally flicker, but they either flicker or don't. I've tried 3 or 4 different brands of bulbs and find the same problem with all of them. Any suggestions?

You might need a bypass wire to fix.. something like this:

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+1 for @erktrek suggestion.

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Is this the 2nd-gen GE dimmer? I've thrown all of mine into the "Drawer of Shame", for the same reason as what you are experiencing. I believe they are a defective design. I do like the 1st-gen dimmers though.

There have been lots of complaints about that on this forum, and others.

I don't have any experience with them, but it sure appears that way due to the volume of complaints I have seen all over the internet.

I would try a Zooz, or Inovelli. They have more features and are cheaper (cost, not quality) than the GE/Jasco.

FWIW I had to install an Aeotec Bypass on an Inovelli Black series on/off switch due to flickering when it was turned off. It operated a 12 volt transformer that powered a volume control and LED lights. In my experience flickering is caused by the load wattage which a bypass may solve. Worth a try.

My home is mostly GE Jasco zwave and zigbee switches and I have had good experience from them and they have a solid warranty too if there are issues. May give them a call too.

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@ritchierich Which GE switches do you prefer? Zigbee or Z-wave? I mostly have Z-Wave but was considering some of the Zigbee ones for the group messaging.

Both have been fine but I’ve gotten into both to build out the mesh. Plus paired them with another sensor based on protocol. For example if I have a zigbee motion that turns on a light switch based off motion the switch is also zigbee.

But I will admit I have had less issues overall with zigbee over zwave. Though most of those zwave issues were older non-plus zwave so moot point.

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I have some of both as well where I have regular bulbs. I haven’t seen this happen ever. I have noticed that the Zigbee dimmers seem to dim better than the z-wave.

The dimmers just need a load. Again, see this:

I've found a thread somewhere on this forum that suggested it could be the LED lightbulbs not drawing enough current. In my situation, I had issues with ceiling fan light fixtures that had 3 or 4 candelabra bulbs. The bulbs were all LED. So for me, as a "fix", I replaced one of the bulbs with a incandescent bulb. No more flickers. Works for me.

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Bypass would work too and then you can use all led's so one of them doesn't look different.

https://www.amazon.com/Aeotec-Bypass-Resistor-switches-flickering/dp/B0716BDNFB/

I had a single led ceiling light over the kitchen sink using an Inovelli red dimmer without a neutral that flickered. Adding the bypass resolved the flickering for me.

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