Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - 3way to outlets

I am wondering if any one can tell me how to wire outlets to 3-way switchs. I've try it almost ever way and can't get it to work right. The way it runs is, power -switch- outlet- outlet -outlet- switch.

First you need to decide if you want both halves of the duplex switched or just half.

With that said, it is easier if you wire this with power to SW1, 3 wire+grd cable to SW2, 2 wire cable+grd to R1 etc. You should be able to find this common wiring scheme in a baisc wiring book. Just replace the ceiling light fixture in the diagram with the receptacle. This would change slightly if you only want the duplex half switched.

Post back for more help.

I would like both halfs of the receptacles to be controlled by the switchs, I have tryed doing it like a ligth fixture, but it kick my breaker. I can get it to where I can turn them on with one switch and off with the other, but I can only turn it back on with the switch that I turned it off with.

The way you wired it would require more conductors in the cables than you have. Your setup would require a 4conductor + ground cable.

Any threeway wiring for light will also work for receptacles. Just substitute a receptacle in place of the light fixture.

This link has the drawings for many different methods. You can't wire multiple receptacles between the switches without 4 conductor wire. This is a very common mistake made with three way circuits. You can put one receptacle between the switches and then use two wire from that receptalce to the other receptacles.

http://www.selfhelpandmore.com/switchoutlet/3way/index.htm

Thank you joed and pc boss for your help. Can you explain how to wire it using 4 conductor wire.

In a one receptacle setup you have 2 traveler wires(not connected to the receptacle going to both switches), 1 switched hot from one switch and one neutral from the other switch. As soon as you add a second receptacle in between you need the fourth wire to bring the neutral though to the second receptacle.

Sorry, I don't understand. I got two wires+ ground coming into sw1, three wires + ground going out, black wire from power to common post,white wire from power in and white wire out tied together and capped, red wire from out to traveler post, black going out to traveler post. At R1 white wire in to top silver screw, white out to bottom silver screw, Black in to top brass screw, black out to bottom brass screw, red in and red out capped etc to sw2. I can run sw1 to sw2 and then to outlets if it would work better, I can also run a single 12ga. wire as my fourth wire but I dont understand how to run this setup with 4 wires+ground. I know its a lot of typing, but could you give me step to step instructions on how to do this.

This only works for one receptacle between the switches.
At the first switch you it correct. At the receptacle you have it wrong. The red a black coming from s1 are travelers. They do NOT connect to the receptacle. They connect to the red and white wires going to sw2(they are travelers). The black coming back from sw2 connects to the receptacles.
At sw2 the travelers(red and white) connect to the switch. The black Connects to the common.

It works like this.
power comes into switch 1 on common and leaves on one of the travelers(depends on switch position). Power now enters sw2 on traveler and leaves on common wire to power the receptacle.

Take a look at this site and check out variation #2. A receptacle is installed the same as a light.


http://www.wfu.edu/~matthews/courses/p230/switches/3way/variations.html