[HS200] Ceiling Fan Light Doesn't Work?

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[HS200] Ceiling Fan Light Doesn't Work?

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
[HS200] Ceiling Fan Light Doesn't Work?
[HS200] Ceiling Fan Light Doesn't Work?
2020-05-08 23:40:44 - last edited 2020-05-11 21:24:53
Model: HS200  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version:

To get some things out of the way initially, I was able to get power to the switch and get it added by my wifi and Kasa app without any issues. It just won't actually switch the lights off and on.

 

I have a ceiling fan with built-in light combo. The house was originally wired to control the light only from two light switches. The fan is always on and we control the speed by pulling the fan chain. Either of the two switches would turn the fan's light on or off. The wiring setup has the source power wire coming into the ceiling fan junction box and from there two separate 14/3 wires go out to either wall switch. At the wall switch there are four total wires - one black (120V hot), one red (also 120V hot), one white neutral, and one bare copper ground.

 

I thought wiring up this switch would be pretty straight-forward... The HS200 has one white, two black live, and one green ground wire. I wired the white wires together, the ground wires together, one black live wire to the black feeder wire, and the other black live wire to the red feeder wire. I get power to the switch, the Kasa app has no issues seeing the switch, but it simply doesn't turn the light off/on.

 

I removed the second switch from the equation, wiring it together to turn the first switch (where I connected the HS200) into a single-pole double-throw. 

 

My understanding of how these smart switches would generally be wired is that you'd use a 14/2 or 12/2 wire setup. The power would hit the switch first, and then one of your black live loads would go to the black wire from your 14/2 or 12/2 wiring, and all of this assuming that this switch is controlling a simple ceiling light - this makes the most sense with the built-in directions for installation. However, I can't seem to find any direction on wiring up one of these to a ceiling fan-light combo. I thought perhaps I needed the three-way switch version of the smart switch, but it has five wires to be hooked up to the back of the switch, so that definitely wouldn't work for my setup.

 

Any ideas on why this isn't working?

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Re:[HS200] Ceiling Fan Light Doesn't Work?-Solution
2020-05-11 00:01:04 - last edited 2020-05-11 21:24:53

After ordering a three-way switch and again having no luck with getting the switch to operate correctly, I finally figured out what the issue was, so I'm replying to my original message to hopefully help others who may run into similar issues.

 

To rehash an important point from my original post, power was hitting the electrical box at the ceiling fan first and then two wires were branching out and hitting separate wall switches which would operate the light at either switch. Four wires were entering each box - white, red, black, and bare copper ground. I had thought that the white wires were acting as neutral wires, however they were actually acting as traveler wires along with the red wires. Black was the hot wire in each box. Tying together the white and red traveler wires and connecting them to one of the line wires on the switch and then wiring in an actual neutral wire to the box and connecting that to the neutral wire on the switch, and finally wiring the black hot wire to the other line wire on the switch resolved the problem and now the HS200 is working without a hitch.

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Re:[HS200] Ceiling Fan Light Doesn't Work?-Solution
2020-05-11 00:01:04 - last edited 2020-05-11 21:24:53

After ordering a three-way switch and again having no luck with getting the switch to operate correctly, I finally figured out what the issue was, so I'm replying to my original message to hopefully help others who may run into similar issues.

 

To rehash an important point from my original post, power was hitting the electrical box at the ceiling fan first and then two wires were branching out and hitting separate wall switches which would operate the light at either switch. Four wires were entering each box - white, red, black, and bare copper ground. I had thought that the white wires were acting as neutral wires, however they were actually acting as traveler wires along with the red wires. Black was the hot wire in each box. Tying together the white and red traveler wires and connecting them to one of the line wires on the switch and then wiring in an actual neutral wire to the box and connecting that to the neutral wire on the switch, and finally wiring the black hot wire to the other line wire on the switch resolved the problem and now the HS200 is working without a hitch.

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Re:[HS200] Ceiling Fan Light Doesn't Work?
2021-05-25 11:18:06 - last edited 2021-07-02 11:27:08

A ceiling fan light not working can be an easy problem to solve. Don’t overlook common causes. Try making an easy fix before breaking out your toolbox. spells to break up friendship

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