Ceiling Fan Problem.......

I have moved the ceiling fan from the family room to the kitchen...and it was working fine in the family room and it is working fine in the kitchen....so when I installed the new ceiling fan in the family room...the fan does work, BUT the light doesn't work at all...as I have checked out every single damn wires, etc...but no luck.....as the light switch inside the ceiling fan as 3 wires....the fan has 2 light fixtures (one in the dome and the other one at the bottom of the fan.....eight bulbs total (4 small and 4 regular)......

I did used the probe that signals the current outside the wires, as it thru all the connections, etc...couldn't find the dead one...

So what should I be looking for???

Thanks,
Rick

 

There are probably a zillion things that this could be. Here's a few:

Did you hook both hot wires (one for the motor and one for the light) to the same hot wire from the ceiling? Or were there two hot wires in the ceiling, one for each?

Did you connect the light kit to the fan according to the fan's installation instructions?

Is the fan's pull chain on?

Are all the wall switches on?

Please tell us the brand of the fan.

 

John,

Yes I did followed the instruction...

I did hooked up both hot wires from the fan to the hot wire from ceiling.....

I did hooked up the light fixtures according to the instruction which it has only black and white wires....as well as the small bulbs was the string type...as it has lock in connection, can't reverse it due to shape to mate properly...

The wall switch was one when I was testing the fan...the fan itself works fine, but light doesn't....even though I pull the light switch chain several times.....

As I don't remember the brand name, but it is the one that is more of "luxury" look that cost over $120.....which we had bought from Venture a few years ago when they were closing down...as I had finally put it up after we moved into a house from the condo where we used to live (good thing we didn't put it up at the condo)......

The fan has 5 blades.....has the glass dome with 4 small bulbs inside...and the 4 regular light bulb fixture set at the bottom.....

There was a capacitor there, ,but it is for the motor which I tracked the wires from the capacitor to the motor.....so it is not for the light...

Rick

 

John,

I have answered the questions you have (twice)....as there is only 1 hot wire from the ceiling.....as I am beginning to think that the light pull switch might be defective......wondering if I can test the light by bypassing the switch??? Can I do that???

Rick

 

Rick, I'm not ignoring you. I'm just waiting for somebody to come up with some better ideas than mine.

 

When you put the light kit on,are you positive that the .hot (usually a blue wire) is making a good connection to the wire coming from the switch.?Is the white wire making a good connection with the white wires from the light kit.The latter sounds more likely,since you say you sensed voltage on the wires.

 

I have gotten the brand name, etc.....for the ceiling fan that I have problems with....

It is Encon Elite 91-004 Series.....52" (5 blades)

Let me know if you know anything more about it...

Rick

 

To check out your problem is fairly simple.

The switch you described is a multiposition switch and depending on cam inside the switch, you can get different sequences of the lights being turned on. Normally you have one set coming on in the first position when you pull the switch. The second time you pull the switch, the first set of lights go off and the second set comes on. The third time you pull the switch, all the lights should come on. The next pull of the switch should cut them all off. The sequence could also be the reverse of this.

1. To test for your problem, cut off the power to the fan and make sure it is off. (safety first)

2. Disconnect the light kit power conductor (normally the blue wire, but I have seen red, red with white stripe, and even a purple wire once.)

3. Attempt to ohm out the light kit feed conductor to the first set of lights that normally come on. You should have one lead of the multimeter connected to the light kit feed wire and the second touching the center tab of the lampholder. You may have to repeatedly pull the switch to get the right cam position that would allow power to the lampholder. If you are able to get a reading thru the wire and the switch, check the other lampholders just in case to make sure there are no other problems.

4. Follow step #3. with the second set of lights. Again you may have to pull the switch repeatedly to get the right position. Also check the rest of the lampholders as well to make sure they are properly working.

If you aren't able to get a reading thru the switch, them most likely the switch is the culprit and needs to be replaced.

This is based on no other likely problem areas. i.e. the snap-together wiring harness isn't damaged nor any of the wiring in the fan or light kit.

If you can read thru to all of the different lampholders, than the next step is checking the neutrals. Since all of them should be common, and you said the fan works, you proobably only need to check those from the wiring harness. They should read coommon from lampholder to lampholder and to the harnass.