I have a ceiling fan in the living room. One switch on one side of room turns the light on with a dimmer switch. On the other side of the room is a switch for the light (no dimmer) and another switch for the fan. A month ago it worked fine. Now, I turn the light on (either switch) and the light works fine for 6 seconds. After that the lights go dim. Not off, but maybe half as bright. I replaced the dimmer switch with a new one and same thing happens. Any ideas?

Loose wire nut connection at fan maybe, light going bad. Do they have a ballast in ceiling fan maybe. I be a dumb old plumber, probably should keep pie hole shut.

Whatever it is, it doesn't sound good. I recently upgraded a panel in our guest house with Arc Fault (AFCI) to address any "lose" wiring connections. I also replaced most of the old school wire nuts with these - Wago Level Nuts

https://www.wago.com/us/lp-221

Solves the loose connection issue.

Is this a NEW fan??

maybe 6 years old. Hardly ever used actually

I am alone to tackle these type things but usually sort things out.....usually.
Do you have another ( as in unused) on- off switch? I might try to replace the non dimmer light switch with a new one. Easy to test and low cost option. Could be something faulty in there.

Like I said- I ain't no pro... but no harm trying these.

Also are the wires connected to the nuts or in the holes in the back of the switch. I have seen when ( in cold days on exterior walls it happens more) that an undersized wire is put into the friction fit hole then the contact gets slightly loose. Move the wire to the nut and voila.

I have run across a similar problem years ago. If you have checked the connections under the sconce and all seems fine I would look at the connector where the fixture and the fan meet. I had one where one of pins in the multi-pin connector pushed out and was not making good contact. Good luck, Dave

As Hanco said check the connection at the fan. If they used the cheesey wire nuts that don't have metal in them remove and replace. If anything is burnt cut it back and reconnect .

Good luck and Shoot Straight Y'all

Be happy you have separate switches rather than a damn remote. They make you cram the big receiving module into the small housing with all the wires. Real PITA. and of course you have yet another remote to keep track of.

I’m with Ken on this replace the 3 way dimmer with a 3 way switch and see what happens. This sounds more electronic than actual electric issue. Dimmer do funny things sometimes. By any chance have you replaced the lamps with LED lamps?

I just ask because SOME of the newer fans have “limiters” in the lighting system that won’t power more than a certain wattage (heaven forbid you have a fan that actually puts out a usable amount of light). They WERE doing the small candelabra fixtures for a while. Then, they went back to the larger sockets, but limited the output, so you could only use VERY low watt led lights.

Just trying to discern whether this is a switch issue, a light fixture issue, or maybe a non-dimmable bulb issue.

This is usually caused by having a loose connection somewhere in the circuit. Unfortunately, it could be in the fan box, the switch box, or anywhere along the circuit in any switch or receptacle box. Usually what happens is a wire being put under a wire nut isn't fully inserted and just sets against the other wires until there is a load on it for awhile and arcing starts to occur. The other situation that often comes up is having a fan on a receptacle/lighting circuit where the wiring to the switches or receptacles is connected through the stab in on the receptacles instead of a binding terminal screw. A long term load on these tiny connection points will often cause arcing and weakening of the springs that keep the contact tab in place.

Start at the most obvious place- the fan- and work your way back. Find which receptacles and light switches are on that circuit by turning off circuits until your fan goes off, then check to see which receptacles are dead...

Bob

Sounds like you have three way switch and dimmer? Incandescent lamp ? If so there are a few spots for a voltage drop to happen as is probably indicated by the "dimming" including the fixture itself. Voltage checks through the system should track this down...

those look pretty cool. did you buy them locally or online?

actually looks like home weblow stocks them.

Hah, actually used some of them today for the first time. Had to add onto a string of 5” recessed cans and figured it would be easier to use those instead of trying to install wirenuts through the can interior. They work great. Now back your regularly scheduled program. Dave