Electricians, help me with this ceiling fan!

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Electricians, help me with this ceiling fan!

Posted: 7/26/2002 6:46:28 PM EDT

Please.

I installed it. A ceiling fan w/light. Tested it, all worked fine. I go out to dinner, come back, and NOW IT DOESN'T WORK -NOTHING. No power to the light or the fan.

I checked the breaker, it's fine (the other lights on it are too). I rechecked the wiring in the wall-switch.... all fine.

Question: Maybe I didn't ground it properly?

If so, what could have happened?

What can be done?

Thanks in advance.

Posted: 7/26/2002 6:51:32 PM EDT

[#1]

Do you have an ac voltmeter? A test light?

Did you re-check your connections with the house wiring? (Re-twist the wire nuts or check the screw terminals.)

Is there an internal breaker on the fan itself?

Posted: 7/26/2002 6:52:11 PM EDT

[#2]

Did you secure the ends of the wires with electrical tape after you twisted them together? They may have come apart.

Posted: 7/26/2002 6:54:08 PM EDT

[#3]

I forgot one -

My ceiling fan has independent, on-board switches for both light and fan. Are they still switched to the "on" position?

Posted: 7/26/2002 6:57:32 PM EDT

[#4]

I used the little plastic caps to attach the wires.

I checked all of the connections, and their fine.

What about the ground?
The instructions were a bit obtuse, so I attached the two ground wires to each other...

Posted: 7/26/2002 6:58:33 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
I forgot one -

My ceiling fan has independent, on-board switches for both light and fan. Are they still switched to the "on" position?

View Quote

This model is for a "two wire/single circuit" situation.

Posted: 7/26/2002 7:03:40 PM EDT

[#6]

Typical connections:

Black to black. (Hot or "active" wire.)

White to white. (Neutral wire - attached to earth ground back at the main breaker panel.)

Green to green. (Earth or "protective" ground. Connected to neutral back at the main breaker panel. [u]Not needed for the bulb to light.[/u])

Posted: 7/26/2002 7:04:09 PM EDT

[#7]

Was the fan ballanced properly ? As dumb as this question seems, it may have worked your connections loose (Check your mounts) Loose connections have been known to cause fires. Good luck....

Posted: 7/26/2002 7:07:16 PM EDT

[#8]

Here's the thing...

It worked fine.
I turned it off.
I came back an hour later...
...nothing.

Posted: 7/26/2002 7:10:35 PM EDT

[#9]

Redo what you did before,uninstall then reinstall the light(fan). Then if it does the same thing take it back,it's not unusall to get a bad one nowadays!

Bob {8D]

Posted: 7/26/2002 7:11:43 PM EDT

[#10]

Wire nuts are prone to work loose if not installed correctly. Take apart and reconnect ALL of your connections.

Posted: 7/26/2002 7:12:04 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Here's the thing...

It worked fine.
I turned it off.
I came back an hour later...
...nothing.

View Quote

Re-strip your wires. With plenty of copper showing, re-twist the wires together and install the wire nuts.

Sounds like a bad connection.

Posted: 7/26/2002 7:14:57 PM EDT

[#12]

I did.

Nothing.
Thanks gentlemen.

Posted: 7/26/2002 7:22:25 PM EDT

[#13]

Did you turn the fan off by pulling the fans chain or the wall switch?

If you used the pull chain to turn the fan off, look and see if the chain is going all the way back into the switch. Maybe it needs to be pulled a few times to settle in.

Posted: 7/26/2002 7:22:47 PM EDT

[#14]

Is this a three way switch? I put up a fan one time and it was working fine. A day or two later it stopped, I checked the wire nuts and the normal routine. In the end it turned out that the second switch was stuck mid way because my kids had been playing with the switch that normally wasn't used. Needless to say the fan still worked. [:D]

Posted: 7/26/2002 7:51:22 PM EDT

[#15]

It's 2 wire 1 circuit.
Wall plate operated.
Wall plate has an on/off switch, and 2 more buttons; one for the fan, one for the light.
There's a little remote in the fan, that picks of these signals.
Three speed fan.
Three different dimmer modes.
Too much to go wrong.

I'll take it down, re-wire, put it up again.
Then, I'll do it with the other identical fan, that I was planning on putting up in the bedroom.

First I'll go to HomeDepot.
Get a Voltimeter.

Thanks guys.

Posted: 7/26/2002 8:16:35 PM EDT

[#16]

I'm not an electrician, but I am very, very skeptical of those remote signal thingies. Did you try a simple test light on the wall switch? If you have power there, I bet it's not getting the signal to turn itself on. Hard wire, skip the novelty junk.

Posted: 7/26/2002 8:43:29 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Wire nuts are prone to work loose if not installed correctly. Take apart and reconnect ALL of your connections.

View Quote

Then tape them.....

Posted: 7/26/2002 8:45:20 PM EDT

[#18]

Got Volts??

Posted: 7/26/2002 8:57:49 PM EDT

[#19]

Get yourself a volt meter. check your voltage hot to ground. 115-125v? OK. Next check voltage hot to neutral. same voltage? In my years of experience with lighting a loose neutral can cause problems. Your loose neutral may not be in you ceiling fan may be somewere else. but you should read proper voltage.

Remember replacing a light or a fan is one thing but wiring is no hobby call a licenced electrician

Posted: 7/26/2002 9:01:04 PM EDT

[#20]

Cycle the circut breaker - it might be soft tripped.

Posted: 7/27/2002 4:53:27 AM EDT

[#21]

Cincinnatus,
Greetings. I am an electrician and can walk you through some steps. I typed a lengthy reply but it was too long and being the idiot that I am I was unable to figure how to double post it and lost it. Basically, determine that you have power to the hot side of the wall switch, then determine that the switch is good, then determine that power is going to the fan. Buy a Wiggins at Home Depot for about $20. You don't really need a more expensive voltage tester. Unless you want one.
Short new guy intro: Electrician, ret military, live near San Antonio, shoot IDPA (just started), scored very well at first shoot but times kept my overall down. I perfer to use it as a more practical practice. No spray and pray here. Also shoot league at Blackhawk Range; mostly both during non baseball season, play in Men's Senior Baseball Leageue - I am a catcher i.e. "Backstop". I've got a double header starting at 11 so gotta go. I'll check back this evening. Is there a word count or something so as to know the post length?
Thanks, Don

Posted: 7/27/2002 4:56:12 AM EDT

[#22]

Ok think I'm finally Backstop now.
Don

Posted: 7/27/2002 6:44:17 AM EDT

[#23]

If you followed the wirering directions properly and can confinently say it is wired correctly (because there are odd colored wires like blue and yellow sometimes in the systems)I would look for a bad conductor, like a connection,switch or a circuit breaker.
If you have power going to the unit my thoughts are that you have a bad connection possibly due to having to stuff the connections back under the plate.
I recommend starting at the unit and tracing (testing)the wires back untill you get power.
Some times I leave the wires out and exposed to do a function test.
There is an external voltage tester you can get for about $12 at home depot that will beep when it gets near a live line so you don't have to take connections apart to use a wiggy.
As far as the grounding goes it should still work (other than the saftey of things).
We subcontract a bunch of these.
email me if you can't get it going.
Good luck.
Andy

Posted: 7/27/2002 7:10:21 AM EDT

[#24]

Fixed it, thanks for the help.
One connection was off.
I realized that for both the fan AND the light not to work, that it narrowed where the problem could be.
I searched in these areas, and found it.
Thanks.

Posted: 7/27/2002 7:18:48 AM EDT

[#25]

Some radio controlled items will NOT work correctly with a missing green ground.

Why tape wire nuts? Unless you strip too long or fail to install properly tape adds nothing but inconvience.

Often people do not get the ends of wires even before screwing on the wire nut. Result is poor connection that can easily pull out. Get in the habit of pulling on each wire after nut is applied as this will often find the defect.

The "glow when its close" device to check wiring are only fit to use to make sure something is de-energized prior to work. For troubleshooting they can gey you thouroughly confused. Everyone needs a cheap volt ohm meter. The applications are truly endless!

Go straight to the fan and the ceiling box. Pull all the connections out where you can get at them. Remove any damn tape. One lead on metal box or other grounded metal part. Other lead in turn to black (120 VAC required), then to white (zero required) then to green (zero required). Now check BK to WHT and BK to GRN, 120VAC required in each case. WHT to GRN better be zero. If it passes those and fails to work, replace the fan.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Electricians, help me with this ceiling fan!

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