I installed a new doorbell transformer, but...


  #1  
Old 01-19-03, 04:05 PM
oamaro
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I installed a new doorbell transformer, but...

...the doorbells only work when I have the basement light on.

Here's what I did:
My doorbells haven't been working lately so I read the articles and posts found on D-I-Yer.com. After troubleshooting, I found the transformer was bad. Went and bought another one and simply switched out the old one (it was connected to a basement light fixture). I connected one of the transformer's black wires to the black wire in the fixture, and the other (transformer) black wire to the white wire bound with what seemed like 4 others. Green (ground) to the box.

Went upstairs, doorbells worked fine. Thought I was done, turned off the basement light and now doorbells don't work. Switched light back on,...they work again.

Could it be just a simple matter of reversing the black wires? Do each of the black wires from the transformer have a specific purpose?
 
  #2  
Old 01-19-03, 04:26 PM
C
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You seem to be in a switch loop, where the power is on when the switch is on, rather than on all the time. I doubt that exchanging the black wires would matter. But I suppose the old transformer worked with exactly the same wiring configuration. So something must be different.
 
  #3  
Old 01-19-03, 04:32 PM
oamaro
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Yeah. I don't ever remember having to turn on the basement light to hear the doorbell. Then again, it's an old house that we bought less than two years ago and the doorbell worked intermittently (hmm..?). But it was wired like that since who knows (was built in 1912)?

Thanks for the quick reply though.
 
  #4  
Old 01-19-03, 05:11 PM
J
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In the box where you hooked the transformer what other wires are there?
You should leave the one connected to the whites. It is ok. The one connected to the black is connected to the same black that goes the light fixture. If there are 4 whites, there should be 4 blacks. Are any of the blacks not connected to the light and the transformer? This could be the hot one you need to connect to.
I am also going to say your original transformer is probably ok. It was also hooked into the light.
 
  #5  
Old 01-19-03, 08:43 PM
J
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Your white wire connection is fine, but you connected the transformer to the wrong black wire.
 
  #6  
Old 01-19-03, 09:07 PM
oamaro
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I only found one black wire in the box. I'll have to go down there tomorrow during daylight. It's difficult wiring something looking up with a flashlight in your mouth.

Thanks guys!
 
 

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