3 way switches explained #tools #electrical #diy #homeowner #trades

If your three-way switch only works in one direction like this, I'll show you how to fix it. Let's get after it. A three-way switch doesn't actually turn the power on and off, it just chooses which path the power takes via your traveler wires there. Now, the most common problems, probably 90% of problems people have with three-way switches, is that their traveler and their common are mixed up. So, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to wire this up the right way. I'll show you guys how to do it. All right, so a few things before we even get started. First of all, you're going to need 14 three-wire. It has that extra red one. As where you see 14 two doesn't have the red. That red's going to act as your traveler, and that's super important. You need three-way switches. Here you have three terminals for your wire, one common, and two travelers, as opposed to just your normal switch. So, when it comes to wiring a three-way switch, this is the most important thing, your common. Your common's going to be what your power comes into from your panel, and your common is going to be what your power leaves out of to your light fixture. These two brass ones here are just your travelers. Power travels back and forth between the two of them. This supplies your power. This is where your power leaves. So, go ahead, take your black here and cinch this down. Okay, so we got power in. Now, here's our light. Put your black on your common here. So, there we go. We got power in and power out. Now, all your whites get connected. You don't do anything crazy with your whites, they just all get connected. Grounds, just go ahead and twist your grounds up. Okay, so that's it. We have power coming in to our common down here, the black one. We have black traveler going here to our brass, and it ends here, and we have a red traveler, and a red traveler, both going to our brass. Our whites are tied together, white white white white. Whites ending here, and then all our grounds are tied together. So, when we plug this in, this one will turn it off. This one will turn it on. This one will turn it off. This one will turn it off. Got it? So, 90% of your problems with three-way switches are your common and your travelers. Once you get those figured out, you should be good to go. Follow for more.