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The way people wire three-way switches is driving me nuts on every service call
I swear, half the three-way switches I run into lately have the travelers on the wrong terminals. Like, it still works somehow, but it throws off the normal pattern where one switch has to be up and the other down, (you know, the standard setup). I had a call in Charlotte last Tuesday, a guy couldn't get his hallway lights to turn off from one end without flipping the other. Pulled the cover off, and sure enough, someone put the common wire on a traveler screw. It took me 15 minutes to trace it all out because they used the same color wire for everything. Why do people skip reading the diagram on the box or just guess? Has anyone else been seeing this on older houses where a handyman did the work instead of a real electrician?
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grace4191mo ago
Is it just me or does it feel like every third house has a handyman special hiding behind the switch plate? (You know, the kind where they just guess and hope it works.) I feel your pain on the same color wire thing, that's the worst when you're trying to trace things out. It makes me wonder if people think the diagram on the box is just for decoration or something. Solidarity, friend, you're not alone in this.
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