Lutron Fan/light control

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Little Bill

Little Bill

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Tennessee NEC:2017
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Semi-Retired Electrician
I had a strange thing happen. I have a 2-gang box, with one Lutron Maestro fan & light control and just a regular switch. I removed the regular switch and replaced it with a Caseta wireless switch w/dimmer. I turned the power off and put in the Caseta. The only thing I did to the Maestro was remove the heat sink fins on the inside of the switch like you have to do with multiple dimmers. I buttoned everything back up, programmed the Pico remote to the Caseta, and tried the lights. Everything was good with the lights connected to the Caseta.
I was going to turn the ceiling fan on and got nothing, tried the fan lights, nothing. None of the LED indicator lights on the Maestro were on.

So I'm thinking a wire must have come loose when I was working in there so I took everything back apart. Couldn't find anything loose, and power feeds both switches. Both switches have power but the Maestro is dead. I called Lutron and the only thing they could tell me was there is some kind of arc protection inside these type switches and they can go out. Problem is they are not replaceable and nothing can be done other than get a new switch. Now as I said, I had the power off the whole time until the cover plate was back on. I don't know what would have caused the part to fail. The worst part is they don't make that model of Maestro anymore and no direct replacement.
Anyone ever had this problem?
 
Little Bill said:
I had a strange thing happen. I have a 2-gang box, with one Lutron Maestro fan & light control and just a regular switch. I removed the regular switch and replaced it with a Caseta wireless switch w/dimmer. I turned the power off and put in the Caseta. The only thing I did to the Maestro was remove the heat sink fins on the inside of the switch like you have to do with multiple dimmers. I buttoned everything back up, programmed the Pico remote to the Caseta, and tried the lights. Everything was good with the lights connected to the Caseta.
I was going to turn the ceiling fan on and got nothing, tried the fan lights, nothing. None of the LED indicator lights on the Maestro were on.

So I'm thinking a wire must have come loose when I was working in there so I took everything back apart. Couldn't find anything loose, and power feeds both switches. Both switches have power but the Maestro is dead. I called Lutron and the only thing they could tell me was there is some kind of arc protection inside these type switches and they can go out. Problem is they are not replaceable and nothing can be done other than get a new switch. Now as I said, I had the power off the whole time until the cover plate was back on. I don't know what would have caused the part to fail. The worst part is they don't make that model of Maestro anymore and no direct replacement.
Anyone ever had this problem?
Click to expand...
Let know what you have. PM the part #, I'll look in my stuff in the morning.
 
Any chance the power in and the old switchleg of the plain swich got flip flopped. Have you opened it up with power on and have you made sure you have 120v no 62v or 84v. I've done the dumb thing of trying too hard to figure out something when all that was wrong was a little mistake.
 
letgomywago said:
Any chance the power in and the old switchleg of the plain swich got flip flopped. Have you opened it up with power on and have you made sure you have 120v no 62v or 84v. I've done the dumb thing of trying too hard to figure out something when all that was wrong was a little mistake.
Click to expand...
There is another switch in another room that is seldom used. I took it out and put in where the failed one was, it worked there. I then took the failed switch and put in the other room, still not working, not even indicator lights. I did check all connections, even took them apart and remade them. As far as getting the power in and switch leg crossed, no they were correct and besides, it wouldn't matter as they can go on either terminal of the switch.
 
letgomywago said:
OK one last odd question. Is this a switched neutral possibly with power in the fan?
Click to expand...
No, power is in the wall box. The room where I took the working Maestro just had a switch loop. These switches don't need a neutral in the box. There is a part in the canopy, I suppose you call it the receiver, it uses the neutral there.
 
Little Bill said:
No, power is in the wall box. The room where I took the working Maestro just had a switch loop. These switches don't need a neutral in the box. There is a part in the canopy, I suppose you call it the receiver, it uses the neutral there.
Click to expand...
Ya I was wondering if the maestro was on either a switch loop with some sort of driver for a DC fan or if it was a Carter situation where there wouldn't be power and nuetral possibly.
 
It's a stretch, but maybe something in the Maestro failed because of mechanical stresses put on the internal components when you removed a portion of the heat sink fins. If so, maybe the Maestro was marginal or defective in the first place. Did you cut the fins with shears, or bend it back and forth, etc. to shorten them?
 
synchro said:
It's a stretch, but maybe something in the Maestro failed because of mechanical stresses put on the internal components when you removed a portion of the heat sink fins. If so, maybe the Maestro was marginal or defective in the first place. Did you cut the fins with shears, or bend it back and forth, etc. to shorten them?
Click to expand...
Bent them back and forth
 
You can also just bend the fins out a bit to miss the sister switch w/o completely removing it- it wont hit the cover plate...
You can bend them in but then you get too close to terms on s.p. sister.
Some of those things (re- many especially motherboards in computers) really like the power off, even just breaking the nudy has caused problems...
 
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