Ceiling fan - 3 white wires and no ground wire


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Old 06-19-18, 09:26 AM
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Ceiling fan - 3 white wires and no ground wire

Hi. I am trying to replace a ceiling fan. How do I connect a ceiling fan that has a black, blue, white and green wire, while the wires out of the metal box are 3 white wires? There is no ground wire in the metal box to connect to the green wire. My old ceiling fan had one white and one black wire. Two of white wires from the metal box are connected to the black wire of the old ceiling fan.

Thanks in Advance.
 
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Old 06-19-18, 11:20 AM
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Tell us about the wires at the switch.
 
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Old 06-19-18, 11:44 AM
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Hi. There is one ON/OFF switch. I see one white and one black wire. My old ceiling fan didn't work but its light did.
 
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Old 06-19-18, 12:17 PM
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That is a switch loop. Just needed to confirm that. Connected to two house whites indicate the switch loop was connected backwards. You should have a power in cable and a switch loop cable. The black of the power in goes to the white of the switch loop. Black of the switch loop goes to fan black and blue. Power in white goes to fan white. Any additional cables are connected across the power in cable.

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If aditional cables:
 
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Old 06-19-18, 02:25 PM
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Thank you for the reply. My understanding is connect the black wire and the blue wire from the ceiling fan to 2 white wires from the ceiling box, and connect the white wire from the ceiling fan to the white wire (neutral) from the ceiling box. How about the ground wire? Can I just leave the green wire unconnected?
 
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Old 06-19-18, 04:10 PM
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You have an improperly wired switch loop. Power is supposed to be sent to the switch on the white wire and come back on the black, This leaves you a white and black wire at the fan for connection.

Now with what you have..... two of those whites are supposed to be connected together and that is the neutral. The remaining one is the switched hot wire.

You will now need a meter to determine which white wire is the switched hot wire. You need to check from it to the ground wire. There will be only one switched hot wire that goes to the blue and black of the fan.
 
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Old 06-19-18, 04:47 PM
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Thank you Pete,
I am going to buy a voltage tester to check which wire is the hot wire. Can I leave the green wire from the ceiling fan unit unconnected or do I need to add a ground wire in the ceiling box?
 
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Old 06-19-18, 05:15 PM
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If possible.... it should be connected to a screw in the box.
 
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Old 06-19-18, 06:24 PM
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I thought I could install a ceiling fan without any problems after I watched a installation video of Homedepot, but I never installed any light fixture before.

I found this YouTube video "How to Install a Light Fixture With a Ground Wire When the Outlet Box Doesn't."

My new support brace already has a green wire attached. Does this mean I don't need a new ground wire in the ceiling box?
 
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Old 06-19-18, 08:15 PM
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That's an upside down ceiling hugger fan mounting bracket.
Since your box is grounded.... attaching that bracket will ground your fan.
 
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Old 06-20-18, 04:11 PM
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Thank you. I wired as mentioned above and it worked. However, after everything was assembled, it tripped the breaker. Maybe it is the reason why the previous owner of the house left the old ceiling fan unconnected.
 
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Old 06-20-18, 04:40 PM
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How did you test it before it was assembled ?
Even if you wired it wrong.... it wouldn't trip unless a wire got shorted to the box when you put the fan up.
 
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Old 06-20-18, 05:19 PM
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I connected all wires and turned the switch on. The fun rotated OK. I also made sure other lights works since they were off when wires were not connected.
 
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Old 06-20-18, 06:20 PM
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It sounds like you pinched a wire in the box when you installed the fan.
 
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Old 06-21-18, 03:34 PM
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Hi. The ceiling fan is working now!

I was wrong. I changed the wire connection and worked.

Neutral (no voltage) +Neutral (no voltage) - White
Hot (voltage detected) - Black+Blue


Neutral(no voltage) - White
Neutral (no voltage) + Hot(voltage detected) - Black + Blue

Thank you
 
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Old 06-21-18, 03:56 PM
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Good job. You're welcome.
 
 

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