On Thursday, January 30, 2014 1:43:21 PM UTC-5, 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.



I don't see on what basis any competent support person at a light
manufacturer would tell you that the likely source of the intitial
problem was that two of their light fixtures simultaneously failed after
just a year. If two new fixtures on the same switch both stopped
working, it's highly likely that there is some wiring problem.




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.


are you sure the breaker wasnt' already tripped *before* you started?
Sometimes it's hard to tell, because they don't move all the way to
off. If that's the case, the breaker may have been the cause of bot
lights going off due to a short before you even started. Anything else
on that same breaker that you know was working when the lights were out?






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.

If something isn't done right, it certainly can work for some
period of time, then fail. Wires not properly secured, comes loose,
etc. Was this done by a licensed electrician? Given your inexperience
with electricity, the only safe thing to do is call an electrician.
It's probably not the fixtures and if you can return them, that may
pay for the electrician. Unless it turns out the previous guy wasn't
an electrician and did some half-assed install that needs to be done
over.