I’ve got two 12722 switches that i want to install. The switches i’m replacing only operate 1 light each. One for my inside garage lights, the other for outside lights. I’ve replaced each switch exactly as the old for the black wires, added the white neutral to the new switches and grounded them. The only odd thing i see is that the Line wires are all connected. My crude drawing somewhat shows what i’m talking about. When i turn the power back on, one of the switches has the blue light come on, and when i hit the switch, it will turn off and on. Neither of my lights switch on either. One more thing, these must also have some connection to my garage door opener outlet. It no longer gets power at all.
I’ve attached pics as @dalec suggested. Sorry it’s a mess in the box. That’s how I found it.
Most likely the neutral bundle has come loose and not making good contact for all the points. You can make out 2 wires were I can see the exposed wired in the cap. I bet you can pull it right out.
Line wires should be all connected, that is the hot wire. Same goes for the neutral. Often time the little cap can’t fit another 2 wires under it. I had on situation where I was hooking up 3 zwave switches to the same gang, and I ended up splitting the neutrals to 2 twist caps with a jumper running between.
Edit: Could also be the line wires are also not all making contact to the bundle. If the main hot wire does not touch all the wires then there is not a complete circuit.
It’s great that you took pictures, that always helps a lot. In the future when you take your before pictures make sure you get a picture of the screw connections on the back of the switch, that is exactly which wire is going to which screw. It’s hard to tell with the angle you’ve got. Label each wire before you take it off the screw. A little bit of work upfront can save you a lot of work later on.
First, it would appear you might have the garage power be on the same circuit of one of the lights. Or you accidentally disconnected it when you put in the switches?
That isn’t odd as long as they are all supposed to be on the same breaker.
Your drawing is lacking some critical info.
Can you get a picture of the switch boxes and their wiring with the romex clearly shown so we can get it all labeled. We need to determine which romex is the incoming power or in your case possibly more than one circuit., which romex are your load (lights)
So hopefully you took pictures before you removed the old switches? This always helps me solve the problem faster because I know the working wiring. If not we just need to do some detective work and isolate the romex that has your incoming power. If you have a non-contact voltage detector it is super easy.
Power off the breaker(s) feeding the switch box. Disconnect and isolate all wiring from each other, flip the breaker on, then find which romex has the incoming power and label it. We know from your description one of the romex will go to the outlet box since that outlet is dead.
I see 4 romex wires coming into this box and if I were a betting man, here is what I would assume each are:
Upper Left: 2 wires, 1 for garage door outlet and the other for the garage interior light
Upper Right: Outdoor light
Lower Left: Line
My assumptions are based on the fact that lights are above you and go up and you likely have a crawl so the line is below there going to the panel. My house is wired this way too.
The solution is really easy and you need to go back to how things are wired in this picture.
Bundle white wires from R1, R2, R3, and R4 plus the two small jumper wires that came with your smart switches.
Bundle black wire just like in the picture from R1, R4, and the two jumper wires that went to your old switches
On S1, hook up white jumper to neutral, black jumper from bundle to line, and black from R2 to load
On S2, hook up white jumper to neutral, black jumper from bundle to line, and black from R3 to load
Thanks to all of you for the help. I wound up bundling all of my white wires, then using the two wires that came with the switches to connect to that bundle all in one wire nut. Then ran those to my two switches and voila! Sorry I didn’t get a snap of the end product. I remembered that as I was screwing in the last screw in to hold them in the box. Derp!
@desertblade no I didn’t. I know rookie mistake, but that’s what I am. I opened the bundle of four white wires I had and connected two of them to the outlets, then just wire nutted the other two back together. I guess if I had gotten lucky and got the right two, it would have worked. Of course I’m not that lucky. Lol! On the plus side it has made my Iris garage door opener much more responsive. That’s the original reason I wanted to put them in.
That explains why you were having issues then. You somehow got lucky and got the live neutral wire so one switch had the blue light, but never completed the circuit to turn on the light. It would have never worked.
Well now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
