Electrical short...only sometimes.


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Old 08-20-18, 06:26 PM
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Electrical short...only sometimes.

Hey guys. I have a ceiling fan installed in my bedroom. Had an electrician come by and install a switch for the fan and one for the light. Everything was okay up until a month ago. All of a sudden, we turned the lights on and there was a spark and it tripped the breaker.

Opened it up and the blue wire has a hole in it with wire showing. I thought the guy did something and had cut the wire by accident, so I put some electrical tape over it and it was fine. Fast forward to today and now the same thing happened, but to the red wire. Both wires connect into the same wire nut.

I am wondering if the electrician messed something up or is it the harbor breeze ceiling fan that has an issue.

Thank you!
 
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Old 08-20-18, 06:36 PM
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Look to see where the burn mark is in the steel part of the fan. The wire might be getting pinched somehow when the fan is running, perhaps it is wobbling?
 
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Old 08-20-18, 06:48 PM
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Burn mark is literally in the middle of the wire...same with the blue wire the last time this happened, I cut it a bit shorter but there should not be any movement inside of it.
 
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Old 08-20-18, 07:00 PM
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But there should be a burn mark on some part of steel in the fan where it shorted out. Unless it shorted between two wires, then the other wire would have a burn mark.
 
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Old 08-20-18, 07:02 PM
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That is the strange part, only the wire had a burn mark and part of it was exposed. I cut it and I put the wire nut back on and wrapped it with electrical tape. I am wondering if the switch might be bad and that is doing it or if something is wrong with the fan. The wiring must be okay if it goes a whole month and just suddenly does it...right?
 
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Old 08-20-18, 07:08 PM
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If the wire had a burn mark on it and it didn't hit anything metal to arc/short to ....... then there is something shorting inside the light fixture and the wire is getting hot and melting.
 
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Old 08-20-18, 07:22 PM
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Yeah it looked like the coating on the wire was peeling off. Bad fan? It is just strange that I had no problems for over a year, then say about 3 months ago I had the separate switch installed with no problems...one month ago it happened then it just happened now.

If it was a short, it should be happening all the time. no?
 
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Old 08-21-18, 01:51 PM
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When you saw the hole in the wire covering, what other parts of the fan unit or brackets or other wires were near the hole?
 
 

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