How to have
A 3 Way
The Best 3 Way Switch Explanation Ever!
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hello again I'm Terry Peterman the
internet electrician and welcome to
another one of my video shorts on
current topics at electrical -
online.com and of course right here on
youtube today i am going to finally
solve the 3-way switch for you now I did
a video a while back using rope lighting
to demonstrate the use of 3-way switches
and how they work and that video is
actually quite popular but it's not very
good quality it's shot and standard def
but it's a link is available here in the
description to that because it's
actually quite good and helping you
visualize how a 3-way works however what
I'm gonna do in this video is I'm going
to show you a practical situation of a
3-way switch on my demonstration wall
back here so we'll open up those switch
boxes and show you how those connections
are made in both the first switch the
second switch and then at the light
fixture I'm gonna draw it on a white
board a grease board for you but best of
all I'm gonna give you the animations
that are right out of my basics of
household wiring electrical program and
that's the best possible way to
understand finally solve and demystify
the three-way switch it'll show you it
animated version of how the current
flows through that circuit Hey and as an
added bonus we'll even show you the
four-way switch so again a practical use
I'm gonna tell you about it I'm gonna
draw it on a little grease board and I'm
gonna provide you the animations from
the basics of household wiring so if you
haven't bought that program yet you can
get it just a glimpse of how that works
and how the animations work in that
program coming right up so here it is in
a practical situation all right we have
our Neutral supply so that's our Neutral
it's coming into this circuit going out
to another part of the circuit
nonetheless there's a marette there's a
pigtail on this one that's our supply
neutral this is our supply hot ok
pulling out this 3-way switch we're even
going to show you two different types of
3-way switch a decorator style Decorah
and the standard style or tog
style so what's important here though is
that this hot splice that is going to
provide the common for our three-way
switch Network and this switch so if you
can see here black identified screw is
the common one of the travelers is on
top here in this case it's red the other
traveler is black on this side and you
can just double check to make sure that
common is tied in to the hot splice here
okay our grounds are tied off as normal
they are connected to the straps bonding
Grunk grounding straps in the in the
outlet box
there's tails provided for switches if
the switch has a termination connection
for it but like I say the important
thing to remember the common screw the
power in going to the black common on
this 3-way switch red and black are the
travelers neutrals spliced together
now there's a three wire cable leaving
this box that three wire is gonna show
up in the other switch box let me show
you here's the other end of that three
wire cable three wire plus ground
another three-way switch same principle
different style this is a toggle switch
looking on this side you see we've got
the black common we've got a black
traveler on this side flipping it over
we have a lonely traveler the red wire
on the other side checking to make sure
the black common is connected to this
two wire cable which goes up to the
light the travelers came in on the three
wire from the other switch location the
red and the black from the three wire
table or are the travelers the neutrals
are spliced through to the light let's
go to the light here's the light outlet
box neutral that's been spliced all the
way through the first box through the
first box where the first 3-way is
spliced through the second bar
for the second three-way is and it
arrives here at the light to provide you
a neutral for your light fixture here's
the black wire that's come through the
whole three-way network and it's ready
to tie on to the light fixture and a
ground for the light fixture if one is
required now again I'm gonna draw this
out on a board for you so you can
understand it and we're gonna add in all
our animations from the basics of
household wiring then you can actually
see an animated look at how the current
flows through this circuit now let's see
how a three-way switch works when in
action electrical current travels from
the power source and arrives at the
common screw on the first terminal the
current will either try to pass to the
traveler screw on the left or the
traveler screw on the right in our
example since the switch is in the down
position the current passes to the
traveler screw on the left and will then
try to travel along the black traveler
wire until it reaches the second switch
if the second switch is in the up
position the current will stop having
nowhere to go in this case the light
will be off if the switch is in the down
position the arriving current will pass
through to the common terminal screw and
continue out to illuminate the light the
same will work at the electrical current
arriving to switch number ones common
screw finds that the switch is in the up
position the current will attempt to
pass to the right traveler terminal
screw and will try to continue along the
red traveler wire when it reaches the
second terminal it will stop if the
switch is in the down position if the
switch is in the up position the current
will pass through to the common terminal
and then out to illuminate the light ok
I've showed you the circuit in
practicality where it's actually wired
up you've seen the animations now I'm
going to show you my drawing of how this
all works so again here let's call this
your white neutral
coming in spliced in the first box your
white neutral spliced in the second box
off it goes to the late fixture outlet
okay power comes in this is your hot
from the circuit feed wherever that
might be to the common black terminal of
the first three-way switch then you've
got a three wire cable that goes over
here white which already is used as a
neutral black and a red so that's just
for simplicity of the drawing let's draw
these going up and over so here common
screw in on the hot then a traveler over
to that traveler it could be the red
maybe we'll use the black for this one
it does not matter which two are used
for travelers black or red so this one's
black now okay and then a switch works
like this a 3-way it's either in this
position in one if the toggle is up or
you push the toggle down it connects
here so let's say it's in this position
for now and let's put this one in this
position and out of the black comm and
screw how and you hook up your light
here so let's follow this through power
coming in common terminal this switches
in this position it continues on this
switches in that position the light
doesn't work switch this switch the
light works you see you got a path for
your current all the way through again
change a position of this one now we
have no feed over here and the light is
off you could turn this one back to this
position now you do have a path for your
current to flow to the light and there
you have it my rudimentary drawing I've
got the animations for you if you wanted
to add a four-way switch in the
animation is gonna add that in it's
quite simple actually
that four-way switch would just go
in the middle of this circuit so you'd
bring a three-wire out of this first
switch box into another one and then
another three wire out to the far one
and in here the four-way switch just
works like this four terminals that
switch in when it's in one position it
goes like this and in the other position
it goes like this
so again if this one's feeding power on
to the three-way it's flowing here this
switches in this position good to go
light is on you can see we're turning
any one of these switches into a
different position is going to break the
circuit flip this one now you're going
like this power is coming in goes up
here nowhere to go the lights off
now let's see how this four-way switch
setup will function when electricity is
flowing through the circuit incoming
current will arrive first at the first
three-way switches common terminal with
the switch in the down position the
current will pass through to the left
traveler terminal and travel along the
black traveler wire until it reaches our
four-way switch here with the switch in
the down position the current will pass
down through the switch and continue
along this black traveler wire until it
reaches the second three-way switch once
the current arrives here it will pass
through to the three-way switches common
screw if the switch is in the down
position in this case the current has an
unobstructed path through the circuit to
reach and illuminate the light let's
back out so we can see this path clearly
the benefit of a four-way switch setup
is that at any switch along this path
you will be able to turn off or turn on
the light
notice how the path of the current is
affected as we turn off and turn on the
flow of current a complete circuit is
broken or created every time there is a
flip of the switch so thanks for
watching and don't forget to Like and
subscribe to my channel here at YouTube
also check out my website at electrical
dash online.com there's much more
information there as well as our store
where you can purchase the basics of
household wiring this is available in a
DVD or as an instant download and it's
simply the best electrical educational
program there is on the market we also
have my course available now at
udemy.com that's ude my dot-com it's
called learn the basics of household
wiring it's a fully comprehensive course
that'll help you understand your home's
electrical system and make you a more
safe and competent Weeknd wiring warrior
thanks again I'm teri Peterman the
internet electrician
