Correct me if I am wrong, please. When wiring 3-way switches you can’t have both of them be dimmers, can you? I thought one of them had to be a regular switch.
Was changing out some switches at a friends house and he wanted to add dimming capabilty. The “expert” @ HD told him to put a dimmer on each wall. I did not think that was possible but the instructions included with the dimmers don’t really address this.
What’s the right answer?
Thanks.
Replies
You can do this if you have the X10 Maestro type dimmer.
I suppose there may be a pair of dimmers you can use but it would have to have a 3 way switch separate from the dimmer handle and you would have to be sure the dimmer part of each was on opposite traveler legs. I couldn't find one like that. The ones I found had the "off" position of the dimmer swapping travelers.
There are some fancy ones that "talk to each other" for dimming from multiple locations, but they are quite expensive.
Leviton:
http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=83466§ion=10060
Scott.
Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
I'm not an expert, so keep that in mind. I believe it would work fine, but I also think it would drive you nuts always having to walk back and forth to make sure both dimmers are all the way up when you want it bright.
There are special communicating dimmers that can be used in a 3-way configuration, with a dimmer on each end. You can find conventional 3-way dimmers, but the dimmer can only be used on one end of the 3-way switch pair.
So, the typical "off the shelf" dimmers should not be used in pairs but for some more $ it is possible?
Thanks.
True. The more expensive ones communicate with each other via RF over the wires, so the "remote" unit can tell the "master" unit what to do.
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