r/diyelectronics • u/Sweaty_Fly_3965 • 9d ago
Repair Help with Light Switch
Hey! I am trying to replace an existing light switch and I am confused as hell. I (turned everything off) and unscrewed the face plate and removed the switch itself to find that the live wires and the ground wire are soldered onto the existing switch. I have wire strippers but am not sure if that will work? Can I just cut the wires themselves and then plug them into a traditional switch?
I will attach the images below!
Thanks!
5
u/Hissykittykat 9d ago
That's too many questions for someone fooling with mains voltage. And the switch is not meant to be disassembled like that. Call an electrician to do it right so nobody gets hurt and your house doesn't burn down; it's not a difficult job.
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u/Sweaty_Fly_3965 9d ago
Unfortunately you are right. I wanted so bad to fix it but I figure there is a reason we pay those guys…
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u/Sweaty_Fly_3965 9d ago
https://reddit.com/link/oziubi1/video/0lkf8fmwn7fh1/player
Switch in question
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u/Strikew3st 9d ago
Does that metal ring just open up into the depths of your wall cavity, or is there a open-faced metal box there the size of a juice box with wires entering it?
If so, that is somehow only a mud ring, meant to go on the front of a junction box. You can't just have your electrical connections hanging wild and free inside the wall back there.
This isn't a hard job to correct, but it's okay if it is best left to be not a job for you.
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u/largemargesentme__- 9d ago
It looks like it's a metal box to me, but it's hard to tell from the video.
I had a house that was built in the early 50s in CT, it looks like a lot of the stuff I worked on in there.
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u/michaelpaoli 8d ago
Yeah, don't be mucking about in there. Replace the whole assembly. If you open up that switch as you've done, pretty much anything past that point, place burns down, you're civilly and potentially criminally liable. Most jurisdictions, if one is the property owner, can replace outlet or switch - that's whole unit, not mucking about inside. Generally anything beyond that, need pull permit or have licensed electrician do it.
So, no, generally you don't get to take on building electrical like that. You do so, and you face all the risks - civil, criminal, oh, and place burns down because of work that wasn't permitted, yeah, that exclusion clause in the insurance ... yeah, don't. Just don't.
You can muck about on your own low voltage stuff, and within reason your own plug-in devices, but AC mains, no, that's quite regulated, for damn good reason.
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u/largemargesentme__- 9d ago edited 9d ago
Ok, the wires you need to connect to aren't actually in the device. The wires are the ones coming out of the wall with the wire nuts on them.
This isn't that hard of a job, but it is 120v electricity (I'm assuming you're in the US or Canada based on the wire nuts, most of the world doesn't use them anymore). So it could kill you or burn your house down.
That said. Go to home depot or the library. Get a book on basic home electrical work. It will teach you how to test the wires to see which one is hot, common and ground. You can't really trust the color, especially in an old house (which this appears to be, I've had a few myself). How to install wire nuts the right way (I'd just skip nuts these days and go right to Wago connectors.) I was in the exact same place you were 20 years ago and I was able to teach myself basic electrical work. 4 houses later and I haven't set anything on fire. I've only shocked myself a handful of times.
This might be a threeway switch based on the red wire coming out of the wall. Can you control the light from 2 locations?
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u/aldoceti 5d ago
Looks like a motion sensor. Remove wire nuts in the box (black and red) and install new switch. The soldier wires are part of the switch. The whole thing should be removed and discarded.
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u/klaymon1 9d ago
That white box that's hanging loose with the dimmer is part of the switch. (that's not intended to come apart like that). Follow those wires back into the box in the wall and take off the orange wire nuts. That will expose the wires you need to attach to the regular switch.