Bathroom light won’t stay on ?

[Deleted User]

I wonder if any one might be able to give me some advice as to what the problem might be.  Upstairs in our house the upstairs landing light and bathroom light are on the same double switch. One switch is for bathroom one is for landing light. The double switch is out side bathroom next to bathroom door. There is also a switch downstairs that can turn the upstairs landing light on and off.

we have been having problems with the bathroom light, when you turn it on it comes on for a few seconds to a minute then the light goes off it won’t stay on. If you turn off switch and turn on light won’t turn on. But if you leave for a bit it will turn on again for a few seconds.

We have noticed that some times if we turn off landing light or don’t put it on at all bathroom light will turn on for longer. But not always. Some times hallway light goes off just like bathroom light.
we have changed the bulb in bathroom twice as thought maybe it was a bad bulb but it made no difference, we have checked wiring of bathroom light and all looks good, no loose cables. We replaced bulb in landing light yesterday, and this strangely fixed problem for 12 hours and bathroom light was working fine. But now bathroom light won’t stay on again. I  Have checked wiring of landing light and it looks good no loose wires. Put a new bulb in landing light tonight and bathroom light still playing up.

We have Unscrewed and checked switch quiet a maze of cables but no loose wires and looks ok. Have checked wiring in loft and can’t see any thing obvious. Does any one have any ideas what problem could be, am I missing some thing obvious. 

Just to add in case it helps, we live in a fairly new build house. House is 8 years old, we have lived here since it was built. All light fittings are original that were installed when house was built. None have been re wired or replaced. So can’t be something wired up wrong as lights have always been fine until recently.  Could the switch have gone bad ? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks in advance.

McKneff

Really, dont mess with gas or electrics. Electric can killmyou in a nano second, gas takes a little longer. 
Get an electrician in to check. Something is obviously not right. 
How much would you pay to be safe 

victor2

McKneff said:

Really, dont mess with gas or electrics. Electric can killmyou in a nano second, gas takes a little longer. 
Get an electrician in to check. Something is obviously not right. 
How much would you pay to be safe 

^^This^^

[Deleted User]

No offence intended but please don’t respond if you don’t have any idea as it’s not helpful. Just to add to my post  before any one else tells me to get a electrician out. That we have had a electrician out at end of last week, they checked quickly and tried to claim it was a bad bulb as light worked for a bit after they changed bulb and fiddled a bit with the wiring. They then left and  shortly after the bathroom light stopped working again. 

I know it’s not bulb as have replaced bulb twice plus electrician did and have tested all 3 bulbs in down stairs shower room that has same light and they work fine.

I would never try and do some thing if it’s dangerous and didn’t know what I’m doing.  I’m not stupid and will call out electrician again but was just trying to see if any one had had This problem and knew what it could be. So I might have a idea. I don’t have a unlimited amount of money to spend on electricians that keep wasting my time and not fixing problem.  So trying to get some knowledge of what problem could be before calling them out again. 

Sorry I did not mention about electrician coming out in original post, was trying to keep post as short as possible and to the point, I should have said.  Sorry for the rant. Any advice much appreciated thanks in advance.

chrisw

It's almost impossible to say without seeing or testing it but my guess would be something broken within the switch. 

IF you know what you're doing, you could try replacing the switch for what it costs.

GDB2222

I’m with ChrisW. Take a photo of the wiring beforehand! Look at a couple of videos about two way switching, and hopefully the wiring will be less of a puzzle.

I have no idea why people are quite so scared that the electricity will escape. I suppose that if they have always been told not to touch it then it must appear darkly mysterious. 

grumbler

My 2p...

The light goes of pretty much randomly and there is no any timer involved. I see only three possible explanations

• bad contact in the switch
• bad contact in the light fitting
• damaged wire

The last fault can be very difficult to locate

akira181

My first step would be to replace the switch and try again.  If that fails, then the light fitting.  If still no joy, I'd get an electrician.

Just make sure the power is off, getting an electricity tester to be doubly sure would be prudent.