I have a Lightolier (zp680va) 3-way dimmer that has 4 wires coming from the switch, no ground wire. The second switch is a Lightolier zpr-3, which has 2 wires. I need a replacement. Help?

Hi,

Riaden stmieva SMR

If you have determined the wiring to be correct, then yes, the remote is probably defective..

According to Lightolier literature, your Lightolier OS600 is called a "strap dimmer". Having 540W on a 600w rated switch is pretty close to the limit (90%) of the switch, and will cause the switch to fail sooner than say a 300w load. The 600w rating of the switch applies only if all the heating sink fins are in place. Often times, when installing in a box with another switch or dimmer, fins must be removed to allow the switch to physically fit. If any fins are removed, the rating of the switch is reduced. Page 30 of the manual shows that a 600w strap dimmer that has a single fine removed is reduced to a 500w capacity dimmer, and if both fins are removed, it is reduced to a 400w dimmer. You may find that you will need a 1000w dimmer to reliably gain control of your 540w load, as it will control 600w even with both fins removed. This derating is required due to the heat created by the dimmer. Heat is a killer for electronics, and solid state dimmers are no exception.

Check out page 32 of that manual. On it, are wiring diagrams for dimmers and switches. I believe your is figure "G" that shows the 120v "hot" (black) connected to the black wire of ALL switches, the yellow wires of ALL the switches are connected together, but are not connected to anything else, the 120v neutral (white) connects to the MASTER white wire AND light fixture white wire and finally, the MASTER red wire connects to the light fixture black wire.

It is also important to note that these switches are for standard tungsten incandescent and quartz halogen lamps ONLY. They are NOT suitable for CFL, Fluorescent or other types frequently found in commercial / industrial buildings such as neon or other gas lamps such as Metal Halide, Mercury Vapor, High Pressure Sodium, etc.

I hope this helps & good luck!

It depends. Some dimmers are considered "smart dimmers," where the control on the other end of the 3-way has to be intelligent enough to send a signal back to the dimmer. If the Lightolier dimmer was a smart dimmer, then chances are that the 3-way control was designed to talk only to that specific dimmer. The Leviton product you replaced it with is a simple, basic dimmer - it should work in conjunction with a simple, basic 3-way switch.

If the 3-way control already IS a simple, basic 3-way switch - then I would simply re-check the wiring of the dimmer you replaced.

Most of this style lightolier product requires the proper remote such as the zpr3. Leviton illumitech is a similar design, but uses regular 3 way wiring.
There are others out there as well, that do not require the remote.

The zp600 is the master, and the zpr-3 is the remote. With only one location you need to use the zp600. For multiple locations, you use the zp600 at the load side and zpr3's at other locations with all the yellows hooked together, and all the blacks hooked together except the black going right to the light. This hooks to the red at the zp600

make sure the power is off first. then you should just have some wire nut connections. just turn them counter clokwise and they should come off. it may be stiff at first but it should get easier with every turn. look at the wires and hook them up the same way. if its not a 3 way switch, you should just have two wires to deal with and the ground. study the old one before you disconnect. the new one should hook up the same way and MAKE SURE THE BREAKER IN THE BREAKER PANEL IF OFF BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING.

The most likely candidate is the white wire. In a standard residential installation, the white wire is often the neutral connection - and wiring the dimmer hot to neutral will cause exactly what you described.

However, often times the white wire is instead a traveller wire being run to the switch from the fixture (which, it sounds like that's what you were assuming) - in which case, the other likely candidate would be having a loose power connection coming in contact with ground. Sometimes this can be a loose screw or, as you describe, a loose wire.

Your best choice would be to install a standard 50-cent light switch first. If you connect it together and it works - then you know a connection came loose and made a bad contact - so then you can try using another dimmer. If you connect it and the breaker trips - then you know you're using the wrong wires/connections.

With just two wires other than the ground in the box, both of which were connected to a single pole switch, one must be the incomming power and the other is connected to the load. You can find out which is which either by opening up the fixture box where you will probably find that it is conneted with two white wires or by very carefully positioning the wires so they each are far from touching anything, turning the power on, and testing to see which is hot.
If the dimmer you have does not require you to know the difference between the hot and load wire, then just connect the white and black wires to the dimmer. As the previous poster said, the white wire should have black tape on it.

The store doesn't know what they are talking about. And I can't believe they told you to just keep switching wires. Hitting the wrong wires is an easy way to short the dimmer switch out. Take it back and go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy the same type switch you took out.

14 years does seem like a reasonable life span for a dimmer. My suggestion is to turn the circuit off, take the dimmer out, wire nut the two wires together, turn the circuit on. If the light comes on normally get yourself a new dimmer ($10). Make sure to turn the circuit back off before installing the new dimmer.