Spent 6 hours chasing a dimmer switch issue on a 4-way circuit

Last Tuesday I was wiring up a customer's kitchen in Portland and the 4-way dimmer just kept flickering no matter what I did. Checked every connection three times then finally realized the dimmer was only rated for 2-way circuits, not 4-way. Took me 6 hours to figure out a 2 minute fix. Has anyone else had a simple part mismatch cost them half a day?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordanc3229d ago

Wait hold on, they still sell dimmers that aren't rated for 4-way circuits? I thought that was basic stuff by now. I've been burned by a similar thing with a occupancy sensor that looked like a regular switch but had a hidden neutral requirement written in tiny text on the back that took me forever to find. That's brutal spending 6 hours on something that simple though, I'd be kicking myself the whole drive home.

sage_ramirez4229d ago

That's actually not quite right, you can still buy dimmers that aren't rated for 4-way setups pretty easily right now. Most standard single-pole dimmers you'd grab at the hardware store might say "single pole only" on the package in fine print. It caught me out a few months ago when I swapped a regular switch for a dimmer in a hallway with three switches and had to figure out why the lights kept flickering weirdly. The packaging for the sensor you mentioned sounds exactly like the dimmer problem, they bury the important details in that tiny text block nobody reads until it's too late. It's not even a brand thing either, some of the nicer dimmers still don't support multi-location wiring unless you buy the specific companion switches too. So yeah, it's not super basic stuff, and that six hour headache hits different when you're packing up your tools at 9pm.

jenniferw8226d ago

Yeah you gotta laugh or you'll cry @sage_ramirez42. I still can't believe they put "single pole only" in font size microscopically small and expect everyone to catch it while they're standing in the aisle comparing brands. That hallway flickering thing sounds like a nightmare, I had a similar issue with a sensor light in my basement and spent two hours cussing at the box before I spotted the hidden neutral thing on the back. Honestly at this point I just take a picture of the whole package with my phone before I leave the store so I can read all that tiny garbage later. Six hours is rough though, at that point you're just holding up a middle finger to the whole wiring system and hoping it works.