I thought the Ecosmarts fixtures were CREE CR6s...

Anyway, do they flicker in unison? I had a problem with the Ecosmart BR40s (Lighting Science 15watt) flickering in unison. When I say in unison, our family room has two circuits, and only the bulbs on the same circuit would flicker in unison.

I replaced the Lutron Skylark dimmer switch with one of the new Lutrons designed to work the LEDs and the flicker went away.

Although you mentioned that you do not have a dimmer on all of your bulbs, if they do flicker in unison, it might be worth experimenting with a LED dimmer.

The flicker could be caused by fluctuations (noise) in the AC input voltage. This needs to be checked by your electrician.

Thanks mattpete and davidtay,

The lights definitely do not flicker in unison, and some of the worst offenders are not on a dimmer. Where I do have dimmers, I have the Lutron diva dimmers, which are compatible.

Mattpete, the ecosmart brand belongs to HD, and is made using some Cree brand parts, but is not an entire Cree product. They are only offered in a select range, which is what led me to look at other manufacturers for the color light that I wanted.(35k)

Davidtay, I'm not sure what the AC voltage input is. We put in all new wiring with new dedicated circuits. Do you mean our power source from the city? Would that affect other areas of the house if that is the problem? We've lived here for 10 yrs and had no issues with builder grade everything.

The main thing I am struggling with is that I really wanted a specific temp for the house and if these won't work for whatever reason, I am back to square one. Should I persevere and push on, or is there a better option for me?

Thanks,
Jul

AC input - 120V AC +/- 5V.
It depends on how things were wired up. For example when several circuits share the same ground wire, there may be variations in the ground potential (i.e. sporadically non zero) seen on other circuits due to the current draw on one circuit.

Other noise sources include motors, ...

In the end, it would be advisable to have your electrician go through the wiring and confirm whether it is due to electrical noise on the wiring or not.

LEDs and CFLs are more visibly affected by electrical noise than incandescent lighting.

I have had three CR6s that have started flickering after a few months. Interestingly the three bad ones were the 5000K version - of eight purchased. Since I bought them at Home Depot, I just exchanged them for new ones - no questions asked. The 22 or so 2700K CR6s have all been fine.

Not sure if this will help you specifically, but it might put things in perspective.

When I put in 5 dimmable LEDs (Satco S8947) in my kitchen to replace builder's incandescents, I decided I wanted 2 more drops created and I wanted to put them on a dimmer. So I had the electrician create two more drops and install a dimmer. I had purchased a Lutron LED-compatible dimmer in advance of electrician coming out. But as soon as he connected the dimmer, the lights went haywire. He had a standard dimmer in his truck and that worked fine, so he left it connected. But then I had to go buy 2 more LED's for the 2 new drops. When I installed them, I got flickering (several bulbs randomly). I tried just putting 1 LED in and that was OK. I thought one LED might be bad so I brought it back and exchanged it. Put it in and got flicker again. Took one out and still got flicker. Swapped where the 7th non-LED was and flicker stopped. So, bottom line my dimmer is right on the cusp of being able to handle 5 bulbs, sometimes 6 depending on location. Crazy!!!

The lighting supply house said this is not uncommon and directed me to the SATCO website where there is a list of several compatible dimmers. He also recommended a dimmer that they sell. But the logistics of hit or miss ordering and returning dimmers to find a compatible one and hiring the electrician for one or multiple visits, was not appealing to me. So I put an incandescent in the 7th hole that made the dimmer happy with the 6 LEDs. Luckily the colors are pretty close. And no one but me should know that one is not an LED. Who looks up at LED lights?

Oh, another thing I learned was that if the switch for the LEDs is sharing a box with another switch (mine is) that will negatively affect the situation too.

Electrical noise can cause the lights to flicker. For instance, if 2 circuits share the same ground, there could be momentary spikes.

The proper way to diagnose this is to see what the waveform looks like on a oscilloscope.

http://blog.fairchildsemi.com/2013/eliminate-led-flickering-caused-fluctuating-ac-input/#.Ux6DFpK9KSM

Possible solutions, assuming that electrical noise is the cause
http://www.electro.fisica.unlp.edu.ar/temas/pnolo/p1_OIT.pdf

You'd have to engage with Cree support and your electrician.

"Dimmers show compatibility(Lutron diva)"

Compatibility with what? Have you consulted the bulb list for Lutron Diva switches? Are the flickering bulbs on the list?

Thanks davidtay,

Wow that's really technical so I may have to read it a few times.(lol). Of course it could be just the thing so I won't dismiss it.

Thanks rococogurl,

The original lights in question are all true Cree cr6 625lumens gu24 base 35k color. I have verified with Lutron and Cree that the products I have are compatible with each other.

It still does not explain the flicker in the lights at the top of my stairs which is on NO dimmer and a completely different circuit than the dimmed ones in the kitchen. Those were, in fact, the first ones to start. Thank goodness I don't use the steps much at night so I just leave them off all the time.

I have made contact with a rep from Cree and will work through their troubleshooting guide and update. Sounds like a fun(sarcasm) project for the hubs and I this weekend since my contractor is still unresponsive.

Until then....

I have two Cree A19, daylight, 40 watt bulbs that black out from time to time. No dimmer switch. I replaced the switch with a new 20 amp switch. Same results as old switch.

Nobody has an answer.

So, I returned them for an identical exchange.

Results are the same. Black outs and now flickering has been introduced to the scenario.

What did you use before the Cree bulb and did you observe issues like shortened life span, ... Before?

I would expect that there is something amiss with your electrical wiring.

Thanks davidtay,

Before the remodel, I had standard can lights with CFL bulbs, the kind that screw into the can as well as a flourescent light box. No dimmers at all. And no issues with longevity of lights prior to remodel.

Existing wiring was all up to code and we could have left it but I specifically opted to run all new so we could separate out the circuits how we wanted(kitchen lights, family room lights, kitchen GFCI, standard plugs, each major appliance, etc)

All these things were standard for my contractor. The only deviation from what he has done in all his other jobs is my specification for all Cree products rather than the Ecosmart from HD.

I am going to get some Ecosmarts this weekend and work through the troubleshooting guide from the Cree tech. My plan is to replace a couple each dimmed/not dimmed. We'll see if that does anything or if they flicker as well. I will also see if I can deal with the 27k color.

First, I would return the bulb and get a sub. I had 3 of my "20 year" LED Par 30 floods just go dead after a few months. I think this technology is only 3/4 baked.

Then, in the flickering continues I'd ask Lutron to replace that particular switch (may possibly be a wrong switch). To support that I'd make a video of what's happening and send it to their tech support people.

If that doesn't do it, then either the bulb or switch needs to change to a different model. Cheaper to get a different compatible bulb, seems to me.

IME so far -- I'm a designer who has a whole house of ceiling lights and dimmers, not a lighting engineer -- the bulbs are not reliable no matter what anyone says. I know everyone is high on the Cree (including my contractor). I've had fairly decent luck, on average, with most of the Utilitech bulbs (made by Feit) from Lowe's. Their house brand. Can't seem to find the Cree around here.

Most contractors will be useless as they don't understand any of this. Our insulation contractor is green-certified and encouraged me to change out the bulbs. After I did that I discovered the old switch issue which he wasn't aware of. He is now.

I'm thinking of changing out just a few key switches. I put an LED bulb in the single can above my sink and it works and it dims as it's a 1-way old switch but it also flickers.

My house is one year old.

There's nothing wrong with the wiring.

Age of the house has no bearing on whether you'd get electrical noise.

There are situations where a common ground wire is shared between different circuits. Or there could be electrical noise generated by attached appliances propagating to other circuits.

You can try changing the bulbs to cfls or incandescent or some other led vendor. If the underlying cause is electrical noise, the replacements would not last very long.

The original bulbs were halogen and were original, so about a year old. I replaced them on purpose to reduce heat in the enclosed fixture and conserve energy.

There are not any attached appliances to the lighting circuit.

Last evening, the LED bulbs were on for several hours and did not black out. This morning, they blinked twice in 10 minutes. Strange behavior.

Maybe it's my cat?

There is a design flaw in the CR6 that causes the flicker. A component is over stressed and fails. I have repaired several of them over the past year.

If you are running without a dimmer and see flicker/shimmer then the light is defective.

I'm using Cree bulbs in two pendant fixtures in the living room, each on separate dimmers. One was flickering, changed the bulb. It flickers occasionally but I can get it to stop by adjusting the dimmer. I may switch them out for incandescent bulbs, even though they are warm white, they still have a hint of fluorescent look to me.

Buchu, how to get them repaired? I have CR6-800 lumen recessed lights. None of them flicker. But 2 of Cr6-625 lumen recessed LED lights flicker.

Thank you very much.

None of my newly installed (in the recessed cans that were in stalled in December 2011) CREE 1500 lumens 3,000K temperature 47 degree radius PAR 38 bulbs flicker at all. They are on a switch with a sliding dimmer piece. I just bought the bulbs 2 weeks ago and I love them. I have 6 in my 10 X 14 kitchen and they put out wonderful light that is not burry. Sometimes at night I dim them if I am just going in to get a drink of water and I do not want too much light.

So sorry about your bad experience.

My CR6s aren't flickering, but some of them have started to hum or buzz. They are not on a dimmer switch.

My kitchen with CREE CR6 - 8 lights on a circuit with a dimmer - one light just started pulsing. It doesn't go off, but while the remaining lights are clear and steady, this one goes high-low intensity with about a 3 second periodicity. I'm guessing its a bad light, and that the contractor should replace it. Your thoughts?

Here's an update for anyone who is having the same problems.

I finally convinced my contractor back in May to assist in switching out all of the flickering Cree's, some of which were on a compatible dimmer, some on no dimmers. Turns out all I had to do was mention lodging a formal complaint. Of course, now that the lights have been replaced for a few months, I now have had two more start to flicker. And I have no idea if these are part of the original batch or first, second, or third replacements because when one flickers in the kitchen, I move it to the family room or elsewhere so I don't get the shakes while handling knives.

This is so maddening! I will not contact my old contractor, and he wouldn't come anyway since the remodel has been done for more than one year. His foreman who did all the electrical has since left him and moved out of state due to the contractor's personality problems affecting the business. While he was still here, we spoke many times of the lights and went through what could be the problems other than the lights themselves. It is just the lights.

I am truly disappointed in the so called longevity of these lights that they only last a few months before flickering. And it starts out so subtly that it is barely noticeable by my family, but of course, I am very sensitive to it and am checking the lights frequently.

Now I am not sure whether to keep replacing one by one, or rip them all out and start fresh with all Ecosmarts or something else. I am having some problems with my new appliances as well, so I feel at times like the entire remodel is falling apart. Ack!

As I mentioned on this thread way back in Feb, I have had similar issues with the 5000K CR6. Several more have been replaced since then. I keep returning the failed ones to HD, and buying replacements. Am hoping that I am finally getting to a set of "good" ones.

In contrast, my 2700K CR6 units have been flawless. Most are several years old now and get a lot of use.

It is interesting to note that my failed 5000K units are _not_ on a dimmer. Whereas most of the 2700K _are_ on a dimmer. All wiring is new, so I typically measure a solid 124v.

My failing CR6 is 3000K. Electrician doesn't return our calls (and we still owe him money, so something odd is up). I also am concerned that a light fixture that is now on new wires (but pre-existing) seems much less bright. It was on an electronic dimmer previously which the electrician tossed and put a new one in - so annoying.

I just looked up online about cree lights flickering. I have lived in my current house (11,000 sq feet over3 floors) since 2014. The house is a very faithful colonial reproduction from 1980. My wife and I did a thorough redo of the electrics, mechanicals, Windows, new cedar roof and cedar siding (where needed), paint, bathrooms... We had the entire house rewired and had had about 150 recessed lights in the house (bedroom, kitchen, all bedrooms, all closets, sun room, pantry, halls, laundry room all basement rooms) Redone in Cree 2700k BR30 65 watt bulbs (from reputable electrician). I did this because our past house (3200 sq foot over 4 floor) had many rooms with similar recessed lights I converted to Cree led (the exact same) in 2012. The lights in the old house DID NOT flicker when lights were at full brightness, but the old dimmers were a problem. So I went to Lutron dimmers for CFL and LED. There were no more issues. Well, due to this experience, all lights in new house started up on these led comparable dimmers. I have to be honest - I am SUPER DISAPPOINTED with CREE. I have had at least 20-30 Cree flickering lights in my house. At first I thought it was the rooms, because certain rooms flickered all the time - but, those rooms had a ton of lights. I have replaced them with the LOWES equivalent and have not had an issue. My office (family owned) converted over as well and my parents did. And we all did Cree. We ALL had flicker issues. Some are so bad, they go off for a while! When we switched over to the Lowes brand (only on flickering lights), no more problem. The strange thing is that the Cree completely integrated low profile units (not screw in, but lower profile lights we needed in our pantry that look the same once installed, but are half the installed depth) have all been great. I am almost certain it's a quality control issue. People who have old incandescent "high watt" dimmers - realize you are replacing old bulbs with new ones that demand 1/6 or less the power. The old dimmers don't control the low load properly and you will get flicker if you dim lights. But if you have led ready dimmers or a solid switch, and lights flicker... It's the bulb. I've tried everything and it was the bulb. The Cree's are supposedly the best - but I have had a problem with at least 30. Replacing them fixed issue and other cree's in same circuit and switch have been fine for a couple years. If you have similar issues and a good dimmer - it is not you or your house. It is the light bulb. Return it. I think the Cree's made in the past had better quality control. I asked homeowners of my past house if they ever had to replace one (they are all from 2011/12 - all Cree) and they say they are great.

Interesting. I am getting ready to put new recessed lighting in (a remodel) and wasn't sure what the best option was these days. Back in 2010 when we remodeled out kitchen, the Cree lights (including the HD Ecosmart) were the highly rated, and we love the ones we put in! -

But LED lighting has changed a bit since 2010, and I noticed that Polar Ray had on a few as closeouts so I called to ask for their recommendation - I got great help from them several years ago when I added a wet rated LED light inside my shower.

What I was told was that the quality of Cree lights has gone downhill and they had thousands returned, so they are no longer going to carry them. They suggested their Sylvania or Halo lights instead.