3 speed Hunter ceiling fan

[mustash29]

I would consider myself pretty decent with electrical knowledge. 12 VDC, 120/240 VAC and 3 phase from 440 to 4160 to 115 KV. 10 yrs as a Navy electronics tech & 17 at a power plant.

This darn ceiling fan has me stumped. My other half (with the kung-fu grip) yanked on the speed changer chain the other day and snapped off the little plastic thingy that mounts the switch. I had a cheap Walmart / Mainstays 3 speed switch laying around so I changed it out.

The old and new switches look the same and have 4 connections, line, 1, 2 & 3.

Originally it went off - hi - med - low. Now with the new switch I have off - hi - low - low. Strange. We even put a piece of red duct tape on one of the 5 blades and ran it on all 3 setting and counted the rpm's and compared this with the other 3 Hunter fans in the house. Hi = 130 rpm, med = 100, low = 60. (This is rather difficult to do after 3 rum & cokes.)

So I took the old switch and checked it with my meter. Off is off. Hi energizes #1. Med energizes 2 & 3. Low energizes 3.

This made me think the cheap replacement is not the right thing to use. So we go to Home Depot, the guy we talk to is a retired electrician, and hands me a Westinghouse switch that is "universal" and "will work on just about any fan." So I checked the contacts on it. Off = off. Hi energizes #1. Med energizes #2. Low energizes #3.

WTF?

 

[heat seeker]

Same thing happened here. A bit of super glue fixed the switch - going on two years ago. These wiring on these fans can drive you crazy. I chose the easy way out, and it still is working.

 

[mustash29]

Super Glue - the fix all. We discussed that option in the car on the way home, LOL.

A little Google action and apparently there are proper replacement switches available.

 

[lml999]

I've got the same issue at my house. Visitor pulled the chain a bit too hard, or maybe was swinging from it, and it snapped. I got another 4 wire switch, wired it in, and now the fan and light don't behave properly. I think I'm going to either rewire the original switch back in (after extending the chain) or maybe try to find the correct switch replacement.

Electrician offered to replace the whole fan for $500 to solve the problem.

Um, no.

 

[vinny11950]

10 yrs as a Navy electronics tech & 17 at a power plant.

If you are stumped, I got nothing.

But Amazon does offer these switches and you can read Q&A section and the reviews to figure out which work and which do not.

 

[Marshy]

Do yourself a favor and install a wireless speed selector. You put the pull chain on high and wire the wireless box into the base of the fan and walk away. Then you only have to play the "where is it" game with the remote.

 

[blades]

just keep those remotes out the dogs way they seem to find them quite tasty.

 

[Marshy]

just keep those remotes out the dogs way they seem to find them quite tasty.

Kids like them too.

 

[Dobish]

i had a fan in my bedroom that had a light wired to it. the only thing was, the light was 15' across the room. It was trying to replace the switch, so it would have the fan on one switch and the light on the other, but i could turn on the light, or turn on the fan and the light, but not just the fan. i spent hours trying to figure out how it could be connected. Finally I took off both fixtures, and found out they were both wired hot, no matter what switch was there.... I ended up tearing out the switch, putting in a single switch, cutting the wire out of the light and putting in a fan/light combo with the remote. I wired a completely different switch and moved the light off of the same power source.

It was so bizarre how it was wired, but so frustrating.

I have also had a few fans that if you have the fan not on high, the remote only has some functions. that's super frustrating two when wired to a 2 way switch!

 

[Hogwildz]

Cut the chain so the wife can't reach it.

 

[saewoody]

Had the same issue a couple years ago. The old and new switches were different. It will still work, you just have to wire it the the correct terminals/wires the way the new switch is designed to work. I wish I had had schematics for the new switch. I had to figure it out with my meter. What I thought would be a 10 minute job took over an hour.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk