Was looking for a little help to try to decipher what may be happening with the switch in one of my bathrooms. Having not posted here before, and not being very familiar with electric wiring, I hope I provide enough details.

My bathroom has two switches, one for the lights and the other for the exhaust fan. Yesterday for some reason, the fan switch now works opposite to how it had before. Ie. both the light and fan switch worked in a typical "down is off, up is on" manner, but now the fan is on when the switch is down and is off when the switch is up. The light switch did not reverse in this manner, just the fan switch.

I have no idea why this would happen or if I should be concerned about a wiring problem. Any help would be appreciated.

 

I see no way that this can happen unless somebody changed something. Are you sure someone isn't playing a practical joke on you?

Look very closely at the fan switch. Does the lever say "off" when down and "on" when up? Is the light switch the same way?

Maybe somebody turned the switch upside down in the box. Pretty good joke.

 

This is why I am so confused. I just spoke with my wife again and got more information.

The fan just turned on by itself for some reason (she was in another room and heard it) and when she went into the bathroom, she had to flip the switch up ("on") to get it to turn off. It is now stuck as "up is off and down is on". Apparently it has happened to her before and later on that day it reverted back to the proper switch method.

I know my wife wouldn't dare take off the face plate to fool around in there, that stuff scares her too much. She says she is pretty sure we don't have an "electrical savvy" ghost, hehe, hope she is right.

 

I would say call a professional to come take a look at it. It sounds like you have a faulty switch, but it could be something worse. If you want to turn off the breaker and check the wires that would be a good DIY start, may want to try changing the switch out, if that doesn't do anything, call someone to take a look at it, you could have some serious wiring problems in there.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I will try your suggestions and take your advise to speak to a professional. I too am concerned that it may be a more serious wiring issue and don't want to find out the hard way just how serious.

Thanks again.

 

Do the levers both say "on" and "off" or are they blank? If the former, do they both say "on" with the lever up?

I almost hesitate to mention this, but is it possible that the fan is controlled by a 3-way switch?

 

Yeah, I thought about that too, John. But have you ever seen a bathroom fan with a 3-way switch on it? Unless maybe it has 2 entrances, but that is still highly unlikely.

 

No, I've never seen a bathroom fan on 3-way switches. Of course, I've seen lots of bathroom lights on 3-way switches. That's why I was hesitant to suggest it.

However, I haven't seen all the bathrooms in the world, so I like to keep an open mind when faced with an apparently impossible situation. This whole story is very fishy. Too bad we can't be there to look.

 

Yeah, no kidding. The outcome of this will be very interesting to see. Who knows??? We may all learn something new

Be sure to not leave us hangin, Sean. Let us know what happens with this one.

 

OK, so I went down to the hardware store and picked up a couple basic switches (had to replace another one in the house that was cracked).

When I removed the face plate, the fan switch is on a 3-way switch (?????). Why would this be, there are only the 2 switches (one-entrance) in the bathroom. Could I just re-wire the fan using the standard switch and attach the red wire to the grounding screw on the switch as I don't know what the heck it would have a use for on the exhaust fan?

Nice detective work guys. However, not sure why this would be set up this way, or how without another switch it would be reversed. Maybe a switch in my basement is the second switch in the loop. LOL!

 

You never did answer my simple twice-asked question about the markings on the switch levers.

There's another 3-way switch somewhere that also controls this fan. You just don't know where it is yet. Look for it.

Don't replace this with a standard switch. Do not, under any circumstances, attach the red wire to the grounding screw. This could be a fatal mistake. There is no room for guessing in electrical work! Nothing but a bare wire or a green wire should ever be attached to a grounding screw.

 

Sorry John, no markings on the switch for "on/off".

Found the second switch. It is on the main floor in the living room (bathroom is on the top floor, go figure).

The 3-way switch is cracked so it needs to be replaced any way, my question is, should I just replace it with another 3-way switch or to avoid any future confusion, can I replace it with a standard switch and cap the red wire with a marrett?

I have both switches available so will just replace with which you feel is best.

 

I replaced the switch with a new 3-way switch. Everything seems to be working fine. Thanks for all the help.

 

Hi Sean. Do you happen to live in Ontario. I've notice that the last few years here new construction has a fan control switch on the first floor. Something to do with venting smoke in case of fire or some stupid reason. I laughed my head off the first time I saw it. Only seen it twice but I'm sure I'll see it more as newer homes need handyman repairs in the future.
Have a good day and I'm glad to see you found the answer to your mystery.