I purchased a beautiful Hampton Bay fan second hand and was successful in installing it, however, I have done something to the wiring...

I had a ground, black and white wires coming from the ceiling that are attached to a dimmer switch - the kind that has a switch on the bottom and slider above it. I attached the ceiling fan black and blue to black, white to white and green to ground.

The light works, but the fan doesn't. When I attached the blue to the whites, the fan worked but the light didn't.

Any ideas? Thanks so much!
:eek:

The dimmer is not compatible with a fan motor.The black from the fan/light feeds the fan motor, the blue from the fan/light feeds the light fixture.

You may need to replace the dimmer with a standard switch, connect the fan/light black and blue to the ceiling black, and use the fan/light pullchains to control each.

If the fan worked when you connected the blue wire to white, there is something wrong besides just the dimmer switch. You need to check the wiring in the ceiling AND at the bottom of the fan, AFTER removing the dimmer switch.

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

I agree with previous poster something is definitely wrong with the wiring, but in most residential homes, the wiring is odd :D

I think what might be going on is a combo of what TK said and what ceilingfanrepair said.

The fan motor is obviously not compatible with the dimmer.

So the white and the black were used as separate switch legs. The white coming from the switch box might have been the switch at the bottom, and the dimmer was the black.

I suggest either do what TK said and run them on one switch leg, or assuming you are working with room for only one switch, a duplex type switch. And run them separtely if you like it that way ( I know my personal preference is separate just for convience :D)

I also would suggest getting a tester of sorts to figure which white is the switch leg and which is the neutral.

Something would be funny with the fan wiring, not the housing wiring. Blue is supposed to be a hot lead for the lights. If it works only after connecting blue to neutral..

But the most important first thing is to take the dimmer switch out of the equation.