Every so often being a homeowner foists upon you the need to perpetrate a repair upon your domicile. This happened to me last week.
The kitchen has two light switches. The switches are tied together in a three-way configuration. This allows either switch to turn the kitchen lights on or off.
It is not a complicated installation and saves stumbling in the dark. All has been good for the past five years since I installed the lights, until last week.
When turning the light on, there was a rather loud sizzling sound coming from the switch. If you flipped the switch slowly, it sizzled even louder.
I decided that it might be prudent to switch the light quickly.
Actually, this has happened before. Last time, it was the bathroom light. That was a single switch.
It made the same noise and had the same cause — really cheap switches.
When I was doing the wiring five years ago, I went to the local store and bought the outlets and switches from a big bin. They are UL-listed — tested for product safety — and were something like 59 cents. At the time, I thought, there are still some deals in this world.
In hindsight, that was probably a mistake.
So, as the light switches have failed, I go back to the store and look for new switches.
I wound up purchasing the “Pro Grade” switch. It still fits in the electric box, but the switch is obviously a lot more beefy than the bin switch. And it cost $4.59.
Whenever I get a new light switch or electrical anything, it needs to be installed immediately. Of course, it was now dark out.
I usually shut off the power when I do this type of work, so this was a project that was done in the dark.
Fortunately, my wife was nice enough to hold a flashlight while I swapped over the light switch. This is a simple project, except that Mr. Fixit had not labeled the circuit breaker for the kitchen light and had to switch everything off and on to find the right one. It is now labeled.
The fun part is having to take the defective component apart and doing a postmortem on the offending bits. I then proudly deliver the autopsied hardware to my wife, who is asked to inspect the contacts and approve of my dissertation.
She has endured this for 37 years and still nods approvingly. God bless her!
About 20 years ago I worked with Underwriters Laboratories while developing an electric heating device. They sent up a testing professional to run all the tests that were required for UL certification. The UL guys tend to be somewhat anal-retentive about testing, and that is a good thing.
We spent some time, while waiting for things to catch on fire, discussing the way big businesses will strive to cut 2 cents off the cost of something like a light switch, while still being able to get a UL listing.
The good news is that a sizzling light switch will likely, at worst, just fail.
My light switch was still functional, even though the contacts were on their way out.
The noise was something not to be ignored. And I guess the next switches I purchase will be at least one step up from the bargain bin.
Questions for Tom Gocze should be mailed to The Home Page, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329. A library of reference material and a home-project blog are at www.bangordailynews.com/thehomepage.html.