Ceiling fan not working correctly


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Old 10-01-16, 12:51 PM
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Ceiling fan not working correctly

I bought a brand new Fanimation fan from Lowe's a few days ago, but it is not acting right when I try to turn it on. The fan is this one:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Fanimation-...TAR/1000002270

Here is a link to a video showing what happens when I try to turn on the fan.

https://youtu.be/KuvF0tNvgu4 In the video, you can see that the light works well. But when I activate the fan, several things happen. 1) It is slow to respond and actually start turning the blades. 2) The blades oscillate in both directions several times. 3) They eventually start oscillating back and forth so quickly that they appear to be motionless. 4) When I push the Speed Up button, it finally kicks it in gear and it starts moving in the correct direction. 5) I finally push the off button and it begins to slow down appropriately.

Before installing the fan, there was only a light in its place. There is a switch box on the wall that controlled the light. When I installed the fan, I had to keep the switch constantly in the on position so that it gave power to the fan and I could use the fan's remote control. This seemed unnecessary to me, so I removed the switch and just spliced the hot, neutral, and ground wires together, respectively. Both before and after taking out the switch, the fan still has been acting funny, so I don't think something is wrong with the wiring where the old switch was. However, just in case, I wanted to post a photo showing what the connections now look like.

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Any ideas?
 
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Old 10-01-16, 01:45 PM
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Your wiring in the box is correct.

The fan looks like it has a capacitor problem. That would be a defective fan.
 
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Old 10-02-16, 07:55 AM
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Thanks! I'll go and replace it.
 
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Old 10-02-16, 08:06 AM
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If the power comes into the switch box, then one cable is a switch loop, and the capping of the wires is incorrect. Now, if the power comes into the fan, these both could switch loops, although not normal, and in order to connect them, you would connect a white and black in each cable to each other, not white/white and black/black.
 
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Old 10-02-16, 08:32 AM
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Chandler,

Thanks for the response. I am attaching a photo of what is going on inside the switch box - at least to the best of my knowledge. You will see that there are 3 sets of wires coming into the box. I believe one of these sets is from the upstream electrical box, one set is to the downstream box, and the final set is to the fan. See below:

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This diagram shows how the wires have been spliced together AFTER removing the switch. I wish I had more knowledge to address your question. Does it look correctly hooked up?
 
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Old 10-02-16, 12:26 PM
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Having the wiring as you show it, makes the fan hot all the time. There is no need for a switch in the box since you are using the remote exclusively. If you were to install a switch, you would install it where the black source comes in on one screw and the load out to the fan on the other screw of the switch, thereby breaking the connection with the switch.

I agree with Pete, it does seem as if the fan is faulty. I don't know why it would react that way except by having a bad capacitor in the motor.

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Old 10-02-16, 01:53 PM
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Gotcha, yeah, I'm sure that was the setup before I took the switch out. Now that it is removed, I have it wired as you see currently, i.e. hot all the time. Time for a new fan.
 
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Old 10-02-16, 06:05 PM
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I agree with everyone else I think you have a faulty fan and since it is fairly new it is best to replace the fan. One question that wasn't brought up but I assume you did is there a fan safe box where the light used to be? Just checking otherwise not much else to say except I had a fan with just a pull chain and it was the motors switch that caused some of the same problems. I know Pete knows more about the fans with remotes than I do so I really couldn't advise you further.
 
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Old 10-09-16, 12:49 PM
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Just as a follow-up, I replaced the fan with a brand new one and it is behaving EXACTLY the same way. I don't know if it's possible that not enough power is reaching the fan, but that seems far fetched.

I'm probably just going to keep it as is. It works, just not very efficiently at first.

Thanks for the help regardless!
 
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Old 10-09-16, 12:54 PM
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That is really strange. The only further step you could take is to measure the voltage on the white and black wire at the fan with it connected. Not an easy task with that style of fan.
 
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Old 10-09-16, 02:37 PM
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It is a DC fan not AC fan. I wonder if that is somehow related. Maybe both fans from the same lot# and all the fans that day got a bad part.
 
 

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