[andrewc24301]

I'm wondering why some of my ceiling fans seem be noisy on low speed. Like a loud humming noise.

[ceilingfanrepair]

What make are they?

General ceiling fan troubleshooting and help FAQ- Ceiling Fans N More

[andrewc24301]

I don't know.

I do know, it's one of those small kids fans (with the different colored blades) that you get at walmart. In fact, I installed it, and it has always made this noise. On high speed it makes no unusual noise, on medium, it gets a litte bit louder. On low speed it's very noticeable.

The only fan that I replaced it with made this noise too, so I was thinking it may be the wiring, perhaps a low voltage.

I recently redid all of the wiring in the attic part of the house. Replaced all of the older two conductor no ground wire with three conductor grounded wire. Thought maybe this might remedy the problem. But it's still noisy, and I'm certain the fan is getting a good solid 120 volts. The fan isn't on a dimmer or anything. I do have a switch that breaks the whole circuit on the wall, but it's just a regular on/off switch that controls the light and the fan together.

Maybe it's just the fan? It was however only around $15, and I'm almost certain, made in china.

The other fans in the house are bigger and do not make a loud noise on any speed, they are however a bit more expensive, I think they were running at around $25 each.

However the fan in the kitchen has always hummed real loud on low speed. That fan came with the house, and it too, has small blades like the children's fan does. I also replaced the wiring to the kitchen fan, and in the process repaired a three way circuit that never has worked, and found out why. (former owner just had the switch wired the wrong way) But it's still noisy.

It's only the fans with the small blades I notice. I have a fan upstairs with medium sized blades, and it's somewhat noiser than the big fans, but not as loud as the smaller ones.

Unusual it is... Each are just cheap china made walmart fans... Nothing fancy...

[ceilingfanrepair]

Sounds like a case of CFS or SFS (Cheap Fan Syndrom or.. . )

You can try the noise reduction ideas in the troubleshooting link above, or you can try a Hunter, Emerson, or Casablanca.

[andrewc24301]

I agree. It's been like this for a few years and nothing has come of it. We generally do not run ceiling fans unattended anyway.

[ceilingfanrepair]

You can run them as much as you like, they won't catch fire or anything. They'll just draw current, and SUCK.