"N8N" wrote in message
...
On May 25, 11:49 am, "
wrote:
On May 25, 11:13 am, N8N wrote:





On May 25, 10:52 am, "
wrote:

On May 24, 4:01 am, Evan wrote:

On May 23, 3:48 pm, hamish wrote:

I live in a 60s house with a problem. Normal dimmers will not fit
the
switch boxes as they are too large or the the electrical box is
too
small. Any idea where I might find a super slim dimmer switch. I
am
in Canada so that makes it a more difficult solution.
Thanks

Ummm... Sounds like you should call an electrician out
to install some larger electrical boxes...

Yeah, get an electrician to change not only the one problem
box, but also other boxes too that are perfectly fine, instead
of simply finding a dimmer that will fit. I don't know where
some of you come up with your advice.

you do realize that a house built in the '60s likely has 2-3/4" (or
thereabouts) deep gem boxes and therefore wouldn't even meet current
NEC wire fill requirements unless used as a switch box on a switch
leg?

nate- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I realize that I don't know what the national electric code in Canada
says about box size when simply replacing a switch with a
dimmer. I do know that in my own house, if I found a dimmer
that fit, I'd use it instead of tearing out the old box and creating a
lot of potential work, eg wall repair, painting, etc.

the dimmer makes no difference. 2x 14/2 WG in a box with a device is
overfull according to current code with box sizes typical of those
used in the 60s. AFAIK Canadian code is roughly equivalent to NEC.

The fact that the dimmer doesn't physically fit just reinforces the
need to install a new box.

I've had no problems replacing existing boxes in existing walls. The
plastic old work boxes are physically larger than the metal ones, if
the hole in the wall is oversized.

nate

It's easy to say, just replace the box with a bigger one. From my
experience, shallow boxes were usually used when larger boxes wouldn't fit.
Since the op talks about more than one box with this situation, it's
entirely possible that it's a masonry house with just furring strips between
the masonry and the wall covering. If that's the case, it's really no easy
task to replace the boxes with bigger ones. FYI , the metal boxes from the
60's are the same sizes as they are today. Leviton made the trimatron
dimmers just for this purpose. If a toggle switch fits, so will a trimatron.