Light Switch Failure - Something to Check

[ncc1701e]

After the last trip, the wife complained that the light switch for kitchen lights was sticking. Well, when I removed the switch to change it I found a little more than I was expecting. Thought I'd share this picture just to say, never ignore an issue because it seems minor. I'd say this switch was very close to a catastrophic failure.




Tom

 

[JohnDar]

Hard to tell from the photo, but are those stray wire strands sticking out of the loose connector? Were they making contact with the other one? Or was there a short between the contacts of the switch?

Good thing you caught it.

I'll be replacing the switch in the living room for the three puck lights over the sofa. The "paddle" keeps falling off when you use it. I've got a new, different one from JR Products. I'll be adding switches for the reading lamps over the bed, as well. Had to make wooden wall plates to allow enough room for the connections.

 

[ncc1701e]

Hard to tell from the photo, but are those stray wire strands sticking out of the loose connector? Were they making contact with the other one? Or was there a short between the contacts of the switch?

Good thing you caught it.

I'll be replacing the switch in the living room for the three puck lights over the sofa. The "paddle" keeps falling off when you use it. I've got a new, different one from JR Products. I'll be adding switches for the reading lamps over the bed, as well. Had to make wooden wall plates to allow enough room for the connections.

There were loose strands sticking out. None were making contact together that I could tell. The real issues, hard to see in pic, was that one of the crimps was only half way done. I really believe this was the source for the added resistance to the circuit and the eventual over heating. That and I question the number of lights on this circuit which is going to change along with becoming LED in the process.

 

[wdk450]

The connector photos seem to indicate poor crimp connections in the female spade connectors - that is where the heat rings are. I hope you replaced these. Personally, I like to solder these along with crimping them, for more assurance of a long life good connection.
But the switch itself can be heating from poor internal contacts and radiate this heat through the metal out to the spade connectors. Best bet is to replace all parts except the wires (and cut these back to fresh, shiny, metal).

 

[Crumgater]

We ran into a similar issue - the switch for the main living area lights would get HOT to the touch after a few minutes...
When we opened it up - it was also black and looked ready to light-off.
We thought the switch failed, so we replaced it... but it still would get HOT.

Circuit was overloaded.
We replaced all the light bulbs with LEDs... dropped the load through the switch by 90%.
No more problem.

and the LED's are brighter, too... we've since switched out nearly all the bulbs in the 5er to LED.

 

[TravelTiger]

We ran into a similar issue - the switch for the main living area lights would get HOT to the touch after a few minutes...
When we opened it up - it was also black and looked ready to light-off.
We thought the switch failed, so we replaced it... but it still would get HOT.

Circuit was overloaded.
We replaced all the light bulbs with LEDs... dropped the load through the switch by 90%.
No more problem.

and the LED's are brighter, too... we've since switched out nearly all the bulbs in the 5er to LED.

X2!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk