Should electrician do this?

[Cindy]

We just had a master bedroom added on to our home. The price for the addition was fair...not too high or too low. We've done several miscellaneous things ourselves that were supposed to be included in the price for one reason or another...no big deal. We had a ceiling fan put in the room along with recessed lights. When the electrician was here, he asked if we wanted a dimmer for the lights. We said yes. He said it would be $45 extra which I felt was ridiculous but we okayed it. At the same time, he asked if we wanted a wall remote for the fan. He suggested that it wasn't necessary since we could control the speed from the fan itself. So we passed on the wall remote. We just found out the fan is always on high because he didn't install the remote into the fan unit and there is no external control on the fan. Would you just fix it yourself or have the electrician come out and do the job right?

Thanks,

Cin

[SQLit]

You declined to have a switch installed. Now it is his fault? Sorry I do not see the logic there. If he chose the fan then maybe you have a issue. I will bet that he just hung it unless you did. Please provide make and model of your fan. I have never seen a fan that did not have a method of switching speeds, the ole pull chain comes to mind. Some I have seen have slide switches on the housing for fan speeds. Most have pull chains.

less than 50 bucks at the home center and you can buy a remote control. Which is the way all of my fans are controled.

Would you just fix it yourself or have the

[maradcliff]

If you can do it yourself and do it safely, do it. If not call the electrician. Of course you might have a handyman in your area that could do it cheaper too. Electricians are expensive. I'd never pay $45 for a dimmer that I can buy for $5 and install in 10 minutes or less, but I can do the work myself. I just paid $140 to get a tooth filled. To me that is outrageous for the filling material smaller than the size of a grain of rice, and a shot of novacaine. It took the dentist 15 minutes. I wish i could make $500 an hour, because I know the materials are only a few dollars, but I am not a dentist and I have no other choice in the matter. I can do 95% of my own home, farm, and vehicle maintenance and repairs, but there are other things I just can not do.

Mark

[Bill]

I would do it myself and do it right (being as I was an electrician at one time).

If it was my brother doing this (who does not know which end of a hammer to use), then I would certainly recommend an electrician.

[Cindy]

No, it's not his fault that there's no wall remote. I specifically said no when he asked if we wanted the wall remote installed. However, he did not install the receiver and there is no other external speed control. It's a Harbor Breeze

70085. So he basically left us with a fan that only runs on high unless we install the receiver which is what he should have done.

Cin

[Savvy 1]

The dentist charged you 50 cents for the filling material, a quarter for the novacaine and $139.25 for knowing where and how to drill.

S1

[trader4]

"No, it's not his fault that there's no wall remote. I specifically said no when he asked if we wanted the wall remote installed. However, he did not install the receiver and there is no other external speed control. It's a Harbor Breeze

70085. So he basically left us with a fan that only runs on high unless we install the receiver which is what he should have done. "

Didn't you check when he finished the job to make sure everything was OK, before he left? If the fan came with a receiver, then I would say it should have been installed and he should come back to do it right. However, every fan I've seen, the remote/receiver was a seperate add-on. That is the way I'd install any new fan, using the remote and no wall switcht at all. The only reason I can see for a wall switch is if the fan has a light too, then you may want one. It also makes the install faster/cheaper, as you don't need to run wires to a wall switch, you just need 120V direct to the fan.

[CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert]

would have been better if he did it from jump. Typically you have one set of wires going to the fan, and the light and fan are both on the same switch.

What you need now is 1 switch for the motor, and one for the light. So you probably have to run a new wire. Are you able to do this?

[On My Way]

Yes but the electrician told them that they could controll the speed by the fan. So if he said it would do this and it doesn't he should at least come out and find out if the speed controller is bad or if he knocked off a wire or something else.

from

If he said this then some responsibility lays with sparky.

there

It is up to Sparky to read the instalation instructions and determine if the fan will run as he said it would. That is why you hire a professional Electrician instead of a brother in law who says he can wire

[Cindy]

That sounds like a MasterCard commercial :-)

Cin

[maradcliff]

Just a comment. I think a remote control for a fan is assenine. Just another remote to lose or misplace. It's bad enough keepting track of all the ones for the tvs vcrs dvds and the like. I'd return the fan and get one that has the controls either on the fan, or on the wall. Just my 2 cents.

Mark

[Jeff Wisnia]

Not to mention, rent, insurance(s), equipment depreciation, phone and power bills, maybe an office assistant.....As a small business owner I can tell you fer sure that the list goes on and on, but I know Mark wasn't being serious.

But Mark, can you really still do 95% of your vehicle repairs yourself? If so, you're a better man than me.

I used to be able to do "everything", on cars, starting from the '50s, but in the last 10-15 years the computers have done me in, I can't afford to buy the diagnostic equipment for use on just a couple of cars, and the way they cram stuff under the hood nowadays it sometimes takes an engine lift just to do a simple job. I was really pissed off when I found out that the serpentine accessory drive belt on SWMBO's 1998 Olds encircled one engine mount and I had to support the engine and disconnect the engine mount so I could slip it through that gap. There was NO easier way to do it. Bah!

Jeff

[Charlie Bress]

Actually it is not asinine. I have a remote/receiver on a fan. The fan was only wired with one 2 wire (plus ground) cable.

The remote controls the fan speed and also controls the light. The remote never gets lost. It mounts in the same wall box that originally held the switch.

Got it from HD.

I can't imagine somebody installing the receiver and not doing something with the remote. I have always see them sold as a package unit.

Charlie

[maradcliff]

OK, I didnt know they worked like that. I thought they were handheld like tv remotes.

[Charlie Bress]

They come both ways

Charlie

[Cindy]

My feeling is if he was willing to charge $45 above the contract price to install a dimmer, then he should provide a fan that works on more than one speed and it should be free. Free in the sense that we don't pay for him to come back a second time and do what he should have done the first time...

Cin