I'm wiring lighting such that I'll have three locations where the light can be switched on or off. As I understand it, using 14/3, I'll need a 3way, 4way, then 3way again. I know how to do it, but I'm sure I'll have a diagram ready when I do.

My question is about dimmers. I want to put a dimmer in one of the locations but a simply on/off switch for the other two. I think this means that when I dim the lights at the one location, the lights will stay at that lower level regardless of where I turn them on or off elsewhere, even if, at the dimmer location, the switch is "off", so to speak. Is this right? Does it matter where I put the dimmer? I think it will be in the place of the 4way switch.

 

You are correct. I'm not sure if they make 4-way dimmers. If you wamt the dimmer where you planned on having the 4-way, you could wire the circuit differently so that there's a 3-way in that location instead.

 

You will need the dimmer in one of the 3w locations.

The lights will turn on at whatever level of dimming is set.

 

All the above is true unless you go with smart dimmers. They talk to each other.

 

To add to joeds reply...... get a dimmer that operates on a three way circuit. Then get two additional slaves. The slaves talk to the dimmer. My preferred system is a Lutron Maestro MA (MA/CL for LED's) and two Maestro slaves. The slaves work identical to the master dimmer.

 

Thanks guys. I actually prefer to have the dimmer in only one location, but I already have it wired to go where the 4way goes. As pcboss says, the dimmers aren't setup for 4way, so, for me, it's just easier to rewire such that the dimmer takes the place of the 3way.

Thanks!