Mystery Switch

[sparksgalore]

I have this hall light controlled by two switches, one on the top of the stairs, one on the bottom. After years of working correctly, it intermittently would not respond to one or the other switch. It has 3 way switches and i replaced them following the old wiring. It does the same thing. ITs hard to explain but you can turn it on and off fine from the lower switch. You can do the same with the upper, but depending on where you leave one of the switches, the other will suddenly not control the light. As an example, you turn it on downstairs, turn it off upstairs, works fine. Next you try to turn it on upstairs and it wont. If you go downstairs now, you can turn it on. There seems to be no reason to it. Any suggestions for this annoyance is appreciated.

 

[suffolkspark]

I have this hall light controlled by two switches, one on the top of the stairs, one on the bottom. After years of working correctly, it intermittently would not respond to one or the other switch. It has 3 way switches and i replaced them following the old wiring. It does the same thing. ITs hard to explain but you can turn it on and off fine from the lower switch. You can do the same with the upper, but depending on where you leave one of the switches, the other will suddenly not control the light. As an example, you turn it on downstairs, turn it off upstairs, works fine. Next you try to turn it on upstairs and it wont. If you go downstairs now, you can turn it on. There seems to be no reason to it. Any suggestions for this annoyance is appreciated.

Yes sounds like you've not connected it back quite how it was and have a couple of wires mixed, may be possible to fix with pictures on here, but may be easier to get an electrician for an hour to come and put it right

 

[Vortigern]

Bell out the wires, sketch the layout of the two way switching and make sure everything is in the right place.