I am wondering if a defective dimmer could be the cause of my kitchen lights being dimmer than usual

The usual 15amp should work fine

Dimmer gone bad.
Buy new dimmer.
Check total wattage of bulbs, and compare with watt rating of dimmer.
Check if dimmer feels warm
reduce watts in ceiling linghts
http://waterheatertimer.org/How-to-wire-3-way-dimmer.html
Gene
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If you need further help, I’m available over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/gene_9f0ef4df2f9897e7

Because the switches have electronics in them the ground wire may be very important to give it a full 120 volts to be able to run. Also double check your lighting, these dimmers are likely for incondescent lighting only (light bulbs). A compact fluorescent or some other lighting may blow the switches. If your lights are led they may not have sufficient resistance so that the dimmer knows that you have any lighting at all. Fluorescent lighting has to high a capacitive reactance and or inductive reactance. Halogen or other lights may cause troubles too. Check the directions on your switches to see if they were for incondescent only or for fluorescent only etc. Also modern bulbs don't seem to screw far enough into the sockets because of their fat necks that bottom too soon. You may have to turn off the power then put your finger inside to bend the bottom contact up enough to touch the bulbs.

twist the kitchen and live wire together and use that for the hot side of your dimmer for the livingroom

Change the dimmer or reduce the load, you are controlling 750 watts with a 600w dimmer. That is a 25% excess in load, no wonder that it is getting hot!

DW, It is not the transformer. It could be the dimming controls. Also, instead of using a bigger transformer go in for CFL bulbs and reduce the load on the transformer. And contribute towards efforts to reduce global warming by using less electricity.

installer may not have tightend up the mounting nut's, they are accesible, and can be reached w/ a basin wrench

I recently purchased a Leviton Dimmer switch which has a brown lead. This switch is to replace 1 of 2, 3 way switches that control the ceiling light in my kitchen. My problem is the new dimmer switch has 4 leads including a brown one which has me confused. I have installed and replaced numerous dimmer switches without difficulty. Please help.

you have a short in switch replace

If your display has gone dimmer and dimmer or just gone out it is probably the display board. There are a few capacitors on the back of the board. There is one that is 68 Microfarad 35 Volts. It is common for this one to go bad. I replace it with a 68 Microfarad 50 Volt rated one and that usually solves the problem.