Trouble installing dual light/fan dimmer

We installed a new ceiling fan and it came w/a dual light/fan dimmer which we'd like to use to replace the two switches we had, one for fan one for light. Of course, it never goes as easily as it should....

At the ceiling for the fan, we attached black to black, red to blue and white to white, easy enough.

At the wall, we seem to have one extra wire that we can't figure out what to do with and I think we've tried almost every combination we can think makes sense, so hopefully someone here can help us figure it out. We can get the light to work, but not the fan. I've attached annotated pics.

 

The following is based on the assumption you have a 2-conductor power in cable, 2-conductor power out, and a 3-conductor power out cable. at the switch. It is hard for me to tell from the picture.Stop if you don't.

Remove the pigtails at the bottom and replace with the switch Power wire.



Connect all grounds to the switch green using a wire nut.

Wire nut neutrals together.

 

Does this diagram of the box help?

 

Yes that is what I described in my post.

 

Still didn't work, ugh. Does it matter which of the pigtails I take off?

 

You remove all the pigtails. (A pigtail is a short length of wire about 6 inches long.) They no longer are needed. If you were connecting them to something you misunderstood the diagram.

 

Thanks for being patient with me! So all three of the black power wires need to be connected with the same wire nut?

 

Yes.



.

 

And if that doesn't work....call an electrician?

 

No, post back. You may need a multimeter, preferably analog.

 

That setup didn't work either. The multimeter will test the voltage?

 

Leave the whites (and grounds) connected. Disconnect the rest of the wires.. Connect the red wire of the three conductor cable to the black of one of the two conductor cables. Turn the breaker on does the fan light work? If not try the black of the other 2-conductor cable to the red. (Assumes the fan does not have pull chains. If it dies you need to try those also.)

 

You're right, there is no pull on the fan.

The light turned on when hooked up to one of the two-conductor blacks, but not when hooked up to the other.

 

Okay that is your power in cable. Test the fan in the same way connecting it to the power in cable black. If it works also then most likely the switch is bad.

If you made any connections while the breaker was on that could have damaged the switch but it could have been bad from the factory. May I ask why a fancy duplex switch when you have room for two individual switches, a fan speed switch and a light dimmer switch?

 

That didn't work either!

Since the fan doesn't have a pull chain, I thought it would be nice to be able to control the fan speed and this switch that came w/the fan.

 

I also realized last night that we have an outlet that's not working either. It's in the hall outside the room with the fan and is connected to the same breaker. I'm going to assume the two issues are probably connected?

 

Are you saying the fan did not work when connected directly to the hot cable but the light did? Try using just the hot cable connected directly to the switch.

 

The light worked when connected to the hot cable. The fan did not.

 

Try using just the hot cable connected directly to the switch and fan to switch.

 

Nothing :-(

One thing I noticed...I hooked the light back up to the switch so we could have some light in that room. It didn't do this when the red conductor and black conductor cables were connected, but when the light is connected to the switch it makes a loud buzzing noise. My husband thought it sounded like the fan motor was trying to work.