In another post, I mentioned that I am replacing a significant number of electrical outlets. I am also swapping out light switches. The ones already in the house are the regular type that flip up and down. We decided to install push-button ones that are more style appropriate.
Changing out the switches has been fairly painless. Most of the wiring is simple with each switch controlling one light or fan. The odd fixture is in the stairwell. It uses a pair of three-way switches (one downstairs and one at the upper landing) to control the light at the top of the stairs.
When the new vintage-looking switches arrived I immediately set about installing them. The first went reasonably quickly. I pulled out the old switch, disconnected the wires, and connected them to the matching set screws on the push-button one.
The second one didn’t go as well. The set screws on the side of the switch are supposed to be captive, which means they loosen but don’t come out. One of them did. No big deal. I thought I’d be able to screw it back in.
Nope.
The locking part that holds the screw was no longer in place. I decided to try to open the switch and fix things.
Nope.
The switch had a spring inside and the entire thing exploded like a Jack-in-the-box. Pieces went everywhere and I had no idea how to arrange them correctly.
I reached out to the company, let them know what happened, and they confirmed they would ship out a replacement from Portland, Oregon. Almost the farthest possible spot from me in the continental United States.
There was nothing else to do but wait for a week.
The replacement arrived two days ago. I immediately installed it, tested both switches, and felt good — for fifteen minutes. The downstairs switch, which had worked, no longer turned the light on.
By then it was too late to keep working on it, so it would have to wait until morning.
Breakfast finished, Hobbes at school, time to figure out what was wrong. Did a wire come loose? Faulty switch?
I removed the switch, then reinstalled it. Worked perfectly — for another fifteen minutes.
What the what?
I tested the switch upstairs. It worked. I then went back downstairs and that one worked. What?!?
Was the switch upstairs not pressed all the way in until I checked it? Maybe. Oh well, no reason to worry if it is working.
After a few minutes, I walked by the switch and decided to press it just to confirm everthing was okay.
Are you kidding me? Nothing. Maybe the issue is with the upstairs switch.
I grabbed my tools and started over.
The flip switches were old enough that the hot and neutral screws weren’t indicated. Maybe the configuration was different than on the new ones.
I started Googling three-way switch wiring to see what I could find.
The single black wire to the gold or black screw. Red wire to a silver screw. Second black wire, next to the red one, to the other silver screw.
Ah, the results showed a different arrangement of wires than I was using. Okay fine. I disconnected everything, made the adjustments, and tested it again. This time there was a loud bzzzzz and pop which indicated the breaker tripping.
More Googling, but this time I included the word “troubleshooting.”
Lots of results popped up. I selected a few that looked interesting and followed the suggestions. One website discussed which color wire should be connected to which set screw. I had already followed those instructions with no improvement, so I went through the steps to verify whether a switch was bad since it obviously wasn’t the wire combination.
Testing the switch involved using a voltage meter. Touch each set screw, press the buttons on the switch, and compare the results.
Okay.
Except that NONE of my results were turning out as expected. Multiple wires had power that shouldn’t have. Others didn’t that should. What is going on?
I started watching Youtube videos to see what I could find that might help. Mostly, it was a rehash of what I had already tried.
Around the time to put Hobbes to bed I found this one:
The video was posted over six years ago, isn’t fancy, and is pretty short. Not normally a good combination, but I was getting desperate. The statement that caught my attention was, “…when the wire and screw colors are not reliably known.”
I tucked Hobbes in, then watched the video. I watched it two or three more times and realized this was the way to go forward.
I went to bed hoping that the house wouldn’t burn down while I slept. Fortunately, we made it through the night.
Breakfast finished, Hobbes at school, time to try the method he outlined.
OH MY GOODNESS!
Whoever hooked up the wiring had not followed normal color conventions. Instead of black being the power, they were using white. White is supposed to be neutral. No wonder I was about to have an aneurysm.
After reinstalling the switches, for the seventh or eighth time, using this new information they worked perfectly.
Since this morning, I have walked past the downstairs switch a half dozen times. Regardless of where I am going, I press the button just to verify it is going to work again.
So far, so good and it has been much longer than fifteen minutes.