# Bathroom light need relacing



## JeremyB (Feb 12, 2013)

Hi Guys

The wife went to tun on the light in the bathroom fixture and there was nothing. Tried changing bulbs and nothing. Know if the guy I bought the house from was up to his out wiring tricks he probably used electrical tap to connect the hot wire from the fixture to the house wiring, finding lots of that. So I have to go back with marrettes and make the appropriate connections.

Failing that, Would anybody have any idea on why im not gettting any illumination in the bathroom? Maybe im missing something. It was working before.

I just hope the wires have come loose from "ol, electrical tape Kevin " Why didn't this guys use marettes its not like they cost much???? and I hope it will be a quick job for me tomorrow.

But seeing im a few wobbly pops in and tired, its just best to wait until the morning and use the other bathroom for the night.

Any thoughts on what it could be, plus some tips would be great. Real not confident with electricity yet but this seems like a project I could handle.

Jeremy


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## Wuzzat? (Feb 12, 2013)

Anybody use a hair dryer in the bathroom?


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## nealtw (Feb 12, 2013)

Could be the breaker or a gfi plug.


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## Wuzzat? (Feb 12, 2013)

My frau's hair dryer has its own GFCI plug but the wall GFCI trips instead, but only occasionally and only after several minutes.  
The plug one has never tripped.  And there may be no easy way to test it short of dropping the dryer into a sinkful of water or holding it over a humidifier.  Yeah, and the test button.

At the heavy currents drawn by hair dryers the toroidal transformer in the GFCI may do a worse job of detecting just current imbalances and may start acting like an electronic breaker.  
Internal GFCI heating may have something to do with it and the humidity in the bathroom doesn't help.


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## nealtw (Feb 13, 2013)

Either way you do want to check and add wire nuts at the light and the switch. Did you check the bulb?


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## JeremyB (Feb 13, 2013)

Hi Guys

I had the fixture down and there are wire nuts attached firmly. I also used my voltage detector tool and it wasnt picking anything up at all? weird as everything was working yesterday. Also there seems to be power at the light switch


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## nealtw (Feb 13, 2013)

Also there seems to be power at the light switch 
Both screws when the switch is on?


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## JeremyB (Feb 13, 2013)

Sorry Neal what do you mean?

I had the fixture cover off to the light and was checking with my volatge detector and was getting no beeps on the hot wire while I had the switch on. I also used the voltage detector at the switch where you turn the lights off and on and was getting beeps.

Hope you know what I mean


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## nealtw (Feb 13, 2013)

The switch could be bad, put both wires to one screw and turn on the power. If that works you need a switch.


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## JeremyB (Feb 13, 2013)

Turn the power off at the breaker first right? then,

take both screws off the side off the light switch and attach them to one scew? I though I had to keep white and black away from each other,lol?

forgive me if Im new, but I need to learn somewhere right?


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## JeremyB (Feb 13, 2013)

Maybe I will pick up a new switch today and give that a go.


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## JeremyB (Feb 13, 2013)

well that was the problem.

Turned the power off removed the old one, installed a new one and stuck a piece of electrical tape over top of the wiring terminals for piece of minds. Light turns on faster now too.


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## Fireguy5674 (Feb 13, 2013)

Ok Jeremy.  If you only have two wires, a white and a black in the box where the switch is you can tie them together to see if the switch is bad.  What you have is  called a switch leg.  Yes, turn the breaker off first!

The way they have it wired at the light fixture will determine which wire brings power to the switch and which takes it back to the fixture.  As far as checking the switch it makes no difference.  I normally use the black wire to bring power in and white to send it back to the light.  

At the light fixture what color wire is hooked to the black wire of the light?  It is possible if you check you will find that a single white wire could be hooked to the black wire there.  If it is black to black going to the light then there should be a white wire tied in with a black wire or wires somewhere in the box for the light.  Again it makes no difference as far as checking the switch.  Just a teaching moment.

In summary, after you turn off the breaker if you only have two wires at the switch tie them together, turn the breaker on and see if the light works.  If it does turn the breaker off and change the switch.  Sorry I tend to get long winded.  Just trying to explain the what and why.


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## JeremyB (Feb 13, 2013)

No Problem Fireguy I appreciate the explanation. Always good to keep learning but it was indeed a bad switch. Just paid a couple bucks at home depot and I was good to go.


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## nealtw (Feb 13, 2013)

To make it easy, the switch connects black to white, conecting the wires just bypasses the switch.


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## JeremyB (Feb 13, 2013)

Cheers Neal,

I figured a couple bucks to try it out on a new switch was worth it. In the end it was


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