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Recent Blogs
3-way switches
Hollywood Threeway
As you may know, one of our specialties is working on old houses including Victorian houses and flats. In the old days when the electrician wired up the house they used a special technique for their three-way switches. We call it the Hollywood three-way switch. We call it that because that there something going on behind the scenes. More than the eye can see. In the movie, The Wizard of Oz, something was going on behind the curtain.
In the old days the advantage of this wiring method was that it allowed them to run less wires. At that time there was no romex cable. Instead of a two or three wire cable, each wire individual wire had to go through it's own separate hole. The holes were bored by hand using a brace and bit. Because cranking a brace and bit and it is so labor-intensive, it was advantageous to use as few holes as possible. They figured out a way to do three-way switches with no travelers.
The test for this type of Hollywood three-way switch, first see if the house still has the original round button double pushbutton switches with brass plates. Even more importantly, you will have 110 volts measured across the travelers, whereas a normal three-way switch will have zero volts across the travelers. This can cause a surprise!
The net effect is you cannot use a normal three-way switch for a Hollywood three-way system, because it will ark and spark and wear out in a day or two or a week of the most. Modern-day three-way switches do not have a large enough gap between the two poles of the switch to withstand 110 volts across them. Every time you turn the switch it will spark and quickly burn out the contacts.
The other common situation is a modern three-way switch that is miss-wired. The symptom is that one switch has to be in a certain position or else the other switch will not work the lights. This is usually caused by someone replacing the three-way switch and losing track of which wire goes where. This not uncommon in an old Victorian house, because all of the wires are black.
If you need help with the three-way switch give me a call. I will be glad to help you.
