Not really a question, more of an answer to my own question. Hope others learn from my experience.


So, I have a ceiling fan that would not work. The light worked but the fan would not turn. It has a pull chain to change the fan speed between high, medium, low and off. It also has a switch to change between forward and reverse. When I turned on the fan switch near the door (I do not have a remote to control the fan) I heard a hum. When I pulled the chain I heard a high, medium and low noise but no motion.


To help figure out what was wrong I took the electrical and lighting part of another fan and installed onto this fan and voila, the fan began to work… for a while. After fiddling with the pull chain and the forward / reverse switch I kinda broke it. When I reinstalled the electrical part back to the working fan I found that I now had two broken fans. :confused:


I got on the web and discovered that the forward / reverse switch is a DTDP Slide Switch. DTDP = Double Throw Double Pole… whatever. I learned this means that when the switch is down, the middle left wire is connected to the bottom left wire and the middle right wire is connected to the bottom right wire. Likewise, when the switch is up, the middle left wire is connected to the top left wire and the middle right wire is connected to the top right wire. Great - I know how it works. Now what?


I also found out that black box thingy’s are capacitors. If they look like they were melted in a microwave they would be bad but all of mine are good. I learned that changing the ratings by swapping these out will give you different speeds on the fan. Very cool (pun intended) but not my problem.


Given that I now had two broken fans, my wife got very nervous when I headed for the third and last fan in the house. I opened up all three and tried to find some clue. I took out my electrical meter tester do-hicky (I’m a mechanical engineer – not electrical) and checked for continuity between the various wires on the slide switches. The good fan had continuity and the bad did not. When I played around with the switch on the one of the bad fans I was able to get continuity. I turned on the fan switch at the wall and… yeeha… the fan worked. Eurika! Junky switches.


I have no particular use for the reverse direction of the fan. I know, I know, it is supposed to be energy efficient and all that. The fact is, I use the fan in the “blow on me ‘cause I’m hot” mode. In 10 years I never used reverse. So, I simply disconnected the wires from the switch and hard wired them into the “blow down” direction. I returned the disconnected switch to the casing just to fill in the hole. I did this for all three fans so I will never see that problem again.


So, that’s my story. I hope someone else can benefit from this.

That's a cute story. I laughed the whole time. Only a mechanical engineer would be so precise in figuring out the problem. You guys sure like to know how stuff works. Am glad you got your fan to work. The multi tester thingy is the best invention ever. I love mine. When my ceiling fan starts to make too much noise when I'm trying to get some sleep... I just go out and buy another one and start all over again for the next 2-3 years. I used to waste hours on end trying to get the thing to be quiet... I finally gave up and threw it away.

It was not meant as an insult by the way. I just really enjoyed reading how you solved your problem. My son is a Mr. Fix it and he goes through the same process. It just tickled my funny bone! Didn't mean to sound insulting, just sounded way too familiar that's all. Glad you got to the bottom of the fan mystery.

Computer messages are so hard to make clear. I know you were just enjoying it and not really insulting. Thanks again. :)

You now have all three fans working, in downdraft?

I grew up on a farm and my Dad was a contractor. So the farm was for growing weeds and rabbits. We never threw anything away and very seldom bought anything new. We bough broken equipment, tools, whatever. Our first swamp cooler was homemade with a 1 hp electric motor, automobile water pump and fan. The wet air blew through the house about gale force and you couldn't even stay inside. LOL My dad would try to make everything from junk. That's when I learned that common sense in trouble shooting was more valuable than a certificate. This week, I finally got my AC at the house fixed even though 2 different techs failed to find the problem. The time delay switch was failing and "vibrating" the contactor. A simple bypass fixed that problem too ! Anyway, that's why we're here, to bounce ideas off each other. We might not have the correct solution, but often we can find one that works.

CeilingFanRepair:
Yes, I have all three fans running in downdraft mode now.

The reverse switches are DPDT switches, standard and available anywhere. I rarely use the reverse option myself though

Frequently asked ceiling fan questions - Ceiling Fans N More (http://www.ceiling-fans-n-more.com/ceiling-fan-faq.php)

I did the same thing in a way on my AC unit. The time delay switch went bad. I took it apart and couldn't find anything wrong with it. But I didn't know what resistance readings I should get at the various components in it. Anyway, I bypassed it by running the t-stat wires directly to the contactor coil. Worked fine. Got to thinking that the t-stat has a built in 3 1/2 minute time delay. I think I am not replacing the redundant switch at the unit. The more solid state circuitry seems like the more things to go wrong ? I agree with having the fans in the down mode. I'm in Las Vegas, our fans run 24/7 365 days a year, and I've never switched them to the "up" mode in winter. I've been in this house 15 years.

I turn them down to low for the winter, but keep them in downdraft. Does the same thing. Read the link in my previous post if you want more info.

I just keep the medium speed on down draft all the time. What the heck, it works.

Any speed in downdraft is fine, as long as it doesn't create more of a breeze than you desire :)