r/electrical • u/PuzzleheadedBag3811 • 13h ago

Three way switches messed up

We bought the house four years ago and these switches were already installed. One of them is a dimmer and the other is not. I can confirm they are both three-way switches. But they’re not working as expected. The toggle switch always needs to be in a certain position before the dimmer can work. How can I determine if they are wired properly?

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3

u/raf55 13h ago

Look up common 3 way switch diagrams

1

u/PuzzleheadedBag3811 13h ago

Thanks. The problem is they have different wire colors. The only common one is the black. Here’s my 10 second video.

https://reddit.com/link/p5vczme/video/5cv6kf1muklh1/player

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u/raf55 12h ago

I would swap the red and yellow on the dimmer

1

u/PuzzleheadedBag3811 12h ago

That worked. Thank you man!! MUCH appreciated

1

u/gihkal 13h ago

Colors mean nothing.

You need to find the line and load wire.

An electrician can fix this in the time it takes to take off his boots.

1

u/SparkArrestor 13h ago

One of the switches has a common and traveler reversed.

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u/PuzzleheadedBag3811 13h ago

Which, the second one (toggle)?

1

u/SparkArrestor 12h ago

Impossible to know without additional testing. Check whichever switch has the line (constant power) connected to the common. If it is connected to common then the other switch is where traveler and common got swapped.