I have a Broan Allure hood range that I installed a year ago. The other day I replaced a burnt out light bulb and both lights worked fine. A couple of days later I noticed that both lights were burned out so I replaced them with new bulbs, the lights still don't work. I read somewhere that it could be a light switch or lamp holder socket but still don't know where to begin. I was told to contact Broan but am hoping I can fix the problem myself. Any ideas?
It's not likely that both sockets went bad at the same time. The common denominator is the switch that controls them or the wiring to and from that switch. I'd kill the power to the unit, expose the wiring and switch, check for loose connections and if all is tight, remove the switch and test it for continuity
How sure are you that the lamps have burned out. It sounds to me like the first on may have burned out, and now the switch or wiring is giving you problmes.
First thing, see if you can access the switch. Maybe you can get to the back of that switch by removing a cover plate or perhaps the filter.
Turn off the power Use a proximty tester (checks magnetic field around the wire...no need to bare connection) to check the outer sheath of the romex or whatever cable that comes into the junction box. It will probably be a
12-2 w/g, one black, one white, one bare. Make sure it is off.
Now jiggle the connections lightly and visually inspect. You're looking for any loose wires, sometimes one of the small wires will be twisted around the larger one, but has worked its way above the wirenut and be twisted around insulation rather than copper. If something like that, then secure the connection and see if it works. Let's assume that is not the problem and go to the next most likely.
Find the wires leading to the lamp holders. There should be two wires from each of the two lampholders. One set will go to the neutral, one set to switch. With the power turned off slightly tug on the neutrals to make sure they are secure at the wirenut that fastens them to the neutral. Then do the same with the other two wires leading to the switch.
Chances are you will find a wire loose. It will probably be pretty obvious when you look at it and very likely be slightly touching the group it is supposed to be hooked up to. If that be the case, with the power turned off even up the ends of those wires and slightly twist them, always clockwise to the stiffer romex wire, and re-attach the wire nut.
If all is secure, then determine if there is one switch for lights and fan or separate switches for each. If there is only one switch then see if you can arrange the wire nut connecting the two small wires from the light to the switch in a way to allow a tester probe to be inserted on bare copper without breaking the connection. With power turned on check between this bare spot and a similar one on the connection to the white wire. If you have voltage the problem is somewhere between that point and the lampholders. If you don't, then push or turn all positions of the switch, checking all of them. If there is no voltage in any of the positions, Then check the voltage between the wirenut connecting the larger black wire to a lead to the switch..
If there is power leading to the switch, especially if that same switch controls the fan and the fan works, then you have a bad switch. Before you try to find a replacement switch, disconnect the two wires coming from the lampholders to the switch. Connect those to the larger black wire and turn on the power. If you have light now, you'll know you need a replacement switch.
If you're really handy, you could count the total leadwires from the bad switch and obtain another similar switch from maybe home depot or any appliance repair shop. It might be better if you order it directly from a Broan supplier using a number off the case of the switch or from the warranty info if you still have that. There are several different types of switches that might have the same number of lead wires. You'd need to be fairly knowledgeable to figure all that out correctly to use a substitute switch.
Replace the bad switch with the new one removing one group of wires at a time from the old to the new until they are all re-connected and then you should have things fixed. The only other problem that might have happened would be the little brass tab inside the screwshell could be pressed down to far and not making contact with the lamp........but since you have two lamps not working that would require both of them to have gone out the same.....not likely.
A lot of people think they know what they are doing on these simple tasks, but they really do not. Bad things can happen if you make a mistake. Seriously, if the mistake is bad enough it could cause death, so make sure you know what you are doing or let someone else do it.
Should the lampholder brass tabs be a problem.......with the power turned off.......an electrician might insert needle nose pliars into the screw shell and pull those brass tabs out a bit. Lots of things could go wrong doing this if you don't know what your doing, so I'd definitely save that for a professional.
There is a reason why electricians make $5.00 an hour....or is it $5.50 now?
Is this the model with low, medium, and high brightness buttons? If so, this unit doesn't have a standard "switch" for the lamp control. It has a small electronic dimmer control board with 3 pushbuttons for low, medium, and high brightness. You can still check for loose connections as others have suggested, but I'm bettng on the control board or its fuse. Any chance you used too high of wattage bulbs? IIRC it's only rated for lower wattage bulbs.
replying to scarlat91, Darius wrote: I have a Broan Allure QS1 Series Range hood that the lights just stop working what could be the problem. I keep reading on some of the reviews that it might be the switch since both lights went out
replying to scarlat91, Mr "Tired of fixing a lemon" wrote: I've had the same problem crop up every year or two with this range hood. The light socket wires are riveted to socket terminals. These rivets work themselves loose overtime. Broan claims no knowledge of this issue. Maybe a different brand range hood would be in order.
replying to Mr "Tired of fixing a lemon", Eric B. wrote: I'm having the same problem with my Nutone Allure lights. It's the sockets. If I pull up the brass connector at the bottom of the socket, it works for a while and goes out again. I suspect this poor connection is why I keep going through bulbs
replying to Eric B., Kelly W. wrote: Replying to Eric B The Nutone Allure brand is affiliated with BROAN-SO unsure if they changed the name due to these problems but this whole thread is linked to the original BroanAllure . Strange why they think a name change fixes everything why not fix the problem!!!!
replying to Mr "Tired of fixing a lemon", Kelly W. wrote: Just to inform you Nutone is the same as BROAN SO IF you are changing your hood fan (mine is new) so obviously you will be having the same problems buying a
*NUTONE ALLURE* if you've had a *BROAN ALLURE* STILL FRUSTRATED!!!
replying to scarlat91, Rusty Nuts wrote: Per Eric B's below response in Feb 2017, at the very bottom of the socket is a central contact that touches the center of the plug on the bulb. Every once in a while he has to use a pair of pliers and pull this tab down to make full contact with the bulb, otherwise the poor contact goes through bulbs quite often. I was having the same issue - in fact it stopped touching certain bulb types altogether. NOTE: I was using 50 Watt halogens that get quite hot and I am assuming this heat makes the issue of poor quality light sockets (weak metal tabs) worse. MY SOLUTION: I'm now using LED bulbs in the range hood. They don't get very hot so hopefully the problem won't recur. We'll see!
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