Did you know that there are multiple different ways to wire 3-way switches? Some of them are dangerous and "illegal" but they do exist, you might come across them, so you should know what they are and how they work.

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Normal 3-way Switch Wiring
A Typical 3-way switch is wired using one box/device as the hot side and the other as the leg side. On the hot side you bring your incoming hot and neutral, on the leg side you bring your switch leg and switch leg neutral. Then between the two devices, you run travelers.

Carter 3-way Switch Wiring
A Carter three-way is an old-school wiring method that was outlawed in the early 1900's as it allows a switch in polarity at the screw-shell of a lamp/luminaire. It doesn't have a hot side and a leg-side, instead, it utilizes both travelers as hot and neutral, then the common screws of both devices are connected to either side of the luminaire/screw shell. When switching occurs, the hot feeds in one way and the neutral feeds the other, then when either of the switches are flipped it reverses polarity, making the neutral the hot, and the hot the neutral - at the lamp/luminaire. This is a shock hazard, and wiring should not be done this way. It is only for educational purposes in the event you come across a setup like this in the future.

California 3-way Switch Wiring
California three-way switching came about because of a local code restriction in parts of California. There was a situation where putting more than three conductors in a certain type of conduit was not allowed, so the electricians had to become a little creative with wiring. So the Cali 3way looks very similar to the Carter, however, it does not switch the neutral, rather it bypasses everything with the neutral like modern three way switching does today. This means there is no reversing of polarity like the Carter setup.

Dead-End 3-way Switch Wiring
I've called a dead-end three way a California 3way for a long time, and that is not correct. A lot of southerners call a deadend a cali because they both work on the philosophy of using 3 conductors - but it is not accurate to call it such. A deadend threeway is when you have both the incoming power and the switch leg in the same box on one side of a room. If you need to add a second 3way switch at the other end, you simply pass three conductors down to the other side and utilize the white as a switch leg and re-identifying it black.

#3wayswitch #threewayswitch #wiring