I have a dimmer in my kitchen (its a three-way but I dont think that matters - and not the kind dimmable from both ends.) Also, its the back-lit kind (the ones with that slight orange light so you can see it in the dark)
Also, its the kind where switch is a toggle and the dimmer is a small slider so you can set it at a certain level, and then just use the toggle. Not sure if all this matters but I want to make sure its clear what I have.

Ok, so, the switch used to dim the lights from 0% up to 100%, like it should. But now, when the toggle is turned on, regardless of where the slide/dimmer is set, the light is at just about full power. So, basically, my dimmer now dims my light from about 90% to 100%.

I wasnt home when it happened, but my wife said she heard a pop, like a bulb blew. Now, one of the 5 bulbs that the sitch controls is out. Im assuming that my switch and bulb blew together, but since I wasnt there I cant say for sure (maybe the bulb has been out for a week and I just didnt notice).

Has anyone ever seen this? Any one know what it is. Could it be faulty wiring in any way? I did the wiring myself about 1 year ago.

And for what its worth, here is a bit more on my setup.

My kitchen has 9 lights (all recessed) I use two swicthes (5 on one and 4 on the other). They are both the same kind of swith (dimmable 3-way). They are in the same box so they probably share the same white and pigtailed the black (just guessing - it was over a year ago i did this). Each one has a regular 3 way on the other end.

Thanks for any help.

 

You are correct - the dimmer has failed.

Great description, BTW...

 

Dimmer has shorted. Not totally uncommon when a bulb fails in a short.