WARNING

Professur

Professur

Well-Known Member
To all ceiling fan owners:

I got a call through the week from the family up at the cottage. There was a burning smell coming from the ceiling fan in the salon. With the switches off, it still smelled, and was warm-hot to the touch. They felt a vibration through it too. Knowing that the fan portion of it was wired hot, I told them to find the breaker and shut it off, and I'd be right up after work. After it was off for a bit, the smell lessened and it cooled off. They'd checked the attic and there was no sign of trouble there, so they said to not make a special trip and to just come up as planned on the weekend.

Well, it's the weekend, and here I am. Took it down, and replaced it with a spare fixture until 'we' can select a new model. But ... being me, I wanted to know exactly what had happened. It smelled like a burnt graphite bushing, but...

So I took it apart. And nope, wasn't a bushing. There's a balast (capacitor) in series with the motor, to buffer it against the high power demand at startup. It had blown spectacularly. Oil all over the inside. And since it had been wired hot (by an electrician no less) when it blew power just kept pumping into it. A couple of calls to knowledgable people informed me that this isn't uncommon (blowing the balast). In fact, cheap fans can have a life as short as 5 years.

So if you've got ceiling fans .... you've been cautioned.
 
Professur said:
To all ceiling fan owners:

I got a call through the week from the family up at the cottage. There was a burning smell coming from the ceiling fan in the salon. With the switches off, it still smelled, and was warm-hot to the touch. They felt a vibration through it too. Knowing that the fan portion of it was wired hot, I told them to find the breaker and shut it off, and I'd be right up after work. After it was off for a bit, the smell lessened and it cooled off. They'd checked the attic and there was no sign of trouble there, so they said to not make a special trip and to just come up as planned on the weekend.

Well, it's the weekend, and here I am. Took it down, and replaced it with a spare fixture until 'we' can select a new model. But ... being me, I wanted to know exactly what had happened. It smelled like a burnt graphite bushing, but...

So I took it apart. And nope, wasn't a bushing. There's a balast (capacitor) in series with the motor, to buffer it against the high power demand at startup. It had blown spectacularly. Oil all over the inside. And since it had been wired hot (by an electrician no less) when it blew power just kept pumping into it. A couple of calls to knowledgable people informed me that this isn't uncommon (blowing the balast). In fact, cheap fans can have a life as short as 5 years.

So if you've got ceiling fans .... you've been cautioned.
Click to expand...

You have net at the cottage??

btw, when do you usually go to and go home from the cottage (like day of week and time-ish) you can PM me if you want. We can leave as early as 1pm on Fridays from work so I'm thinking screw trying to find a long weekend that works (labour day would be the only one and ya'll probably be gearing to move the family home that weekend) and I'm gonna try to come up on a Friday (I guess I'd get there 8-9ish if I left right from work) and then leaving Sunday mid-morning to head home.
 
Also, do you still go to the cottage in sept? Looking at the calendar...next weekend I have two BBQs to attend and tickets to the circus, then it's Aug long weekend and I have a gathering at my aunt's cottage, then it's my mom's birthday, then I have tentative plans to go see a firefighter competition with my old roomie (although she's been pretty much MIA lately so that might crash and that weekend will be open...that one would work actually, if she bails) and then is one of my mom's weekends off so I'd like to hang out with her and then in labour day...
 
yeah I wana use the cottage to bring my eight hookers up there
and throw a massive par-tay
 
Then you just have to vote that way for the 2007 BBQ. SNP's offered his place, but I'm still in the running.
 
Bar-B-Que in an alien country???

After all, Algore did invent the internets ya know!
 
I've noticed that odd burning smell coming from the series of light bulbs above marlowe's sink in the adjoining upstairs bathroom. I chalk it up to dust but.....it never burns off. What could that be?
 
Professur said:
Then you just have to vote that way for the 2007 BBQ. SNP's offered his place, but I'm still in the running.
Click to expand...

Way to ignore me...:confused:
 
Professur said:
I wasn't ignoring you. I was gonna send you a PM, 3 demanding kids got in the way.
Click to expand...

I did check my PMs before I posted to see if you'd sent me one :p *waits*
 
Professur said:
In fact, cheap fans can have a life as short as 5 years.

So if you've got ceiling fans .... you've been cautioned.
Click to expand...
ACK

I don't have any, but I was going this week to the Re-Store to get some. Not now.
 
I have one, thanks for the advice. It has been working just fine for at least 10 years.
 
Leslie said:
ACK

I don't have any, but I was going this week to the Re-Store to get some. Not now.
Click to expand...
It wasn't the ceiling fans, Les. It was that they were wired incorrectly.
 
I'd be curious as to what brand the fan was. I don't remember what brand the ceiling fan I had in my bedroom as a kid was -- we lived in that house from 1989 to 1995 -- but it was wired that way and gave no problems.

Les, I'd venture to guess that if you spend a little more on a good quality fan (Hunter, Casablanca, etc. instead of an "el cheapo" generic Wal-Mart fan), you wouldn't have such a problem.
 
Um, No ... it was the fan. Wired hot means that the only switch controlling it is the chain dongle on the fan itself. That wasn't the problem. It just meant that there was no way to turn off the power to that part, since the ballast is on the hot side of the switch. Everyone I've talked to this weekend was unaware that there might be a ballast in their fans.
 
We've had (and have) lots of ceiling fans. I can't imagine the ballast literally blowing. I've changed bazillions of them in overhead fluorescent lamps. One more thing on the watch out for list :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top