3 way and 4 way switches
Hello everybody, I am just so excited. I need to tell someone. Last weekend I finally fixed the 3 and 4 way switches in my house! YEAH ME!! The prior owner had put on some motion detector switches and instead of paying for the 3-way ones, he was cheap (surprise!) So, for the past 2 years, my husband and I had to go up the steps to turn off the light in order to turn it on at the bottom of the steps. Well, now, with the help of the great electrical guy at the Home Depot, I was able to get it all working! Of course I did have to go back twice because the first guy told me that I needed all 3 switches to be 4way not 2-3way and only 1-4way. Later, I tackled the problem of the switches not working on the outlets that we had replaced. I did not know how EASY of a fix that would be. I just took a needle nose pliers and tore that buddy off! OK, I am a bit proud of myself. Next weekend I plan on putting a switch in my basement so I don't have to use the pull chain anymore. How hard could it be? BTW, I am the one that has water coming in the circuit breaker box...I had another electrician come out, he said he cannot fix it either. Leslie
OK all you DIY electrical whizzes, I need some serious help on my kitchen ceiling light. I pulled the fixture down to repair the plaster and the wiring inside the box is considerably more complex than I am used to seeing. Having already replaced 6 or 7 ceiling lights, a chandelier and 2 ceiling fans plus more of the outlets than I care to think about, I feel fairly confident about simple electrical projects. This one, however, has me baffled and slightly nervous. When I took the fixture down, I found white wires twisted in with black and black wires twisted in with white. It's not a 3 way, just operates off a single wall switch so I don't understand what is going on. There is power going into the box even when the switch is off, you can see little sparks in the one connection when you remove the wire nut. I thought about just hooking the light back up as it was but I don't like the looks of the wiring, and when I tried reattaching the fixture wires as I thought they should go, I couldn't turn the light off at the switch. Here's the configuration as best I can explain it. (W = white wire, B = black) Left side box Right side box W1