Ceiling Fan?
Question:I have this one ceiling fan that I had installed last year that's wildly unbalanced. Unfortunately the original installer has gone out of business and the new company that's taken its place is refusing to honour the warrenty despite being controlled by exactly the same people that owned the original company.
I've tried to find a balancing kit the big box stores but to no avail and I'm not exactly a pro at this sort of thing. Any suggestions on how I can get this fan balanced?
(It seems that one of the blades had been knocked out of whack at some point and I'm also finding it tough getting the hub of the fan centred).
Cheers!
Answers:
If the fan was dropped and the hub is not centered you are going to have to fix that first. Start by checking to make sure all the nuts and bolts are tight (they can get loose from the wobbling of the fan).
For the blades, sometimes just changing two of the blades will fix it. If it is 4 blades, swap the ones at 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock. 5 bladed fan change the 12 o'clock with the 4 o'clock.
If it is still unbalanced, you can use about anything with some weight if you can get it to stick to the blade. Maybe some heavy washers. Just turn on the fan and mark the blade that swings out from the center the most. Add one or two washers at a time until you get it right.
You might find a balancing kit at a lighting store.
Probably the screws were either lost or not put there from the very beginning, I had to replace one screw on mine ,the blade was wobbling as well .
I would either call an electrician to take a look at it or just get a new one . Personally I do not like anything turning above my head that is loose !
I had a related problem once. What I did was to check which blade was out of alignment and adjust the blade by bending it gently in the appropriate direction. This should correct the problem and cause the blades to exert equal forces about the pipe supporting the fan. Cheers
This is a cool trick that I learned. First make sure that all the screws that hold the fan blade on are tight, they sometimes can come loose and that will cause the fan to shake. Then all you need is a quarter and some masking tape. On one of the blades tape the quarter to the center of the blade. Turn on the fan and see if the shaking got better or worse. If it is worse then move the quarter closer to the motor, if it made it better move it out to fine tune it. If need be you can also add some more change in the same spot as the quarter if your fan is that bad. Just remember you only do this to one of the blades. Play with the placement until it stops shaking then you are good to go.
I had the same problem with a fan I had in my bedroom. I taped pennies on the top of two blades with duct tape and it stopped wobbling. Hope this helps.
If its way out of balance you would have to replace the blades if not on a 4 blade fan weight each once and the ones that are closest with each pair put the opposite of each other may have to get a balancing kit if its a really old fan buy a new one
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