I just installed a Monte Carlo ceiling fan with upper and lower lights, comes with a wall-mounted remote. Thinking this would be easy to just add a universal fan remote, I bought a Harbor Breeze LCD temperature control/light dimmer remote control (fancier the better I thought). After installing the fan, and setting the fan DIP switches to match the wall-mounted remote, and the new Harbor breeze remote, I turned the power back on. Now the fan works fine with the wall-remote it came with. The universal is not talking to it though. I have a separate fan/remote combo in a different room, set that room's remote switches to match the new room's fan, and it works. Tried vise versa with the old room's fan/remote/switches, universal didn't talk to it either. Upon reading the instructions (better late than never), the universal remote mentions "MANUALLY SET FAN SPEED TO HIGH VIA PULL CHAINS AND SET LIGHT TO ON VIA PULL CHAIN". Um, this fan only works on remote. How do I get the Universal remote to talk to the fan?

Are you saying you added another remote to a fan that came with a factory remote and pull switches? You can't add a universal remopte to a fan that came with a factory remote. I don't know how you wired this but cahnces are your universal doesn't have power unless the factory remote is already powered. Tell us more.

The fan I bought does NOT have pull cords, only a wall-mounted remote. I wanted to add a handheld remote to keep by the bedside so I didn't have to get out of bed to turn on the light/fan from the remote located across the room. I tried matching the codes for the remotes the same, and the universal remote does not communicate. Next I tried using a different fan remote (from 2nd bedroom fan) and matched the codes for the NEW fan and it works fine. I'm perplexed as to why the Universal remote will not work with the new fan but the remote from the 2nd bedroom works on the new fan. As far as the power question, the Universal remote is powered by 4 AAA batteries, and the LCD screen is working fine.

Try all the different combinations of settings of the dip switches in the universal remote. If none of them work, it just might not be compatible with the Monte Carlo fan. Or it might be defective. I'm surprised it didn't work for either fan.

http://www.ceiling-fans-n-more.com/ceiling-fan-remotes.php