I’ve watched many 3-way videos over the last several days and spent so many hours I’ve lost count. First 9 mins of your video and my problem was solved. No one talks about combining the black and white together for the switch. Saved my life. THANK YOU SO MUCH
Wanted to say thank you for demonstrating the many ways to wire a 3 way switch! All I could find before your video was a way how to basically wire a 3 way switch. THANK YOU!!!
I've never shared a comment on RU-vid until this, I had this same setup with a 4 wire in between the two 3 wire switches and every video until yours exclaimed a basic line-swtitch-switch-load scenario and I could not get it to work correctly until I watched your video and you explains the switch leg with the black-white on the load had to be spliced together and then just ticked away inside the box. Thank you so much for showing a less common method used to wire 3 way switches, it was immensely helpful.
I just successfully got power to a 3 way dimmer switch/3 way combination witch setup in my house that had HORRIBLY done 1950's electrical, thanks to this setup. Super super thankful for this video, excellently done. Life saver!!
Super great .. Is what exactly I needed to know... I have inspection in 2 days and it's almost midnight and I'm watching all these videos and none of them explain this until I came across to your video.. You are a life saver.. Thanks a lot...👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍💯
Great explanation of how to wire a 3 way with power and light from the same box. The only thing I see that should also be done is to wrap the white wire that is hot with black tape in the switch boxes.
In my neck of the woods this method is known as the dead end three way, and I've wired a good handful of these over the years, most commonly on remodel projects where I need to convert a single pole setup into a pair of three ways, sometimes with a 4 way included as well. Other times were in very long hallways on new construction in which the power feed and switch leg are located on the same end of the hall to to speak, I can save some wire. Note that as of 2011 with slight changes over the last 3 code cycles, an available neutral is required to be present in at least one of the switch boxs, because in this day and age, there are a wide variety of electronic switches requiring a neutral for standby power, whereas back in the 1970s when it was a common practice to run the power at light with a two wire switch loop, switches were a simple set of make and break contacts, so having said that the dead end three way method may or may not be code compliant depending on the situation as wel as the AHJ
I'm the same as Scott down below, I'm so grateful for your video I thought I screwed up by not having hot wire on the other side. Your video got my lights on.
I have been looking for an explanation of this setup for a while. I have seen 3way switches wired this way in the field and I could not fully understand how you could be left with nothing but one 3 wire in one of the boxes. This video was excellent, thank you for making it.
Lived with incorrectly wired three way since I purchased this home. This video gave me the correction I needed to make it function correctly. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I was struggling for hours with a three way switch wired exactly like this. I was going to break down and hire someone until I found your video. Great video!
@@timpalmer-logstolumber1999 Right. Didn't know that back then. Still it's nice to have neutral in both boxes just in case you want an add-on smart switch.
Thank you so much. I thought this could be done but every other example did not show both the power coming in and the switch leg in the same box. I thought I really screwed this up - thank you!!
@@aurvaroy6670 we still do them with feeds and sw legs in the same box, but my old company did it with splices on both sides but regardless i think the code we are still useing is the 2017 one because the 2020 one hasnt been accepted
Video was super helpful! Only thing is our 3 way switches had the bronze screws diagonal from each other instead of across. We connected our black and red travel wires on the bronze screws diagonally on both switches, and that did the trick!
Great video and hard to find explanation on other RU-vid channels. The only other video I've seen is Electrician U "Three Ways 3-Ways Can Be (3way Switch Wiring - ILLEGAL AND LEGAL METHODS". According to Electrician U, this method is legal and is called a "dead end" three way switch because it can't be extended beyond the last three way switch because there is no neutral. It is a handy setup if you want to add a switch after the framing is done and it is more convenient to bypass the light and go directly to the switch. An example is as adding a switch at the other end of a hall or room addition where there is only a single pole switch on one end. But another disadvantage is many new "smart switches" require a neutral and won't work with this setup.
Hey man. I normally never comment on videos, but I wanted to let you know that your video was very helpful and it worked beautifully. Thanks for making this easy to understand.
Literally ditto. Tim, you are the man! This helped me install a smart three-way in my old South Philly Home. I couldn't figure out how/why it was wired like this. This is the video I was looking for with an excellent explanation.
This was very informative. Should have said the 2 travel wires go on the brass screws. My 3 way switches had the brass screws diagonal from each other. Not straight across. Really helped me though.
Yes there are other switches that are not like the ones I use. You have to pay attention to the colors. Silver for neutral, brass for travelers, and black for Hot/switch leg.
Not sure if you can answer but, I have an older home I'm renovating with switch loop wiring going into a J box powering basement light fixtures, and also 3 receptacles on the 1st flr. I want to add 3 way 14-3 wire going into two 3 way switches. I will remove the current single pole switch and use the same wiring on the switch onto the 3 way switch so that all fixtures and receptacles continue to work as before, plus add the 3 way wire running from switch to switch.
Great video! How do I install an outlet from a 3 way switch? I need an outlet to power a tv and the three way is the closest to it. Can it be done? thank you!!
If the switch box has power it can be used to power an outlet. Use a pop in box, run a wire from pop in box to switch box. Tie into power and neutral in switch box.
Hi Tim. Great video. This is how my house was wired. Question...is there a way to add an additional light to the system between the 2 switches or would it have to be off the existing light? Thanks!
Hello Tim. A great and easy way to add another light to the circuit is by "tapping" into the black/white/ground wires from your existing light. I do this often when I install recess lights around my house.. You can do this several ways, but the most convenient way I like is by using the wago lever nuts which allows you to grab the wires together.
thank you for your video I used it to install 2 3 way switches in my house. However I can't figure out why the both lights on each individual 3 way switch flicker only when they come on. It does it for a second then is fine. It's a Led/incandescent switch with a incandescent bulb on it. I have the same light bulb and switch on the same circuit in another room and no flicker. I checked all the connections to rule out a loose connection and didn't see anything loose. Any ideas?
The box that has the white as the line wire with only one 12-3 in it has no neutral in it correct? So that box would be impossible to jumper off of to run a new switch and light out of correct? Cause the LED fixture has a hot and neutral wire to hook up to and without it, it just trips the breaker.
Correct, without a neutral there is no circuit and the light will not work. Besides, this method wouldn't actually work in todays world anyway. Code says there MUST be a neutral in EVERY switch box. No neutral = No pass. You would have to use 4 wire instead of 3 wire for the traveler to do what he did in this video. Even though this works, it simply would no longer pass inspection, but I'm not saying it won't work.
@@godmode3359 this is correct if the new code has been adopted in there area. Adoption usually lags behind a few years. Also DIYers working on there own house and not being inspected could still use it.
Depending on the switch, some have the screws in different locations. The swl/hot is a different color screw or marked common. Sorry for not mentioning that.
It should work with a dimmer. There are several things that may affect it. A couple of things that may affect it are you using only one dimmer or It may be the type of light bulbs being used. Not all light bulbs work with dimmers.
u can also tie your neutral in to your hot and use your black wire switch leg to the light for the common on your first switch and use the neutral that was tied into your hot for the common black terminal on the other switch
I followed this video exactly (only difference is I used rocker switches), but my switches face opposite directions when the light is off. Is that expected?
Yeah, functionally I know it doesn’t matter, but I’ve got the switch in a 2-gang box with a 2-way switch, so the off positions aren’t matching. Should I just flip the red and black travelers on the right switch?
The wire could be yellow or white. It is called a homerun when it leaves the panel to the first item on the circuit. For light, recepts, disposal, dishwasher etc. it is a 2 wire (120volts). A 3 wire if it is for a dryer, stove, A/C etc. (220-240 volts)
In this situation where you have a second, single pole switch in the first box, do you do two pigtails off the black hot wire, one to the bottom right screw of the three way switch and one pigtail to the gold screw of the single pole switch?
Does it actually matter which screw your travelers are on as long as they're on the traveler screws and not the common? So you made your red on the side with the screw by itself, but could the one switch have it like that but the other switch the red be on the screw side that the common was on. Or would it work the same as long as travelers are on traveler screws but not the common screw
@@timpalmer-logstolumber1999 Hi Tim, Great video on this. I have found that if you CROSS the traveler locations of 2 alike 3-way switches, the two 3-ways will still do the job as intended BUT when a 4-way switch is used between the two 3-ways to get THREE switching locations for a light it won't work unless you go back and UN-cross the 2 travelers from the 3-ways so they go to identical traveler terminals as you noted here.
@@bobrub working with high school kids I try to get them to do it the same way each time, they will make less mistakes. Then later I cover other ways because not all switches are the same. Especially from older houses.
No, it is weird though... it's a traveling bus 3-way that isn't traveling the bus... like it's a typical or standard 3-way except that he put the load on the first switch instead of the second. Not how most guys wire them but it is valid, just weird. It's generally considered best wiring practice to use the same wiring method as those around you so that it's kinda pseudo standardized and makes things easier for everyone.
problem with no neutral in remote switch, problem could be solved using a xx/4 wire Black, White, Red, Blue , then red and blue used as travelers, Black as the common, to be connected to black-switch, the white would be capped. Also no repurposing the White wire to a hot with black tape.
The only wires that matter are the switch leg has to be under a black screw on one switch while the other black screw on the other switch holds the power wire. The travelers makes no difference to which screw they are under be it one side or the other.
Yes and No!! You forgot to mention the other end of the switch leg! That is the key to “switching on and off”. The other end of the switch leg MUST be joined with the black wire going directly ‘to the light’ -then the circuit is complete and turning on/off from both switches will work!
The box with just the 3 wire in it becomes the hot not the switchleg. You send the hot with the white on the 3 wire and the red and black send power back to the original box, where the switchleg still remains. At that point the white neutral in the light sends power straight back down to the white neutral on the hot 2 wire which then takes it back to the panel. To put it simply the box you add becomes the hot and the original box becomes the switchleg box and the traveller still jumps between them
does that leg box have a neutral? seems like it does not. I am trying to run an outlet off of a leg box like this and its not working because I do not think the white is a neutral
A 2 way switch is another name for a switch that turns a light on or off from one location, it has on and off on it. A 3 way switch is used to turn lights on and off from two locations, the switches are connected by a 3 wire.
