What do I do when my LED is buzzing or flickering?

There are various reasons for LEDs to buzz, flicker, blink or hum. Usually these effects don’t necessarily have negative impacts on the operation, the lifetime or functionality of the LED. But these effects are unwanted negative side effects and may even annoy the user. A blanket statement about the connection between the price of the LED and the side effects can’t be made, meaning, not only inexpensive LEDs may have these side effects. Mostly, multiple factors lead to these consequences.

First you need to make sure you have a dimmable LED. This is the first condition for a good dimming performance. A dimmable LED is marked with the following or a similar symbol:

The next step is to check whether the dimmer is usable for the performance area of the LED. If the performance area of the LED or some LEDs is exceeding the limit of the dimmer, this can cause negative side effects.

But even if all these requirements are fulfilled, this doesn’t guarantee a good dimming performance. The combination of LED and dimmer needs to work, too, as not only the dimmer but the LED as well has an integrated electronic and if these two do not harmonise, it can also cause negative effects.

If the negative side effects only appear in the lower or upper dimming area, you can manually change the minimum and maximum level of the dimming area. EHMANN LED dimmers have setting screws to manually change the minimum and maximum dimming area.

Sometimes though you can only test different combinations of LEDs and dimmers personally to find the best combination. You can use our LED recommendation list to help you find the perfect LED among 400 tested ones.