1993 House USA
3-way light switch
only one box has a neutral
keep having problems with switches
frick it
pull everything
5 out of the 6 wires are hot
literally what the frick guys? it was working originally and I replaced one switch with a smart 3-way that didn't work because there is not a neutral in the second box. so smart switch worked but the switch kept getting turned off and losing the settings. it worked fine as a manual 3-way. went to swap a different smart switch and the wiring seems totally fricked.
5/6 hot wires is wrong, right? Any ideas where to start troubleshooting?
Circuit off all wires are cold. Oh and the light is off with no switches.
>5/6 hot wires is wrong, right? Any ideas where to start troubleshooting?
Is your neutral really neutral? Is your ground really ground? Are you reading 120v on your hot wires, or are they just "enough to light my test lamp"? Because only one of those wires should be hot.
Also is this one of those fricked up "both switches have to be off for the light to be off" setups?
No it's a legit 3-way that had mechanicals. It does predate code requiring neutral in every box.
Okay so I've got:
0 - black
35v - white
55v - red
real neutral
122v - black
35v - white
55v - red
using ground
The switch is labeled "line". The "line" is coiled around. The problem is I guess there is a neutral at one end and the actual hot wire is at the other one.
Your white and red wires aren't hot. They are floating. Only that 2nd black wire is hot.
I'm not a sparky, but I think you have live coming into your light fixture. hot is going down the black wire to the 2nd box. Red and white at the switches are connected together at the light fixture. Wish I could find a diagram that shows this setup.
>35v - white
>55v - red
bruh you have a short somewhere. get a thermal camera and find it.
This is totally normal for either the hot coming through the light already or induced voltage. Silence.
>4 wire with ground
i have never seen this in a box i opened up to replace a switch in. its always just more of the same romex that the rest of the house is run with.
Indeed. In ops box they used the white instead of the blue and didn't have a neutral.
More likely induced voltage from parallel conductors. This freaked me out until I realized what it was. Put any kind of load on it and it drops to zero. It's enough to dimly light an led array when the switch is off however.
Remove the light fixture these switches control. Something is miswired in the junction box behind the light.
I strongly advise you to hire a licensed Electrician to make that repair. It would be worth the money.
That's a power down 3 way. The white that's hot isn't a neutral, it's a feed being sent down from another box. This is a common way of wiring a 3 way.