Switched Power Outlets Problem

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Gogators

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Basically yes. Procedure if you are qualifed:

1) Kill power to circuit at breaker. Confirm anything controlled by any switch in the box is now dead.
2) Open up switch box.
3) Confirm that the 3 way switch has a black wire to the common terminal, and black and red wires to the other two terminals, which wires are part of a single 3 conductor cable.
4) Remove both black wires from the 3 way switch, add a black pigtail, and wirenut those 3 together (or use a WAGO Lever Nut)
5) Connect the open end of the pigtail back to the common screw of the 3 way.
6) Close up the box, restore power, and see if the desired change has resulted. If not, further investigation and reporting is required.

Of course, the above might result in the bottom half of the receptacle being unswitched rather than the top half. And rather than add a new connection point (the wirenut or WAGO) and pigtail, if the black supply to the common of the 3-way itself comes from a connection point, it might (or might not) be more elegant to to just move the black non-common on the 3-way to that connection point. But the above procedure was simplest to spell out.

Cheers, Wayne
Makes sense. Thanks Again.
 

WorthFlorida

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We're all assuming there is only one wall switch, not two for a 3 way switch Setup?
 

Gogators

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We're all assuming there is only one wall switch, not two for a 3 way switch Setup?
That is correct. There is only one switch that controls the power outlets and by not having On/Off embossed on the switch, it is definitely a three way switch that is installed. Confirmed by flipping the switch on to get lights and then toggling every switch in her house to confirm that none of them would turn out the lights.
 

Afjes

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GoGators: In your posts #1 and #8 you reference this as your daughter's house and then apartment.
It was mentioned a bit in the responding posts but I have to say it again.

If this apartment or house is not owned outright by your daughter and just rented you can not and should not do any electrical work. This is not her property and by doing so could bring on a big relm of liability should anything happen down the line.

I would not even bring in a licensed electrician. The only one who can authorize changes to the electrical (other than changing light bulbs) is the landlord. Again, if she does not own this property do not mess with the electric. It could be a very costly mistake at the end.
 

Gogators

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GoGators: In your posts #1 and #8 you reference this as your daughter's house and then apartment.
It was mentioned a bit in the responding posts but I have to say it again.

If this apartment or house is not owned outright by your daughter and just rented you can not and should not do any electrical work. This is not her property and by doing so could bring on a big relm of liability should anything happen down the line.

I would not even bring in a licensed electrician. The only one who can authorize changes to the electrical (other than changing light bulbs) is the landlord. Again, if she does not own this property do not mess with the electric. It could be a very costly mistake at the end.
Yes, thank you. It is an apartment and I have had my daughter put in a work order now. Like many apartments though, sometimes it takes forever to get something addressed if they will address it at all. Especially if it's not something they consider a priority. At first, I wanted to understand what the hell the problem could be as I have never seen anything like and was thinking I could fix it myself as it seemed like it was probably a simple fix and I fix major things in my own home all the time. Somewhere in this process though I did realize that it isn't something I should risk but I did get some education out of it.
 
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