Hallway light switch wiring

Wait a minute -- do you mean you need to replace a socket, or a switch?

That's a 3-way switch.

Ummmm.... you'd better post your question on d-i-y.uk -- most of the people in alt.home.repair are Americans and Canadians, and our conductor color codes are

On a complicated situation I like to take a photo of it to be sure I get it back the same way it was. Beyond that, I haven't any idea what you are talking about.

Call a Professional;-)

Absolute nonsense.

It's a simple repair.

shebaaa wrote:

It was a joke based on the recent thread about calling Professionals. Didn't you see the ";-)"?

In the US that is called a 3-way, even though it only goes 2 ways.

I hope it's the same in England. We don't need another "billion" fiasco.

What I would do is look at the old switch and look at the new switch and decide which connectors correspond. There is usually one connector on one side, and two on the other, for some definition of "side". They might be embossed (or whatever the opposite is) in the plastic.

Between the two that are on one side, it doesn't matter which is which, unless you want both switches to be up when it the light is on (or off), or one to be up and the other to be down. If you don't get it the way you want, you have to interchange these two wires.

If you mix up the single wire with one of the two wires, I don't think anything bad can happen. When I bought my house, one hall switch was like that, so I could only turn the light off if it was already on via the other switch. I couldn't turn it on if it was off at the other switch. I had to draw a diagram to figure out which wires were reversed, and after that, I reversed the wires.

I'm pretty sure the worst you can do is have the switch not work quite right. If anyone believes you can blow a fuse, let us know.

I heard it's called "3 way" because the circuit has wiring going to 3 locations, the 2 switches and to the light. There's also a "4 way" switch used when controlling a light from 3 locations.

I think it was Mark Lloyd who stated:

Not quite. It's called a "3 way" because there are three terminals on the switch. The "4 way" switch, which has four terminals, can be added to as many more locations as you want to control the light from. I'd draw an ascii-art diagram, but I'm sure there are many better diagrams out on the web (YCGI).

-Don

Yes. That includes 3. It isn't possible to say EVERYTHING in a short post.

I know how they're connected. A 4-way switch is effectively a DPDT switch with the opposite terminals internally connected. This arrangement reverses the connections between 2 wires.

BTW, the first time I say such a switch it was being used to reverse the direction of a small DC motor. I learned something from the toy lunar rover I got for my 11th birthday.