Cant remove ceiling fan canopy

[Metspitzer]

Don't you have a digital camera? A photo would give us a chance to figure it out.

[scott]

Thank you to everyone who stayed with me through thick and thin (dramatic intro)... In the end, the man took down the canopy ("I have no idea how", he said.) There was a flat metal plate (with a green wire) attached to the ceiling. This plate had three "lips", and the canopy was put on and turned. The middle pole and ball were indeed being held up only by the canopy. (Must be a very old model.) So Metzspitzer was right...it should have just needed a turn to go past the lips and come down, but it wouldn't turn, and the plate was turning with it. Putting up the new one wasn't so easy, since the elec. box was far into the ceiling. But now it's done, thank you again for all of your comments. Stay tuned for episode two...the attic fan, where we explore why the controls are stashed deep out of reach into the rafters, thus preventing the fan from going on the entire summer. And the electricity is running...I found out the hard way. Ouch.

[micky]

Starting with all of this, here's my scenario. The fan should have been held up by the bracket, but somehow it broke off and was now held up only by the canopy. There must be a ring on the pipe that holds the fan that was too big to go through the canopy.

The weight of the fan on the canopy made the canopy hard to turn, so it wouldn't separate from whatever was holding it.

Someone should have lifted up the fan, at least taken the weight off the canopy, while someone else turned the canopy.

[hiromismom]

We were having the same problem. I found this blog and it helped us! We had to lift up in the unit so the canopy could turn. Now we can replace with something newer. Thanks so much!

[scottmar98]

replying to hiromismom, scottmar98 wrote: It's been almost three years since I posted originally...there is a great lesson in this. Even though you might think that something is long forgotten, it can still be resurrected to help someone in need! So always post...no matter how trivial you might think it is!

[Gordon Shumway]

I forgot, what was the question again?

[dontberry7]

For those who seem to be sure the canopy cannot be the thing that supports the ball, downtube, and the entire fan, I can assure you that there are som e Hunter fans that do in fact work this way. You first mount a stout plate to the ceiling. There is then a way to temporarily hang the fan while you make electrical connections. But eventually you end up attaching the cano py to the ceiling plate with three screws that do carry the entire weight o f the fan. The final piece is snapping on a "canopy trim ring" that can so metimes be a real bitch to remove at a later date. Sometimes those trim ri ngs work exactly the way they are supposed to, and sometimes they do not.

[glasperchalmes3]

The Hampton bay ceiling fan, took off canopy ring but no screws. So how can I get off to change the reciever.