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eliotm · May 9, 2006, 07:28 AM

Hi!
Every year since I bought my 52-RDT ceiling fan with remote with no manual controls, I have had to replace the receiver unit because it stopped processing light controls. Hampton Bay was willing to send me a replacment rceiver free of charge each time (3?). But I have had enough. The reason I went this way in the first place was because I had only one switch leg going to the switch box. Anyway, I bought a new wall control and at the fan unit I was able to hook up the light portion, but the fan portion is much more complicated and I can't figure out how to wire the four leads to the fan. The leads leading to the fan are blue, white, grey, and brown. I was hoping that the white was a neutral and the others being coil leads. But this does not appear so. Being an EE I ohmed out the wires and there appears to be measurable continuity between the white and grey and blue and brown. If this is a digital motor, all bets are off. Any ideas?:confused:

ceilingfanrepair · May 9, 2006, 09:30 AM

I have not seen this wiring setup myself, but I can make some assumptions.

First, the blue wire you speak of is separate from the blue (or whatever color, but it's usually blue) wire for the lights, yes?

Second, it's not a digital motor, but there might be additional circuitry inside the fan housing.

eliotm · May 9, 2006, 05:36 PM

The blue wire is indeed a separate blue wire to the fan. As previously stated, the four wires to the fan are blue, blown, white, and gray. As the brown and blue wires and the white and grey wires seem to have resistance between them, could it be that the brown and blue are for one direction and the gray and white are the other? How does a fan usually reverse direction? By switching to a reverse winding?

ERM

ceilingfanrepair · May 10, 2006, 10:21 AM

Ok this is a simple and mostly accurate description of how they work: The motor has two coils. One has power applied to it directly, the other through the capacitor which acts as a "phase shifter" (sort of, not really, but close enough) changing the 60 cycle waveform to one of the coils. To reverse the fan you switch which coil is wired directly and which coil is in series with the capacitor.

As far as how your fan is wired, I would open up both the receiver and the fan motor itself and see if you can determine where the wires go. I am assuming the capacitor is mounted somewhere in the motor housing. I haven't personally seen a fan with this wiring so without looking at it I couldn't tell you which wire is which.

eliotm · May 11, 2006, 07:36 PM

Just to close the loop. HB really makes it difficult to rewire their remote versions that do not have manual pull chains. The capacitors are not in the fan, they are on the receiver, thereby allowing them to reverse direction by switching the caps from one pair to the other. Rewiring the fan would be a bear and would probably be unsafe at any speed. Save a buck and burn the house down. Bottom line for me is to throw the whole fan out and get a simple fan without a remote control.
Better yet, sell the house and move.

ceilingfanrepair · May 12, 2006, 08:41 AM

You could rewire it but it would require you removing the capacitors from the receiver and mounting them separately.

You could return the entire fan to Home Depot for a replacement under warranty. And then, since you will have a brand new fan, you could trade that for a different model with no remote. Just an idea.

tightwad · May 28, 2006, 06:49 PM

How do I change the direction of the airflow from up to down when there is no pull chain or switch?

ceilingfanrepair · May 28, 2006, 06:50 PM

If there is no pullchain I would assume it is a remote fan and it would be reversed by the remote. Do you know what brand/model fan it is? Some older fans are not reversible.