Greetings!

Thank You (in advance). I appreciate the help! A lot! Thank you very much!

I just installed a new 4-light vanity fixture (or tried to anyway). An "out with the old and in with the new" job. Old vanity had black/white/ground. New vanity has black/white/ground. It seemed so easy.


(vanity) black wire to (house) tan wire
(vanity) white wire to 2nd (house) tan wire
ground wire to ground wire
existing (house) wire to (house) wire connected with a wire nut----untouched


When I turn on the switch the vanity lights (four) are very dim... like night light and/or lamp kind of dim. I tried the 75W Frosted bulbs that came with the new vanity light. Plus, I tried 100W regular plain ole bulbs. Oddly, a nearby overhead light (on the same switch) comes on as normal.

If I remove 3 of the 4 bulbs the remaining light brightens and the overhead light dims to nearly nothing. If I remove all 4 bulbs the overhead light goes out, too.

I don't understand...

existing (house) wire to (house) wire connected with a wire nut----untouched

What color are those wires?

What color are those wires?

Unfortunately they are both tan. :(

Colors not logical.

Connect black of vaninty to the two untouched wires. Connect the two wires you say are tan but I suspect are really discolored white, together with the white of the vanity.

Symptoms you describe indicate the two tans are really the neutral. Power is going through each light bulb in a series, that is to say that power is going through one bulb to get to the next.

Appearently you did not note the connections when you remove the old fixture. Black wire to fixture came loose from the two house wires (with the wire nut) and you did not notice. These wires should be black.

To restate the above.

The two house wires presently connect together with a wire nut are the hots and should be black. The two tan (discolored whites) are the neutrals.

Connect all blacks together. Connect all whites together.

Colors not logical.

Connect black of vaninty to the two untouched wires. Connect the two wires you say are tan but I suspect are really discolored white, together with the white of the vanity.

You were correct on every single point!

The colors were not logical at all! In reality they were almost brown. ALL OF THEM. They now have been marked correctly.

When I removed the old fixture, two of the three existing wire nuts came apart coming out of the fixture box. I assumed the one in-tact had indeed stayed in-tact. WRONG! As you suspected connecting the black was the ticket!

Now I'm off to buy some dimmer bulbs... not sure I wanted to see THAT much!

Thank you very much for you help!!