3 way wiring question, help please!
Hi all, I'm stuck and would really appreciate some help. I am not an electrician and I'm sure everyone reading this who is an electrician will think I'm a moron. Anyways, here's the situation. I decided to add some island lights where none existed previously. I installed fixtures, then installed a switch on each side of the kitchen. Previously I had a 1 switch box and a 2 switch box on either side. So now I have a box with 2 switches and another box with 3 switches (not sure if knowing that matters).
I then ran wire from one switch, to 1 first light, then the second, then the third, then to the second switch. As you can see from my illustrations, I have power coming into each of the boxes, and I wired them as shown in the diagram, but I'll explain it more here:
From each power source, i connected the black wire to the switch, then I connected the white wire to the white wire coming from the light fixtures. I have the red wire going directly from one switch to the other switch.
HERE'S THE PROBLEM (as you probably know, but i can't figure out how to fix it): The lights turn on when I turn the switch on, and they turn off, if i use the same switch to turn them off. BUT, if I use the other switch to try to turn them off, it doesn't work.
Either switch will turn the lights on, but that same switch has to be used to turn the lights off.
I would really appreciate any and all help to get this fixed. Thanks in advance!
Comments (10)
Dave
last yearlast modified: last yearLandon Lane
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Multiple 3-way switch wiring help
Comments (4)"We would like to keep the 3-way switches but also add another set of 3-way switches so we can control half of the recessed cans at a time. " You will have to break up the existing string of lights and add another switch at each location. Each switch will control half the lights. You need to add up the loads on the existing circuit to determine how much more it can support. You are generally limited to 80% of the circuit capacity (15 A or 20 A)...See MorePlease help: 3 way light switch hanging a light fixture
Comments (3)When you say that there are those "4 wires coming out of [the] ceiling", are those just the ones that presently "come out", or are they also the only wires in the box? (That is, have you peeked inside the box to see if there are any other wires that aren't "coming out of [your] ceiling"?) If there are other wires in the box, that would be useful to know. My initial take was the same as Normel's--that the outlet was wired to control two things, such as a fan and a light. I still think Normel's "analysis" makes sense, but I'm perplexed that there are apparently two three-way switches (purportedly) involved at different room locations. Am I correct in this interpretation? Did a pair of switches control a light there before you went to swap fixtures? It's possible--though not terribly likely--that a pair of three-way switches used to control a light while only one switch controlled the other function (e.g., fan). If that were the case, and the black wire was the old "fan wire", then wiring the chandelier to the red wire rather than the black might work. (BTW, you need to cap off the unused wire with a wire nut, whichever wire ends up being unused!) What happens when the red is swapped for the black? Can you look at the switch that currently "works" and tell us how it is wired? Not counting any bare ground wire, does it connect with three wires or only two? Colors? Any "history" might help....See MoreTricky wiring 3way lights with 1way fan
Comments (2)Wired incorrectly, while letting the fan use 2 return paths for neutral wouldn't be the end of the world, it is technically against code and unprofessional. The only way to wire the scenario with power first coming to the switch box is to also wire the fan to that first switch box. You would need 12/3 from the fan to the 1st switch box. Your other 2 switches controlling the fan would then be wired as a 3 way/ four way switch loop. Wiring needed 1st switch box: -12/2 from panel -12/3 to fan -12/3 to 4 way switch continuing to other 3 way switch. The light will then be using the red wire, connect it to the common terminal of the switch. Connect the white of the 12/3 heading to the other switches to the black incoming hot. At the 4 way switch, connect the white to the white heading to the last 3 way switch. At the last 3 way switch connect the white wire to the common terminal and the black and red to the other 2 terminals. At the 4 way you'll have 2 pairs of black and red to connect to the 2 pairs of terminals. The fan switch is easy, just connect a black to that same incoming hot wire that is tied to the white heading off to the other switches. Connect the black heading to the fan to the other terminal. The incoming power white wire will connect to the white wire heading to the fan. Yes it is complicated but it is the correct way to wire this. It simply comes down to the fan/ light not being allowed to use 2 different white/ neutral paths back to the source wire. The code only allows 1/0 and larger wires to be used in parallel, #12 wire is a lot smaller than 1/0....See MoreGoofy 3-way wiring
Comments (5)I'm curious as to what the confusion is? "A double pole switch!" is also called a 4-way when it is dpdt. "Usually", the circuit starts at the first 3-way, and continues around the room through the receptacles until it gets to the last 3-way, carrying the neutral with it. This means that you only need 2 wires going from the first 3-way, through the 4-way, and ending up at the last 3-way. This saves 50% on wire costs for a 4-way. I could guess that the 14-3 going up to the light is for just in case you want to use a paddle fan with a light....See MoreLandon Lane
last yearlast modified: last yearDave
last yearwdccruise
last yearDave
last yearLandon Lane
last yearwdccruise
last yearLandon Lane
last year
wdccruise