[Music Playing]
Hi! I am Tim Carter from AskTheBuilder.com. How would you like to be able to control one or more light fixtures from three or more switch locations like I am doing right now in my own kitchen? You know how that is done with the four way switch and I am going to show you right now how to install a four way switch in your home.
[Music Playing]
I need to be safe in this project so go turn off the electricity to the circuit right now that you are working on because a 120 volts yes it can kill you. To install a four way switch, you need to install like between two, three ways switches just like this. And you know what why you do not go watch my three way switch video right now, I will wait here until you get back.
Oh, okay you are back. I been wondering where you were? I am sure now you have a complete understanding of how to connect these two, three ways switches. Remember in that video that this cable, this white cable it has got this inside of it, it has got this red wire, a black wire, the copper ground wire, and the white neutral wire.
Guess what? Those wires just feed right through the four way switch, it is that simple. This is the mysterious four way switch. You already understand what a three way switch looks like. It has got three screws plus the special green grounding screw. Check this one out, this one has got four, two at the top, two at the bottom plus the green grounding screw.
The thing you must understand so that you can install a four way switch the right way is it must be installed in between two, three ways switches. So we are going to put ours right here. You cannot put the four way switch on the front side or on the back side of the circuit, it will not work.
For this to make a little bit more sense, I am going to number the boxes. These first three way switch, let us call it box number one. The box where the four way switch is going to be will be box number two and this final box with the last three way switch is, is box number three.
I need to cut the white cable right in the middle so we can actually make two separate cables that will feed down into box number two. Oh, that is nice, that will pass inspection. Look what we have got, we got the cable coming from box number one here to box number two and we have got the same type cable going from box number two over the box number three. All we have to do to hook up the four way switch is strip the insulation off these two wires, connect a few of them together and we are going to be ready to go.
Remember when we started this four way switch video, we had a cable out like this, red, black, copper, white check it out. Red, black, copper white wire, and we have got the other cable going from box two to box three. It also has the red, black, copper, white wires.
All we have to do to make the four way switch work is wiring up the two white wires together. Take the two copper wires, wire them together with a little tail piece for that ground screw and then we are just left with the black and red wires.
Do you think those people are back yet from watching that three way switch video, let us keep moving forward well I cannot wait for them. Look what we have. Five wires left, one, two, three, four, five and we have got five screws on the four way switch. We just have to connect them to the right location and everything is going to work perfectly. We are just about finished but here is where people make a mistake.
If you take the two wires that are coming from box number one and install one of them on the brass screw and the other one on the black screw, it is not going to work. You need to install one wire on each of the brass screws. It does not matter which color goes on which brass screw then you take the two wires that are going to box number three and install those on the black screws.
Once again, it does not make any difference do not worry about which color goes where. Finally, install the bare copper wire on the green ground screw and you are done.
Let see if that works, what do you think? Which one do you want to turn on? Let us try this one, it works off, on, off, on, oh they work, it works four way switches rule the world, remember it has got to go in between the two, three ways switches. You can do it.
I am Tim Carter for Ask the Builder.com. If you want to discover more home improvement tips, go to AskTheBuilder.com.
[Music Playing]
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services