Ceiling fans can be a lifesaver if you live in a hot climate like Florida. Even in the northern states a lot of homes don’t have A/C units and rely on ceiling fans to cycle air through their homes. This adds up to about 80 million American households having at least one ceiling fan. This number doesn’t include industrial buildings and their ceiling fans.
While a lot of people own ceiling fans, not a lot know how they work. The typical ceiling fan repair can cost anywhere from $80-$300.
Signs that your ceiling fan might be bad
There are a couple of easy ways to check if your ceiling fan is bad or is slowly going bad. If your ceiling fan is bad it may be time to look at new options. Hopefully, I will be able to solve some of the common issues when dealing with a bad ceiling fan.
Doesn’t turn on but makes a humming noise:
If you flip your switch and the fan doesn’t move but makes a humming noise. Along with the humming noise, you might also smell an electrical burning smell. This means that your motor has gone bad. A lot of times the light kit will not turn on either because they are hooked through the same wiring.
The first step is to make sure that there is power coming from your switch. you don’t want to take apart your ceiling fan to find out your breaker is switched off.
Second, if the power is running you are going to now shut the power off so you can start to take apart the fan. once you’ve taken down the fan you are going to want to test the wires to make sure there is power going to the fan.
You will need to turn back on the fan to test the power.
If you come to the conclusion that the fan’s motor is the issue you’re going to want to change out the fan ASAP. If you cannot change it ASAP turn on the power so the wires aren’t running hot. This can lead to an electrical fire. We definitely do not want that.
Your ceiling fan makes too much noise
Ceiling fan stuck on one speed
Most commonly this is caused by the pull chain being old and getting stuck. If your pull chain is stuck inside of the cover it will cause your ceiling fan to be stuck on one speed.
I recommend removing the cover and replacing the chain. This is a simple fix and chains can be picked up at your local hardware store.
If the chain isn’t bad and it doesn’t change the speed of the fan this means that your internal chain switch is broken.
A common way to make your ceiling fan go bad
One common way people break their ceiling fan is by pulling too hard on the chain. If you pull too hard on the chain too many times it will cause the internal pull chain switch to break.