I am waiting for a call from the electrician to trouble shoot my problem wi th the door bell light going out every two months or so.
Someone suggested that I call the company that makes the doorbell kit. I d id, and they told me that they have never had a problem where the diode tak es out a push button light. Their guess is that I have too large of a tran sformer powering my chime and push button, just as many have mentioned on t his site.
I am now sitting here and wondering why my back door bell button light has never burned out, and yet the front door one has been replaced a lot.
Can anyone tell me if this still sounds like a transformer problem? I wish I would have thought of this earlier and asked the guy who helped me on th e phone.
Good Grief.... I've read some of this thread and the amount of money you must be spending for this is insane. Who cares if it lights. As long as the chime works. Buy a 25W equivalant LED bulb and put it in your porch light and leave it on all night. It uses 3W. Better yet, buy a Solar powered wall light for about $20. Mount it on the wall near the doorbell. It'll not use any electricity and should stay on most nights all night long, unless the prior day was very cloudy. Or buy a string of clear LED holiday lights and put them around the door. If people still cant see the doorbell, send them to an eye doctor.
Is the back button one that came with the original kit?? If so,my "guess" is the original setup was a non-standard voltage (like 24) and the buttons that came with it were right for that voltage - and the replacements are "standard" 16 volt units. Either that or you are getting a lot of cheap substandard replacement buttons.
Key to the whole thin is "what voltage do you have on the circuit NOW?
A cheap meter is less expensive than the transformer - and the meter will be usefull to have around for a lot of other uses. Get the meter first. Then, if the voltage is too high, get a transformer If not, it's not the end of the world if the button doesn't light
Right on getting a meter. For home use they are less than $ 20. Even the free one from Harbor Freight should be ok to use. It might even be beter for the casual user for several reasons. They seem to have a 1 meg instead of 10 meg inpedance for the DC , did not check the AC, but think it would be either the same or less. They are inexpensive enough if you burn one up, no big loss.
I have received 3 of them in the last 6 months. They all seem to check out to be good enough for general home trouble shooting as compaired to my Fluke other meters.
The first lesson a person should learn about using an electrical meter is to get a reliable meter. It does NOT need to be costly, but it MUST NOT be from Harbor Fright. Those meters from HF, which you can get for free or pay about $7 for, should be thrown in the trash BEFORE they are ever connected to electricity. If they do work at all, they are inaccurate, and they will suddenly stop working just from sitting on a shelf.
Of course that begins a lesson in buying any and all tools. Anyone who does home repair dont need to be a professional, but no professional would even consider buying the garbage sold at HF.
Learn from the pros.... Dont even enter a HF store. Spend your money on reliable and quality tools, or if you're just shopping for a "one time use" tool, there are other lower cost brands that are far better than the garbage sold at HF.
I am waiting for a call from the electrician to trouble shoot my problem with the door bell light going out every two months or so.
Someone suggested that I call the company that makes the doorbell kit. I did, and they told me that they have never had a problem where the diode takes out a push button light. Their guess is that I have too large of a transformer powering my chime and push button, just as many have mentioned on this site.
I am now sitting here and wondering why my back door bell button light has never burned out, and yet the front door one has been replaced a lot.
Can anyone tell me if this still sounds like a transformer problem? I wish I would have thought of this earlier and asked the guy who helped me on the phone.
Sorry to be such a pest.
Thanks everyone!
Kate
Ok Kate you have stated that you was told that push button may have diode with in Normally Diode is use in rectifier circuit, it means that it changes AC voltage to DC voltage, now if you have diode there originally it is possible that is use to drop voltage however it would be use to drop voltage power only, on the pilot light, it would operate "like this" when button is press light button/switch light will go out, and when switch/button would let go it would come back on. this is only thing I could think. I am not there without being there with instruments to diagnosed problem????????
Part of my job when working was the calibration of instruments. I have 2 Fluke meters that were checked by even more percision instruments and they met the spec. Out of 4 of the free HF meters I have, they are accurate enough for the average home owner. They seem to meet the spec of the paper that comes with them. The oldest one is only about 5 months old, so I will have to give them a while to see if they do go bad.
I will agree if a tool is to be used very much or needs to be a good quality HF is not the place to go to, but for a tool that is seldom used the HF may be good enough.
I dont get their free meters because I never shopped there much and I refused to get on their mailing list. (which I do everywhere). But I bought one of these meters for $7, intended to be used for auto repair, because I hate using a quality meter when my hands are greasy. The first time I got that meter out to a car, I put it to a wire and was reaching with the black lead to get a ground, and the test lead tip pulled right off. (Molded and unrepairable). I had to go borrow the leads off one of my good meters, but I ordered some decent test leads from ebay a week later. which cost around the same price as the HF meter.
I took care of this meter like I would with any of them, kept it indoors and didnt drop or abuse it. I used it about 2 more times in a car, and used it in the house about 3 or 4 times to check the resistance on some LED christmas lights and tested some flashlight batteries.
It sat on a shelf most of the time. About 1 1/2 or 2 years later I grabbed it to test another set of christmas lights, and I could not get any reading. I put in new batteries, it still did not work. I switched it to DC and put the leads across a 12VDC power supply. No reading. I switched to AC, stuck the leads in a 120V outlet. No reading, or just a slight reading (I cant quite remember anymore). I might have this confused with another meter, but I think there's a fuse inside. I checked that, and it was fine.
This meter just died from sitting on a shelf and turned OFF. I dont think I even got $7 worth of use from it, and that dont include the replacment test leads (which I can use elsewhere).
I bought a solar charger from HF. That worked at first, then just quit working for no reason. HF refused to return it or exchange it, but told me I should have gotten their extended warranty (which is almost the same price as the device itself). I raised hell, asked to speak ot the manager, who gave me the same robotic speech. I told him to shove it up his ass, and left the store. That was the last time I have ever gone to HF and the last time I ever will.
I also bought some hand tools from HF and all of them were cheap junk. A channel locks that broke in half, vice grips that bent, plyers would not grip, wrenches that stripped or cracked, and so on.
I should have just taken that money and burned it. -OR- spent about 20% more and bought some OTHER BRAND of low-end tools, and I'd probably still have the stuff. Instead all I did was add to the landfill.
There are quality tools, and there are cheap tools, and then there's HF garbage, which does not qualify to even be called a "tool". I will never step foot in their stores again!
I have been following the original thread and this new one about the door bell saga.
My thinking is that it probably isn't worth trying to solve the puzzle and especially if it involves paying an a electrician again. You already did a lot, including changing the switch a number of times, trying to figure out what a transformer looks like and where it may be, calling the manufacturer, etc.
I think that trying to now buy a multimeter or any other diagnostic device, and then trying to figure out how and where to use it to hopefully diagnose the problem, and possibly paying an electrician again is not worth the time and money.
My suggestion is to just buy a whole new hardwired door bell kit -- including the transformer etc. -- that is the type and style that you want to have. Then, have a handyman/woman-type person install the new one and completely remove and replace the old one -- including the transformer and all.
Who knows what's wrong with the system that you have now, but unless you want to become an expert in diagnosing and solving the mystery of the door bell button light problem, it would make more sense to just replace the whole system.
Thank you Tom R and all the others who have helped. This group has always been very helpful, which is why I come back.
I have not spent much money on this doorbell problem. I had the electricia n out once, and he gave me a year warranty on the work. That year is not u p yet. The other doorbell buttons I have replaced myself. Yes, they were c heap, but the only kind Home Depot had. Another reason I need to just get a new kit and be done with it. I know I could do without a light, but I ju st like things to work like they should.
While I am quite handy, I know nothing about electrical things, and am a wi mp when it comes to messing with it, let alone using a meter which I know n othing about.
My plan is just as you suggested: getting an entire new doorbell kit, alon g with the right transformer. Right now, I am not sure where the old trans former is but I have a hunch it is behind my electrical fuse box cover. I don't even know if that is code. If it is not there, I don't think I can s afely install a second transformer somewhere else, but I am not sure about this. If we can't find the transformer, I will have someone wire nut the e nds of the wires and be done with it. I can install a battery operated doo rbell myself, but I think they sound cheesy.
Thanks for all of the help, and I apologize that I ruffled some feathers.
Mabee that's the problem One more try - get a REAL doorbell button from an electrical supplier. A genuine Nutone, for instance, and see what happens. It'll likely cost twice what the Home Fespot button cost, but MIGHT outlast it 5 or more to 1/
Assuming you're not buying lighted doorbell buttons from McLowesDepotBigBoxChinaMartSuperstore and all wiring connections are tight, it sounds like your transformer voltage is too high.
Also, make certain the electrician is a real licensed electrician. There are a lot of hacks out there calling themselves electricians.
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