Bypass ceiling fan in 4 way switch, add dimmer

I have a ceiling fan light combo with 3 switches. One switch activates the ceiling fan and the other two activate the lights. First, I would like to bypass the fan all together and replace the entire assembly with a chandelier. Is there a specific way to adjust the wiring to accommodate this? From most of the diagrams I've looked at it appears that the fan needs to be part of the circuit.

And one other piece, I want to replace one of the light switches with a dimmer. I know I will need a 3-way switch dimmer, but is there anything else to consider because of a fan bypass?

 

Welcome to the forums.

There should be no problem completely removing the fan and the fan combo switch.
You would install the chandelier in place of the fan and a new dimmer in place of the old combo switch.

If you want exact wiring help..... we'd need to know what you have for wiring at the fan and at the switch.

A three way dimmer would only be needed if the lights were controlled at two completely different locations.

 

ok, I'll see about taking some photos of the back of the switches when I get home tonight. Here is a photo of the wiring connecting to the fan assembly. The light switches are on opposite sides of the room.

 

Very good.

We can see that white is the neutral, black goes to the fan and red goes to the lights.

 

Ok, here are photos of the three switches. The 1st is the light switch by itself (with and unrelated 2nd) on one side of the room. The next two are in the same box (with an unrelated 3rd) on the other side of the room - I don't know which is for the fan and which is for the light unfortunately.

 

Leave the switches alone.
At the ceiling
Cap the black. You don't need it.
Connect the new light to the red and white.

Old fan switch will do nothing.
Two old light switches will turn the light on and off.

If this is not the desired result let us know exactly what you want to happen.

 

Thanks joe, that sounds great. Though I do want to replace one of the light switches with a dimmer switch. Can I choose which one? Will this affect how I wire the light?

 

Won't affect how you wire the light. You do need to pick a dimmer that is a three way. Depending on the one you choose it might be a straight replacement or you might need changes at the second switch.

 

I labeled the pictures for future reference.

The single is for the fan while the other two are for the light. Based on which dimmer you get.... there may be changes needed. With the labeled pictures.... the changes would be easy.

 

Thank you guys, this worked! I ended up replacing the load switch because it seemed more straightforward with how the wiring was. I might need to get a specific LED dimmer as the lights only dim part of their range, but otherwise it works great.

last thing now is to figure out how to screw the lamp to the ceiling without all the bolts coming unwound, but I guess that's another thing..

thanks again, really appreciated the help and being able to complete a project myself in my home

 

With LED you need LEDs that dim and dimmer that matches the LED. They are not all cross compatible.

 

There is never a guarantee that LED lights will dim smoothly or completely. Even matching the type of bulb to the accepted dimmer is a crap shoot.

I use the Lutron Maestro MA/CL dimmers. They claim their three way model will work with a standard three way switch. It won't reliably. Many three way dimmers don't work well with a standard switch.

If you'd like to have what I consider the best system..... go with the Maestro CL three way kit. It comes with a dimmer and a slave controller. They will both operate the dimmer. We can help you with the slight wiring changes.

Lutron Maestro at amazon