I flipped the with on my recessed kitchen light and nothing happened.
I grabbed my step ladder, removed the bulb and replaced it with another. I needed to replace the old flood lamp with an LED bulb anyway.
Then I flipped the switch and nothing happened. Shoot.I have a second recessed light in my upstairs hallway that hasn’t worked since I bought my house last year. I had planned to fix it when I got around to it. Well, now that I had two busted recessed fixtures, it was time to figure this out.
With two of these having burnt out, I speculated they had reached their 20 year end of life.I got on the internet and started searching. Recessed lights have a fuse capacitor that sometimes blows. That can be replaced but often it’s better to replace the entire fixture. I figured I’d buy some pendant fixtures and hang them. Except, I quickly realized that replacing a recessed “can” light with a normal picture would require more than simple rewiring. I would need to rerun wire in the attic, cover holes in the ceiling and much more.
Ugh. I might even need to call an electrician if this goes badly.
Watching a YouTube video convinced me to purchase two replace can lights and install them. However, in the comments, one person wrote, “Be sure to test your light switch. The light may be fine but the switch could be broken.”I’ve replaced light switches before. I can tell when they are broken because they either sparked before breaking or the don’t click or feel right. My switches both felt perfectly fine.
But my reluctance to crawl through the insulation in the attic prompted me to check the switches anyway. After all, replacing a wall switch would be so much easier than replacing the lights.I ordered two switches from Amazon. When they arrived, I removed the kitchen switch. It looked fine to be, but since I’d gone this far, I connected the new switch. When I flicked the switch the light came on!
Holy shite Batman! That was easy.
I thought, “There’s no way the upstairs light will be this easy.” But since it took all of 10 minutes to replace the kitchen switch, I gave it a shot.When I pulled the upstairs switch out, I could see the plastic housing had cracked resulting in a bad wiring connection. I installed the new switch, flicked it on and there was light in the hallway for the first time since I had bought this house over a year ago.
- Total cost for the repair – $3.88.
- Total repair time – 20 minutes including reading the instructions for using the quick connect.
- Research time – About 2 hours.
Pride earned – immeasurable.
