On Thursday, January 30, 2014 12:48:51 PM UTC-8, John G wrote:
About a year ago I had two recessed lights installed in the hallway. They

were previously regular lights, so I was told it was just cutting a hole out

and hooking the wiring back up. He also changed the switches to the newer

flat switches. They worked for 2 months until one day it just stopped

working. I'm not too keen working with electricity.



Just a few weeks ago I called the actual makers of the recessed lighting and

they said that it "sounds" like a problem with both of the actual units

internal components. Seemed a little weird to me, i thought it had something

to do with the wiring. But I got the new units, thinking that will an easy

fix on my side. Since all the wiring is set up I could just match the

connections with the new identical unit.



Switched off the power to the hallway, tested making sure I turned off the

right breaker. Then installed white to white / black to black / ground to

ground on one of the units, leaving the other one alone. Put a light in, and

as soon as I switched on the breaker, I heard a pop near the actual light.

And the breaker popped to the middle position. Looked up online which said

it's in the neutral position after being popped.



I checked the other light and it is black to black / white to white / ground

to ground. I didn't think it could be a problem with the wiring since it for

sure worked for a couple months.





*Occasionally I get a recessed light that has a defective thermal protector

in it. Usually it shorts out immediately. Once I had one start blinking a

few weeks after I left the job. I had to go back and replace the recessed

light.



To have two recessed lights stop working at the same time is not likely an

internal component problem. I would look for a bad splice somewhere in the

circuit. Do you have juice at the switch?



You could wire up a pigtail socket to the wires that feed the recessed

lights to make sure that you have electricity going to the lights.

A pigtail socket? Is that a tester? Maybe I should get an electrician involved? I'm in the los angeles area, what is the average price for fix up work.

I did see I had power going to the sockets using a tester. and at the switch. I don't want to reset the breaker if there's some improper connections going on. Seems a tad dangerous.