Customer Reviews

Leviton OSSNL-IDT Decora Passive Infrared Wall Switch Occupancy Sensor, LED Adjustable Night Light, 180 Degree, 1200 sq. ft. Coverage, Light Almond

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this to replace a Leviton PR180. The PR180 seemed to work on my 3 fluorescent lights (2 electronic ballasts, 1 magnetic), but then the bulbs started flickering and eventually went out.

The OSSNL went in with new bulbs and the difference was immediately noticeable. It was as if the lights were connected to a standard switch! Not a hint of buzzing. Definitely worth the extra money for this switch.

I was very impressed by the configuration options in this switch, and spent about an hour testing everything and getting it right. It's great!

02/17/2010 Followup review:
Lowering my rating on this switch because now it is behaving strangely. The switch is installed in my garage and typically the lights are off when I open the garage door, then they turn on as soon as I step on the garage stairs. Recently I had noticed that the lights were on when I arrived home from work, and were on when I would first open the garage door. The switch was not turning off the lights after the 30 second timeout! I tried the manual on/off, and that would shut the lights off but they would not turn back on when I moved in front of the sensor. Even though nothing had changed with the switch configuration, it began functioning strictly as a manual on/manual off switch. As a final fix attempt I ended up flipping the circuit breaker that the switch was attached to, and now it appears to be working again. We'll see how long that lasts. Very strange and frustrating.

03/10/2010 Followup review:
It seems this switch has now completely stopped functioning as a motion-sensing switch. Despite repeating my previous efforts, I was unable to get the lights to turn off in either auto or manual mode. Perhaps I got a lemon. I've uninstalled the switch and will be sending it to Leviton for a replacement under warranty. Hopefully the next switch does not have these problems.

04/25/2010 Followup review:
Leviton sent me a new swtich approximately 2 weeks ago (so expect a 1-month turnaround if you send in a defective switch). So far it is working properly. I will update this review again later after the new switch has been installed for a longer period of time.

06/14/2010 Followup review:
Well it's been two months since I installed the new switch, and it's still working properly. Seems I just got a lemon the first time.

I bought this switch for a coat/storage closet where the lights used to always get left on by the kids.

We had never used a motion switch before, so I ran to the store and just bought the cheapest one there (it was the Leviton model PR180), but it had some serious flaws. The first problem was that it didn't work right with fluorescent lights and the second problem was that it didn't always detect motion to turn on reliably depending on the ambient light level. After a couple of weeks of fiddling around with it, I finally gave in and bought this more expensive model from Amazon.

I'm happy to report that this switch solves both the flaws from the other switch. It works great with compact fluorescent lights and it is also very sensitive to motion - which is great in my case. It's also amazing how adjustable this thing is - it has settings for just about anything I would ever want to configure. It also looks great compared to the other motion switches I have seen.

Now that I've enumerated all the things I like about this switch, I should point out that I feel it is pretty over-priced compared to other motion switches. On the other hand, I haven't found any other switch that is as functional either. I may consider using them in other locations in the house once the price drops a bit.

I have tried multiple brands of motion detector light switches for sale at Home Depot and Lowe's. However, since I had changed the bulbs in my recessed lights to CFL'S, those switches wouldn't work properly (flickering, burned out bulbs). This switch does work with CFL's! I was worried about the 3-wire (not 3-way) setup of this switch, so I did check in my outlet box and there was a white wire (3 of them not used), 2 black wires (being used by the existing switch), a green ground wire, but no blue wire. I forged ahead and used the 2 black wires - one for new black, and the other for new blue - and connected the white and green wires. Didn't work! So, I switched the 2 black wires and TA DA! It worked. So, now I know which black wire is going to the load...
The only thing about this switch is that the timeout selection is a bit lacking (for me). You have a choice of 30 secs, 30 min, 1H, or 2H. I timed the 30 min and it went for 40 min, a bit long for my taste, but at least it works! :)
The nightlight feature is great if you plan to use the Manual-On feature rather than the Auto-On. No more people asking where the light switch is!
Time to start figuring out where else I want to install these in my house!

After buying a less expensive Leviton that didn't work well with my fluorescent lights,
it was very satisfying to see this one work flawlessly.

Recommended if you have fluorescent lights.

Using this for a closet light. Set the time delay to the minimum of 30 seconds--recommended for set up adjustments only, but seems to work fine as a permanent setting. The light comes on quickly and goes off 30 seconds after the door is closed. Works with all types of lights (ie fluorescent tubes).

I can't believe that nobody mentioned this...
The timer has a 30 sec setting (good for install test), but the next setting is 30 mins.
How about something in between, say 10 mins?
Another annoyance is that the sensor has a very narrow vertical coverage.
I have this unit in a laundry room. When I'm down loading the machines (front loader), the sensor doesn't see me and the lights go off (I have it set at 30 sec).
It's pretty pricey for what it is. Hard to pay for itself, especially if you have to set it to 30 mins or longer.
3 stars on function, but the high price brings it down to 2 stars based on value.

I have purchased quite a few of these. I like that they can be setup in many different ways.

The night light can be set within a reasonable brightness range (or off, if desired) and the switch can be used in either an auto on or manual on mode.

I very much like the safety feature of a dim light that shines more brightly as it senses a person's approach. Further, I like that it can be set to go dim after a short time of no occupancy so it does not needlessly illuminate the night light.

Guests really appreciate these light switches since they otherwise are not sure where the switches are and nobody wants people falling down stairs in the dark or groping to find a switch in the dark.

I also like that the light extinguishes when there is enough "other" light in the room. Another nice feature is that if you depress the switch for ten seconds you can toggle the nightlight's glow between automatic dimming mode to continuous on mode.

Probably the feature that will offer the best payback is that if nobody is in a room for a preset duration the lights will turn off. This switch works with just about anything you can use a traditional wall switch for, be it LED lighting, compact flourescent, traditional fluorescent, small motors (think fans), and of course regular incandescent lights.

My only complaint is that once when there was a brief power interruption the lights turned on and then stayed on with nobody around. I am hoping that his was just a fluke with this one switch since the others in the house did not come on.

I bought one of these for our new house for the garage. It is perfect, no more fumbling for the light switch when your hands are full! We love it so much that we got two more, one for the laundry room and one for our walk-in closet. They were easy to install and they work with cfl bulbs. They are more expensive than other products but I couldn't find another product that works with cfls. Since incandescent bulbs will be phased out in 2011, it made sense to buy switches that work with cfls. All three units go off after 30 seconds so no more coming home from work to find that the closet light was left on for 9 hours.

I love this product! I purchased it to help my potty-training sons (ages 2&3) so that the light automatically comes on when they walk into the bathroom, it works like it said it would. I gave it four stars because there is no way to adjust the timer on a set number, my husband said that you just have to kind of guess the amount of time between the two settings and see if that is too long or short of an amount of time before it automatically shuts off. But this is only in our case, other things considered, it's a great product and I would definitely buy it again. I also love the night light feature, and the fact that it is an auto on and off switch. Can't beat that!

Leviton makes numerous models that all sound like they do the same thing - BUT they don't. this model (let me be clear: OSSNL-1DW) has Auto On/Off, and a night light. The internal controls have lots of adjustments for night light on/off, dim - bright, Auto on - Auto off etc etc. So a little patience is needed to get this adjusted as you need in YOUR application.

I have 3 of these now, and I've used them in various applications.
1) Makeup/vanity table - manual on, auto off (my wife would turn on the 400 watts of quartz lights and get distracted and leave them on for hours). I used the IPP15-IDW for this application - it's a little cheaper, but doesn't have the night light.
2) Garage - Auto on / Auto off, step into the garage, lights come on. Leave the garage, light go off in x minutes. We were always turning the lights on, but when the house door closed we never knew if the lights were left on or not.
3) Utility room - in a recent renovation, we lost one of the 3-way switches and had to rely on one switch at the end of the room, poking around in the dark to find the switch. Replacing that switch with one of these worked perfectly - enter the utility room sets the lights on, leave and a few minutes later off they go. The night light illuminates the room slightly until the auto on kicks on.

OSSNL-IDW has pig tail wires, and connects to the existing wiring with simple wire nuts, an alternate version IPP15-IDW (occupancy sensor - auto off ONLY) uses captive wires tightened with screws built into the body of the switch. Since the wires stick out the back, it was a little harder to cram the IPP15 switch into the box with the other existing wires.

And lastly, all these PIR wall switches REQUIRE a neutral (white) wire in the box. Take a peak by removing the trim plate and look carefully with a flashlight to confirm the WHITE neutral wire passes through the box. Many switch boxes have only the required BLACK and LOAD wires, and these switches will NOT work without the neutral. Some of the Leviton occupancy switches work with only incandescent lights, these will work with fluorescent and the newer CFL lights as well.