We are replacing the switches in the basement and one of them was a dimmer knob, see attached photo. We replaced it with a Leviton 3 way switch and we just cannot seem to get it to work. I’m at a loss. The circled wire is the hot wire and there are two other wires in the box.
Black/red/white (with the circle) is the breaker panel. Black/white is the light fixtures. Black/red/white/ground is the traveler to the other switch. It’s confusing because there was an old 3 way dimmer knob on there and it doesn’t translate to the new switch. The original set up was 3 white wires nutted together, hot wire connected to the dimmer box, black traveler connected, then the remaining 1 black and 2 red nutted and connected by a wire to the dimmer box. I wonder if it’s because of the dimmer? I’m just thoroughly confused.
The other switch wiring is pictured below:
Best Answer
Based on your description of the wires, you have (not counting any ground wires as conductors) a 3-conductor cable to a remote switch, a 2-conductor line to the light fixture and a mysterious 3-conductor cable to the breaker panel. I have no idea what the red line to the breaker panel would be. I would just nut and tape that wire and leave it disconnected (maybe the builder ran out of 2-conductor cable and used 3?)
Here is one possible way to wire your switches.
Here is an alternate wiring that might fit the edits to your question where it looks like a duplex remote switch is sharing the white wire with the other switch.