Hi, I’m Jeff Patterson with Home Repair Tutor, and in this video I’m going to show
you how to replace a dimmer switch.
So if you’ve got an old dimmer switch that’s maybe from 1985, it’s dated, it looks like
Doc Brown from Back to the Future would use it, then stay tuned because I’ve got a great
video for you, and you’ll be able to update your dimmer switch in no time.
So let’s get to it.
So here’s the old dimmer switch in my mother-in-law’s dining room.
As you can see here that the little dial is missing, but it still works.
It still dims the dining room light like I’m showing you here.
The first thing you want to do with any electrical work is turn off the circuit breaker or remove
the fuse to make sure that the light doesn’t have power running to it, which it doesn’t.
And then remove or loosen the two screws that hold the cover plate in place.
This will reveal the actual switch body, like you’re seeing here.
What I like to do is score between the switch and the wall so that when you pull the switch
off, you’re not going to tear off any latex paint.
So you can remove the two screws and pull the switch freely from the electrical box.
Then use a voltage tester, like I’m using here, to double check to make sure that there’s
no electricity running to the wires.
And for some reason, I don’t know why, there is painter’s tape holding the wires together.
That’s a big no-no.
There should be wire nuts there.
But there are only two black wires and what I think is a neutral wire connecting the switch
to the electrical box.
And what I like to do, and this is a huge tip, is take a picture of the wiring.
That way, you have a reference.
So I just tore the wires apart – the painter’s tape came off easily.
And I always like to check that the wires aren’t nicked or damaged.
So always inspect the bare copper wire.
So here’s the ground wire.
It was painted over.
What I’m going to do is use some emery cloth and scrape off the old paint.
And then I’m going to trim the section that I don’t need because there was a ton of
ground wire.
So as you can see here, I got a nice, bare copper ground wire.
The switch I chose was the C-L dimmer switch by Lutron because you can use it for a single
pole switch or a 3-way switch, which is pretty sweet.
And you can dim LEDs, CFLs, halogens, and incandescent light bulbs.
Here’s what the switch looks like, and there’s a cover plate on it.
There are four tabs on the back of the switch that you need to depress so that you can remove
that cover plate.
So I use a flathead screwdriver to do this.
And then the plate pops off like so.
And that’s what the switch looks like without the cover plate.
If you’ve got any questions, too, about the wiring, you can call Lutron.
There are four wires.
There’s a ground wire, a red and white wire, a black wire, and a straight up red wire to
the switch.
So what I do first – and I do this all the time – is I wire the ground wires together.
Always start with the ground wires.
And I cap them using a nut instead of tape – that’s just a bad idea.
And in this case, I capped the red and white wire with a blue wire nut.
Then I added the white wire to the red wire.
The white wire in this case is actually hot.
It’s not neutral.
And then I capped both black wires together.
That’s how I wired this electrical box.
Stuff all the wires back in.
And then screw the dimmer switch to the wall with the screws that come with it.
And then what I like to do before I put the cover plate on, is turning electricity back
on at the electrical box or fuse panel, and test to make sure that the switch works, and
it did.
And so then you can put the cover plate back on.
So here’s what it looks like.
Pretty sweet, right?
Not too bad, right?
That’s how you replace a dimmer switch.
And remember, if you get into trouble and you don’t know how to wire up the new switch,
you can always call the Lutron or whoever the manufacturer of your dimmer switch, and
I’m sure they’ll be happy to help you out.
They were in my case, and I’m so stoked because now I know if I run into any issues,
I can call them.
So I hope that you liked this video.
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Thanks for joining me.
I really appreciate your time.
Take care.
I’ll see you in the next video.