I switched the light switch in the bathroom today because the toggle broke off. I took out the old one, which is the Leviton 15 Amp Duplex Style Single-Pole / 3-Way AC Combination Toggle Light Switch and put in the Leviton 15 Amp Combination Double Switch. The are almost identical and I put the wires back the same, but now the light only turns on when the switch for the fan is also on. The fan comes on regardless of the light being off or on. Any advice?
Switch – Bathroom light switch changed, now the light only turns on when the fan switch is turned on.
bathroomfanslightswitch
Related Solutions
Another thing that seriously needs to get corrected is the totally unacceptable workmanship of the wire attachment at the switches. The wire insulation should be right up at the screw head. The tail end of the wire should only extend out from under the screw heads by a very small amount.
If this wiring was prepared by someone that you paid to do the work you should take proper recourse to get them back to correct this extremely shoddy work.
If you have no recourse then you owe it to yourself, for safety and peace of mind, to get this mess cleaned up.
Install a humidity sensor fan control, like this one from Leviton. It will automatically turn on the fan, when it senses excess humidity in the room.
You should be able to find them from other manufacturers as well, this was simply the first example I found when searching.
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Best Answer
No, you didn't put the wires back the same. You switched sides. Or the new model of switch switched sides*.
Put the old switch back on Just as it was. Only this time, instead of looking at the physical position of the screws, look at the function of the screws. One screw will be "common", the others switched. Find those on the new switch.
* The physical position of switch screws varies wildly from switch to switch. I have never done a 3-way swap where the common and travelers were in the same place on the old vs new switch. There are only 12 possibilities, how can every single switch be different??