Replaced AB-600 with PD-6WCL-WH and now stuff doesn't work

I just bought a PD-6WCL-WH to install in my upstairs office. The office had an Abella AB-600. The AB-600 was wired with 1 black wire in each of the push-in terminals and a looped black wire attached to one of the brass screw terminals on the side. (When I say “looped” I just mean that a section of insulation was stripped from the wire in the middle, then the bare section was fastened to a screw).

The AB-600 was in a 2-gang box with a mechanical switch that controls the ceiling fan in the room.

To install the Caseta, I wired ground, then wired one of the black wires from the push-in terminal on the AB-600 to a black wire on the Caseta. Then I took the other black wire and the looped wire and used a wire nut to fasten them to the second black wire on the Caseta.

After installing the Caseta switch, it works fine and controls the office lights. However, the fan, and several other lights and switches upstairs, stopped working. I suspect that looped wire was a branch circuit or something. However, I don’t know where to attach it on the Caseta. I’m not sure where to put that looped wire. The office Caseta is a plain one-switch circuit (and, like I said, it works) but there’s obviously another circuit tied in with that looped wire and I don’t know what to do with it. Any suggestions?

The screw terminal and the corresponding push-in terminal are connected inside the device. Instead of twisting the wires together and adding a pig-tail, they made the junction on the device. This is fairly common.

I'm thinking the AB-600 was not wired properly. Unlike Caseta, the Abella was supposed to have power-in on the black and out (to the light) on the brass. Since you said there were two wires on the brass, I'm guessing one was power in and the other was power through to the next device.

Basically you need to move one of the black wires to the other wirenut. You have a 50-50 chance here. Homeowners everywhere (no pressure) are depending on you! If you guess wrong, the light won't turn off and you still won't have power downstream. If you guess right, everything will work and can brag to your neighbors. The voltage stick below may or may not be helpful. There are some cheaper and some more expensive models.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-To...1SEN/100661787

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Originally Posted by randyc

The screw terminal and the corresponding push-in terminal are connected inside the device. Instead of twisting the wires together and adding a pig-tail, they made the junction on the device. This is fairly common.

I'm thinking the AB-600 was not wired properly. Unlike Caseta, the Abella was supposed to have power-in on the black and out (to the light) on the brass. Since you said there were two wires on the brass, I'm guessing one was power in and the other was power through to the next device.

Basically you need to move one of the black wires to the other wirenut. You have a 50-50 chance here.

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Thanks, Randy. Lutron support responded to me and here's what they said…

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Yes, it sounds like the looped wire may be a jumper to your other switches. Based on your description, it sounds like you may have installed this properly but based on the performance it does not. When you took off this looped wire, you should have cut the wire right down the middle to turn one continuous wire into 2 wires. This wire nut should now have 4 wires (one from the dimmer, one from the push in connection, and two from the looped wire which was cut).

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That's what I did last night. Now when the Caseta is turned on (that is, when the switch is active and the light it's connected to is on) all of the downstream circuit lights can be turned on. Caseta off, and everything's dead. So I still have a bit of head-scratching to do before my neighbors can cheer for me.

It sounds like you have the wrong combination of wires connected together with a wirenut.
Please call Lutron Tech Support's 24-hour Technical Support hotline at 1-800-523-9466 for wiring assistance.