Ceiling fan above kitchen

[joe40king]

I have seen some good deals on coldweather gear on different sites. If you need them drop a line. I have enough cold weather gear for a mexican army to invade Oregon. The problem is uncle Sam makes me sign for it and wants it back...Cheers JOE sends

[PirateJohn]

Originally Posted by joe40king

I have seen some good deals on coldweather gear on different sites. If you need them drop a line. I have enough cold weather gear for a mexican army to invade Oregon. The problem is uncle Sam makes me sign for it and wants it back...Cheers JOE sends

Funny to see this comment, because I'm literally 5 miles from the Mexican border (had sushi in Reynosa tonight as a matter of fact) and I got the word from our FEMA contacts that I'd better get ready to head to the floods in Washington and Oregon in a few days 'cause we might be getting that call.

I don't own any long sleeve shirts anymore, I don't think. Anyone know where I can buy some flannel Hawaiian shirts?

On the subject of the overhead fan. Well, I've got to the bottom of the majority of my problems. I hate to admit it, but there was an extra switch on a nearby panel that was turned off, and that's why the fan didn't have any power.

The switch on the fan itself is so old that it's basically stuck in one position, so I can't honestly tell if that was a thermostat or a multi-speed switch. There is no other thermostatic control that I can find.

Simple problem. Simple fix, it would appear.

[peteaeonix]

The topic seems to have wandered far from the original question. Did you find the fuse?

IF not, did you check to see if there is power at the fan (with a voltage meter) when the thermostat/switch are on?

My Kool-o-matic fan worked somewhat oddly -- it would come on, run, then quit, and run, and quit ... then one day it just plain quit.

I saw some corrosion on the back of the thermostat and figured that perhaps the switches were bad. Then I went to the trouble of taking the fan apart -- and, surprise, I had solid 12v dc power at the fan. WIred the fan speed switch out -- still no fan (wasn't the switch on the fan bracket). Eventually, I decided it had to be the motor. I purchased this one from Granger:
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/2M197 -- which I now see is 1/3 the price I paid!! But $30 including delivery wasn't bad.

I had to shim the shaft since it's a smaller diameter than the OEM motor (used .30 aluminum plate, wrapped around the shaft) and I cut off the two threaded bolts intended as a mount so they didn't interfere with the fan movement.

The Granger motor was a little bigger around than the OEM motor -- but it was easily within the slack of the mounting bracket. Once I got the fan mounted and the motor in the bracket and the bracket installed back in the ceiling, it ran like a charm. I re-used the 3-speed switch, but I didn't bother to set up a way to access it as I was satisfied with the "high" speed. (It moves a lot of air.) The only thing I feel bad about is finding that the motor price was reduced by 2/3 since I bought it -- however the "while stock lasts" is a sign that it's a close out price.

For the heck of it, I disassembled the OEM motor -- and discovered that the brush area on the armature had become clogged up with carbon from the brushes. I cleaned the little slots out, and (with some difficulty) managed to get the motor sort of reassembled. It then ran, but made some awful noises (as I'm sure I didn't get all the little parts for the shaft bearings back in place in the right order). Anyway, it was satisfying to determine why the OEM motor quit.

Now there's a nice, new motor in place that ought to have many years life in it before another service is required.

[Bill Pape]

Originally Posted by BCRoamer

One my many surprises as I learned about my coach was to find the this ceiling fan is actually a 3 speed unit. There was no external knob coming through the grate and I just assumed it was single speed. One of my "honey-does" was to clean the inside of the unit. I now have a knob that allows me to run the fan from low to wow.

Lance, I likewise accidently found this hidden speed control. I choose the middle speed, because it really roared on high. Did you remount or extend the control shaft??? It would be nice to control the fan speed.

[peteaeonix]

I've heard that some have cut a hole in the metal grille to reach the speed control with a screwdriver. After playing with the fan speed before replacing the grill, I was satisfied in leaving it set on high, although I could imagine wanting to use a slower speed sometime in the future. Perhaps I'll revisit that issue sometime in the future.

The new fan motor I installed doesn't seem to roar on high -- it may be moving the fan a little slower than the OEM motor (since I had to specs for that motor).

[dlefty]

I took down the grill and had it powder coated this past summer. Initially I tried to repaint it but it turned out poorly. I'm very happy with the result of powder coating.

Anyway, I never realized that there was a fan speed switch until reading this post. Where is this? Can it be remounted to a place that it can be accessed?

I think I'll buy a motor because mine is OEM and likely to die soon. Thanks Stephen for the good tip!

[peteaeonix]

The fan speed switch is on one of the 3 arms of the mounting bracket -- it sits at a slight angle with a shaft pointing downward. The best solution is to install some sort of knob that you can manipulate with a screwdriver via an access hole that you drill/cut in the grill. You can't simply extend the switch and install a knob because then you couldn't shut the metal slide.

It's likely that you can pick a fan speed that you find acceptable and that you'd not be changing the setting very often, so making an access hole is probably the most reasonable approach.

The OEM has gone out of business, so you can no longer get parts from them. However, there are a variety of 12 vdc "fan" motors available that work as a replacement. Someone else described going to a NAPA store and picking out a replacement by looking at motors similar to the old one. I found an acceptable fan from Granger (as noted in a prior message), but it took a little extra effort to shim the fan shaft to fit the hole in the fan (but it wasn't -that- hard to do).

It's hard to know just how long the OEM fan will last. If your present fan is showing some clear signs of impending failure (my fan would shut down for no reason, or sometimes would not start up) then getting a replacement is reasonable. If the fan operates as expected, I'd wait until it gives signs that all is not well -- these motors can last a long time. I note, for example, that the brushes on my old motor still had over half their length left -- it was only due to some buildup of brush material in the gaps between the armature contacts that appears to have caused the motor to quit. This may have been unique to my fan motor (or not).