ceiling fan

[Mike Cummins]

­ ­ My ceiling fan is 8 years old and worked just fine until a few days ago. I noticed the pull chain on the light stopped working. Before I could replace the switch, it started to work again and seems to be okay; but the three speed fan is now a one speed. I changed the fan switch, taking care to get the 4 wires right. This didn't fix the problem. Am I missing a clue here? What else could be wrong?

Thanks, mc

[Doug Kanter]

Go out and buy a Casablanca fan. Install, have a beer, be happy for many, many years.

[Jake]

Seconded....

Jake

[Kenneth]

On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 8:04:04 -0700, Mike Cummins wrote (in message ):

Is the fan switch mounted on the fan or in a wall box? Some fans have the speed control capacitors and switch built into them rather than placed externally. A 3-speed fan has two capacitors for the speed control. The "hot" line conductor is connected to a switch that goes straight-through for high speed, through one capacitor for low and through both in parallel for medium. (There is also a "run" capacitor for the auxiliary winding). If the low-speed capacitor has failed by shorting, then all the switch settings will result in high-speed.

Here's a typical control circuit - couldn't show the switch properly, but if you're still with me, you'll understand:

Line +-+ Hi -> +-----------------------+----------->Yellow>------+ | | M Cap | | +-+ Med (Both Caps) -> +--||---+ | | | L Cap | | +-+ Low (Low Cap Only) -> +--||---+ | | | +---+--+ | | |->Purple>--+ | |Rev | ) Main ) Aux |Switch| ) Winding ) Winding | |->Brown>---+ | +---+--+ | | | Neutral+---------------------------------+-----||---->Red>---------+ Run Cap

To repair this, you can replace the burned capacitor, or you can remove the switch and speed capacitors and install an external speed control in a wall box.

Do NOT just put an external control in place w/o first removing the internal components. You can damage the fan that way (which might involve smoke and flames).