Muliple way pull cord light switch ?

[Paul Mylum]

I have just moved into a new house.

The bathroom pull cord switch is unusual, you have to pull it 3 time for the light to come on then once for off and so on.

Is this switch also controlling something else that I'm not aware of (or can it be set up to do so).

There is also an extractor fan connected to this switch but that will only come on when the light comes on.

Can anyone explain this switch and can it be changed as I find it bloddy annoying.

Thanks

[Paul Mylum]

Thanks john but no. It's not a dimeer switch and there is an incadescent bulb fitted not a low energu bulb

[John Rumm]

Perhaps it is a dimmer pull switch and someone has tried using it with a low energy bulb which only lights when the switch is at full brightness?

[John Rumm]

Worth a shot ;-)

(some of the pull dimmers, dim in steps; high. medium, low - so it would have matched your description)

Could be the switch is shagged!

[meow2222]

theyre simple to replace.

NT

[Paul Mylum]

Thanks all for your answers. This switch dosen't connect to a heater and isn't a part of those circular infra red heat/lights.

It's most likely that the switch itself is busted as no one has heard of this type of pull switch before (except on the infra red heaters - which this is not.

I'm going to change it and see how it goes. Once again cheers.

[Roger Mills]

It sounds to me like the type of switch which is built into bathroom heat and light units - the sort of thing with a bulb in the middle, surrounded by a circular radiant element. Such switches have to be pulled 4 times to cycle round all the combinations of Off, Light only, Heat only and Heat+Light. I've never seen a stand-alone switch which does this, though. Is there a heater in the bathroom? If so, how is it controlled?

[Frank Erskine]

This is probably a faulty switch. Very often the pull-cord rotates the mechanism by a quarter turn, which is arranged to be alternate action, ie On-Off-On-Off etc. Perhaps one of the On contacts is faulty.

[John]

If the pull cord is actually attached to the light unit then I agree with this suggestion. My granny had one of these pieces of rubbish until I swapped it for her. She didn't even know it was a heater (which didn't work anyway!) aswell, she just kept "getting annoyed having to pull the string so many times to get the BLOODY light on".

HTH

John

[tim(yet another new home)]

But it's an electric modification, and it's in the bathroom :-)

tim

[Owain]

It's like-for-like replacement, which is not notifiable even in the bathroom.

Owain