Ceiling Fan Question

[Dimitrios Paskoudniakis]

I have a high ceiling fan, so last year had an electrician install a switch to change the 3 speed settings. There was already an on/off switch, he just changed to a switch that is on/off, with a small bar to the left of the switch that slides up and down into three positions for high, medium, and low speed.

Now that winter is over and we just turned the fan on, I notice that the fan doesn't go above medium speed. It is at the low speed at the low setting, medium speed at medium setting, but only medium speed (no faster) at high setting.

Is this a simple connection issue at the switch, or something else?

[Dimitrios Paskoudniakis]

Oh, and by the way, I ensured the pull chain was already in the high speed setting.

[RBM]

Turn the power off to the fan. remove the speed control and disconnect it from the house wiring. Connect the two wires together, not including any possible ground wires. Turn power back on and see if it works now on "hi" speed. If so, you have a bad control, if not, you may have a four speed pull chain on the fan or something bad on the fan's internal speed control

[Oren]

I then suspect the (slider) switch is bad. Happens...

-- Oren

"If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me."

[mm]

Dang, that's what I was going to say.

You may have to take out the new switch and put in a simple toggle temporarily and find out if high speed is still there and the new swtich is the problem.

You had highspeed last fall? Seems like there are only two choies, the fan or the new swtich.

BTW, I have a 3 speed table fan at my desk, also controlled by a lamp dimmer, and and the fan itself is not on the highest speed. You're right of course it would have to be on high to get the highest speed, but I only want low speeds, just not so low the fan stops spinning. So I'm acquainted with your setup.