dimmer-switchlight-fixtureswitchwiring
I recently replaced my kitchen lights to dimmable LEDs. Right now there are two 1 gang 3-way switches, so I can control the same lights from two switches.
I wanted to replace one of the switches with a dimmer, so I bought a dimmer switch and turns out it's only two-way.
Both switches look like this :
While the dimmer looks like this :
How can I wire this dimmer?
I don't mind getting rid of one of the switches.
That IS a 4-way switch which means you do have two other 3-ways. The wiring you have can't mean anything else.
A standard 3-way dimmer cannot be placed in this location.
Basically you need three 14/3 cables between the two boxes. Wire each pair as a set of 3-way switches.
Here is a basic diagram. Just do this for each set of 3-ways. The only difference is that you will need to pigtail three leads onto the incoming feed wire to feed each switch in the first box, and splice all the white wires together since they are all sharing the same circuit. At the box with the switch legs you will splice each white to it's corresponding white going to the lights.
Best Answer
Never gonna work. Take the dimmer back and get the right thing. It won't be the first one the shop has taken back for that reason.
But, know this -- a dimmer switch that works with an old-style 3-way** is a hard problem. The device that can solve it is sophisticated. Basically it has to be able to power itself off either of the two travelers, supply the light from the traveler that is hot, and treat a change in traveler as a command to "invert" its on/off state, while remembering its dim setting. All this to support a very obsolete way of doing that thing.
In this day-and-age, you are far better off going with a dimming smart switch and a matching "remote". Make sure it's a model that plays well with your LEDs. The remote can also dim, so you don't have to cross the room to set light level. You could set it from your phone depending on the model you get.
Think about a going with a standardized system like Z-wave or Zigbee, so everything in your house could talk to each other and your phones.
** 3-way is the American term. The British term is 2-way.