That sounds like a question for Lutron to answer. But why do you feel it is necessary to do this? I have several switches like this that I intentionally installed and they are helpful in the dark and don't give off enough light to be annoying...at least to me.

Dimmers are usually riveted together and cannot be disassembled without damaging them.

Thanks for your responses. We are re-doing the kitchen, and looking for a clean modern look. The neon-bulb-backlit dimmers to me are better for bathrooms or hallways, when the lights might be out, and you need to see easily where the switches are. In a ktichen, I feel they look kinda motel-ish to me. Just MHO.

We are considering changing to Leviton IllumaTech dimmers. They too have a "locator light", but rather than having the entire thing backlit, it's a small LED, and seems pretty subtle. But unlike the Diva dimmers, which we've seen everywhere, we have not seen the IllumaTech in real life, only the internet. Does anyone have any opinions of them? Thanks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Leviton IllumaTech Dimmer

I cannot comment on the other dimmers.

What about just a small piece of black tape over the neon light? or paint it black?

-dkenny

Thank you all for your advice. Just to follow up, we ended up with the Leviton IllumaTech dimmer I linked to in my post above. And to our surprise, we like it better than the Lutron Diva. Of course, we like that the Leviton doesn't have the big backlight, just a small LED that will make it easy to find in the dark. It also is more modern looking than the paddle on the Lutron. The dimmer slide has a nicer "feel" to it on the Leviton too. Plus, we needed matching 15A Decora receptacles. Both the matching Lutron receptacle and the Leviton receptacle are on the shelf at Home Depot. Seeing them side by side, the Leviton (#16252) looked better made.

"I cannot comment on the other dimmers.

What about just a small piece of black tape over the neon light? or paint it black?"

The light source is usually behind the Decora paddle and makes the whole paddle 'glow.'

LEDs are not as large a light source (think point source on a semiconductor chip in the micro-meter size range) so a small hole is often used to allow their light to pass through the front of the switch.

The epoxy enclosure on the LED is often frosted to make the illumination area larger.

I was just faced with the same distaste of the locator light after buying a couple Lutron Diva DV-603P's. The bulb is really easy to access by popping off the plastic part of the switch. Seems easy enough to clip it off, but you can also just wrap it with electrical tape without doing any permanent damage. No tools required. Too easy!

2023: "Popping off the plastic part of the switch" as suggested by fotwell_mines_edu is indeed easy but these details may help: The part you are removing is the entire plastic assembly that is visible and touch-able when the switch is installed, which sits on top of the metal plate you attach to the wall, and includes both the paddle (the on/off switch) and the plastic frame around it (which has the dimmer slider). Although I guess you can pop it off with a fingertip, I used a small flatblade screwdriver to press the little clip that holds the plastic assembly in place. On the end of the plastic assembly that has *two* short protrusions holding the assembly to the metal, those two protrusions are the clips you need to press down — in the direction of the center of the switch — while lifting the plastic away from the metal via a fingernail or what not in the shallow opening on the side the plastic frame, close to the same end that has the two protrusions. The plastic assembly did indeed come off easily and without any breakage, once I figured all this out. Be gone, nasty locator light.