3 wayswitches

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Ron G

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I work on some old houses and live in a very old house,the question,is there an easy way to figure out how a 3 way switch is wired up??everone that ive run across is wired diferent some of them are very confussing.
 
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heyttown

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Re: 3 wayswitches

Thats a very good illustration on 3 ways....Trust me it gets frustrating.<br /><br />It may also help if you can get in the attic above the upstairs switch(assuming its for the up and down hall lights) anyways...Get in teh attic and see how many wires (romexs) if new enough are going down to the switch, and also trace the wire back from the up hall light..That should elimate some guess work.
 
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crab bait

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3,831
Re: 3 wayswitches

NO MATTER HOW IT'S WIRED,, ( i know of 6 leagle ways )<br /><br /> the hot wire ( feed ) MUST go to the common/point/different color screw on the switch..<br /><br />an the other switch,, MUST have the switch leg/wire to lite go to the other common/point/different color screw on the other switch.. <br /><br />NO EXCEPTIONS.. <br /><br />the other 2 wires are 'travelers' from the other 2 screws on the switch .. from switch to switch..<br /><br />sometimes there is a white wire,, wire nutted/spliced in the switch box.. thats the neutral wire eventually getting to the lite .. to complete the circut..<br /><br />like i said,, i know of 6 different ways an wiring scemes to achive this.. but it still boils down to what i said above..
 
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Ron G

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Re: 3 wayswitches

Thanks guys the diagrams are great.i was looking for some easy tricks of the trade,but i guess theres none,except for tracing the wires.
 
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Richard Petersen

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Dec 17, 2004
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Re: 3 wayswitches

The easy ways would put you in danger. So I will not tell you. A volt meter and removing all the bulbs that should light is the easy safe way after the leads are jumbled.
 
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Ron G

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Re: 3 wayswitches

What happened we had summer workers replacing switches,and they put the wires on the wrong screws.and the wires are all back and white no reds,so i guess ill be tracing,thanks fellows
 
tashasdaddy

tashasdaddy

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51,019
Re: 3 wayswitches

i have a master electrican friend who still screws them up. he's been in the business 30 yrs.
 
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