Switch controlled outlets

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Revans

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2019
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Location
Ohio
The switch controlling outlets in my living room no longer works. The outlets work fine but the switch no longer controls them. I changed the switch....nothing. What am I doing wrong?
TIA
 
In saying "the outlets work fine" means that anything plugged into them works despite the switch being in an off or on position, Then something else has changed.

Remove the switch and if they still work, then someone has changed the wiring.
 
Did you change the outlet that was switched? If so, did you remove the tab between the two terminals? Is the switch a single pole switch?
 
.

No longer works indicated it was working/controlling an outlet/s and no longer does so you replaced the switch. So this should not be affected by the tab on the receptacle as that has not be altered/changed.

Since this is a pre-installation I would think the switch failed and possibly you either did not hook the new switch correctly or purchased the wrong type of switch.

At how many locations can the same outlet/s be switched (more than one?)?
What type of switch did you purchase? If you can only control the outlet/s (receptacle/s) from one location/switch then you should have a single pole switch.

Describe the wires in the switch box and how you hooked them to the switch.
Pictures would help.

.
 
Did you change the outlet that was switched? If so, did you remove the tab between the two terminals? Is the switch a single pole switch?
Most likely cause. Once rented an apartment that had a switched outlet. Had all my TV, cable box, etc.... plugged into it. Every time someone flipped the switch by accident, I lost all programming in the devices and ended up with the clock blinking. Installed a small jumper wire to recreate the bridge thus rendering the switch useless.
 
Most likely cause. Once rented an apartment that had a switched outlet. Had all my TV, cable box, etc.... plugged into it. Every time someone flipped the switch by accident, I lost all programming in the devices and ended up with the clock blinking. Installed a small jumper wire to recreate the bridge thus rendering the switch useless.

Rental property - not your property to make any changes to the electrical system at all.
 
Rental property - not your property to make any changes to the electrical system at all.
Very true and if they don't like it, they can change it back when I leave.

Of course we are talking about an establishment that replaced the water heater when it went bad and as a result with a new water heater I was only getting about 5 minutes of hot water. I complained about it for many months and they refused to address the issue as it was a new heater and they could do nothing beyond that.
After investigating the problem myself, I found that the new water heater was void of a dip tube. I called the heater company and they sent me one, no charge.
So sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
 
Back
Top