LED with linear dimming - Best 800 lumens (60W replacement) LED that works well with 3-way touch dimmer lights

[laterne]

I got a new 3-way touch dimmer lamp. With the supplied LED bulb there is not much of a difference between level 2 and 3. I tested dimming with a incandescent light which resulted in meaningful 3 levels.
Can anyone recommend a LED bulb brand/model with a more linear dimming characteristic so that I see a real difference between level 2 and 3?

This is a regular A19 socket. Need a 800 lumens - 60 W replacement - about 3000K

Found this article on linear vs. logarithmic. But I beleive this refers to smart bulbs.

Your smart bulbs aren't dimming the way you think they are. Here's why

Dim a bulb down to 50%, and you might only get 25% of the lumens you'd get at full blast. And guess what? That's a good thing.

www.cnet.com

 

[Dave_H]

Interesting, I have a few 3-step touch dimmer modules, square white plastic modules good to 200W. Mine are BSI model AL-230, surplused a number of years ago. What is yours (brand/model)?

(update: just noticed, is the dimmer module built into the lamp, or on the cord?)

I presume you will be using dimmable bulbs. Increasingly, low-end SMT LED bulbs for the most part are using linear (in a different sense) current regulation, and not dimmable.

A quick test using ordinary EcoSmart 8W 800 lumen frosted filament A19 LED bulb shows good brightness on each setting, notable difference from medium to high; similar with Luminus G25 filament bulb of similar specs (800 lumen 7W).

Not-filament (SMT LED) bulbs from Maxlight and Sunrise were tried, noticed not as great difference between medium and high., but I think it's not as simple as filament v. non-filament.

Dave

I have a table lamp with 3-stage touch control in the base, will give it a quick test.

 

[Dave_H]

I have a table lamp with 3-stage touch control in the base, will give it a quick test.

Checking on my touch-base lamp shows more variability of the dimming range, compared to external module. In one case, dimming range was compressed towards the high end; or reduced difference from medium to high as before. The EcoSmart bulb worked OK with both, and I am sure others should. You could possibly borrow different bulbs and try them, versus buying a bunch.

For some reason I had removed/bypassed the dimming module in one of two touch lamps, quite a while ago (they are old). Dimming circuits are diffferent from the outboard module. Dimmer chip is TT6061A with a bit of info available online, but only makes reference to dimming incandescents (2003). Yours may or may not be different. Possibly your lamp is older design retrofitted with LED bulb, which "works" but not ideally.

Dave

 

[Dave_H]

I have a couple of RGBW smart LED bulbs, Sylvania Smart+, which are not being used with control/apps. They claim dimmable but advise not to use with dimmers, which means they are
dimmable with smart control.

Bulb by itself defaults to warm white 60W eq. except it goes through a power-up sequence (R G B CW WW) every time it's turned on. I decided to test with inline touch and slide dimmers.

With three-stage touch dimmer, all settings were compressed into the top range, barely any
difference between medium and high. Slide dimmer was different, complete range squashed into the upper half of dimmer range. No damage occurred, these manual dimmers just don't work well with this bulb. The app/controller should be able to get proper dimming.


Dave