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Posted on Nov 27, 2008

Installing a 3 way rotary dimmer

The dimmer instructions say to connect the red wire to the common but this dimmer has 2 red wires . what do i do?

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  • Contributor 61 Answers
  • Posted on Nov 30, 2008
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You should have just two wires for dimmer.
One goes to the black going to the light.
The other goes to the power coming in.
If you took off regular switch, Just disconnect the wires and put back the same as it was.,

  • Anonymous Nov 30, 2008

    I am sorry you said three way, Just caught it. How many wires does the dimmer have and what colors are they. What did you disconnect. Sorry for the confusion

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I'M REPLACING AN OLD LEVITON ROTARY DIMMER WITH A LUTRON PADDLE DIMMER. THIS IS A 3-WAY SWITCH. THE ROTARY DIMMER HAS 2 BLACK WIRES, 1 RED, AND 1 GREEN. THE NEW DIMMER HAS 1 BLACK WIRE, 1 RED, 1...

with a three way switch like this, you will have two traveller wires and a common wire. Look in the instructions for the switch or on the back of the device itself to see if there is a wire labeled "common" or "com". This common wire from the old switch hooks up to the common wire on the new switch. I did a bit of searching on the leviton 6602, but couldn't find anything specifically about the three way version (I would venture to guess, however, that the red wire on the old switch is the common). The common on one of the three way switches will always be a constant hot (or power) wire...the common on the other three way switch will be the "switch leg" or the wire that connects directly to the light. The two travellers go to the other two wires. Check the pamplet that came with the lutron device, it should show which wire is common and which are travellers.
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The house has a red and black wire the trimatron has2 black one green am i missing a wire or does one black not get hooked up?

Rotary dimmers have 2 black wires, and the color-code tells electrician that both blacks are interchangeable.
This means that dimmer is for single pole only. That dimmer will not work for 3-way switching where more than 1 'switch' controls same Load (light fan motor)
Connect either black dimmer wire to the red, and connect other black dimmer wire to the black.

Add a comment for more free help.
Also take advantage of fixya expert assistance live.
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You posted under Pass and Seymour rotary dimmer that has two wires.

If your dimmer is like other rotary dimmers, it has a black and red wire.
Or it has 2 black wires.

If your switch has 3 wires, then the dimmer will not work.
If your switch has 2 wires:
Probably both switch wires are black.
One of these wires goes to Load (lights)
The other wire is Hot from breaker box

If dimmer has 2 black wires, they connect to either wire from switch.

If dimmer has black and red wires,
> dimmer-black connects to Hot from breaker
> dimmer red connects to Load
> green (if available) goes to bare copper wire

Recommendation:
If you do not know which wire is Hot from breaker, simply hook up dimmer and see if it works.
If it doesn't, then reverse the wires.

If this information does not fit your specific dimmer, please answer back with more details and we'll get it working.
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