Odd light switch wiring


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Old 06-15-20, 07:07 AM
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Odd light switch wiring

Really odd wiring.

I went to replace the light switch in our bathroom, because sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t....

the situation I found is:

3 cables incoming, 2 from top and 1 from bottom
- all 3 white neutrals are capped together
- all 3 bare grounds are capped together
- 1 black hot connected on the top post
- 2 black hots connected to the bottom post

They come from the top but the two-pair were connected to the bottom post on the flip switch

Old flip switch

New push button switch


I would have at least tried to connect the new switch the same way to see if it fixed the problem, albeit ungrounded, but the new switch has 3 post (plus ground) instead of 2, so I can’t exactly just copy what the last guy did.

I married into this house, so I don’t have much info yet. All I can you is after my wife saw it she mentioned that in the past other repairmen have come to fix the water heater or dyer or whatever and been like, “what in the world did this guy do??”


Looking for a wiring solution today that will work for this switch and also leave the rest of the house intact, For now.

Photos attached of old and new switches, thanks in advance.
 
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Old 06-15-20, 08:40 AM
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Hi, your new switch is a 3 way, return it and get a single pole, the 2 black wires that were under the same screw should be wire nutted together with a pigtail, one conductor to each screw terminal on the switch.
Geo
 
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Old 06-15-20, 09:42 AM
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Geo hit the nail on the head.

The two hots (black wires) connected to the same screw - one is incoming power, and one is outgoing to another light or maybe the bathroom receptacle. Two wires aren't permitted under one screw, so that's why you need to wire-nut them together with a pigtail first.
 
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Old 06-15-20, 11:33 AM
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How is my switch a 3-way when it only has a rocker on/off? Its front looks like the attached picture.

So I understand, it’s okay to leave this switch ungrounded, and to not use the neural white wires, yes?

The part I don’t understand is, if I pigtail the black switch wire and the black load wire, how do I then attach it to the post? I am also attaching a picture of the way it looked when it was wired.




 
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Old 06-15-20, 01:25 PM
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You need to add a short pigtail to the two blacks that were under one screw.

A single pole switch has two screws plus the ground. A three way has 3 screws plus the ground.
 
 

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