bathroom fan not responding to a switch

Not enough info, is there just a switch loop feeding the fan? How many wires did you have to disconnect?

MikeB

Considering that you were replacing an existing unit, the new unit should have been connected exactly the same as the old one. I'm guessing it has something to do with that conduit you cut. Possibly you didn't reconnect the wires correctly

only 2 wires for the fan...a black and a white.

the conduit i moved had a blue, green, orange, black, and white wires.

sounds like the previous unit had a built in heater and/or light

time to break out the test light...

nate

Sounds like you accidentally hardwired it. Note that when they run a switch leg down, they are supposed to mark the neutral used as a hot for the switch leg with tape or sharpie or whatever. That step is often skipped. I'm not expert electrician, so I will let one of them tell how to reverse-engineer it at this point. When I take a junction box apart, I make lots of diagrams and label wires, just so to avoid oopsies like this.

-- aem sends...

Take off the trim cover of the fan, make sure the fan motor is plugged in. The fan units inside have a detachable power cord that plugs into an outlet.

Uh, it won't turn OFF, not it won't turn ON. I think he accidentally hardwired it when he had the connections apart.

-- aem sends...

Soory, misread the post.

Maybe you put both wires on the same side of the switch?

I'd be concerned that if you wired the switch wrong, maybe you wired something else wrong too and the case could be hot, etc.

I'd be *really* careful when I started troubleshooting.

Keep one hand in your pocket.

I'd also respectfully suggest that someone that doesn't have the basic skills to figure out why a switch doesn't turn off the fan should not be screwing around doing this job. You should have a sufficient grasp of the basics before attempting any job. Without sufficient skills, who knows what other unsafe conditions may have been created.

I'll add a respectful amen to that thought.

Jeff

I guess they taught us something at MIT.

Brass rat 78 here too.

That

I'll remember to my dying day the words from a Brit professor while we were tooling away in a "rotating electrical machinery" lab messing around with three phase motors and generators.

He said, "You men will never be real engineers until you learn to 'take a shock'".

Jeff

Friend of my Dad's tells how one time he was working on a light socket. Reached in to grab it with pliers, and got a rap. Reflexively threw the pliers across the room. Cursed a bit, and explains later he'd never expected to take a rap. He was in a plane crash in world war two, and had literally two wooden legs, below the knee. Figured that was insulation enough.

No, you're right. Maybe it's plugged in when it shouldn't be. Don't let them push you around.

LOL