Ceiling Fan - Advice

[Clove]

So I have this ceiling fan (about a year old) that has started to "oscillate" on its universal mount when it is on as if it were off-balance. A little bit wouldn't bother me but on it's highest setting (which is necessary on the hottest days) it's really shakin' and noisey.

If it ever did this before it wasn't noticeable, it just seemed to start happening. Any ceiling fan experts out there know what could have caused this, and (more importantly) how to get it to run smoothly again?

[Caede]

This happens when people remove the blades to clean them sometimes, or just if they get bumped (say, by some idiot climbing on top of a bed and jumping up and down until they hit their head on the blades.) The blades need to be balanced carefully so they don't do that.

I usually just tweak the blades around until it stops being irritating; can't give ya any better ideas, sorry.

EDIT: Oh, wait. Wobbling in the universal mount? Ignore the blade stuff, I guess. No idea.

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Caede

[Clove]

This happens when people remove the blades to clean them sometimes, or just if they get bumped (say, by some idiot climbing on top of a bed and jumping up and down until they hit their head on the blades.) The blades need to be balanced carefully so they don't do that.

I usually just tweak the blades around until it stops being irritating; can't give ya any better ideas, sorry.

EDIT: Oh, wait. Wobbling in the universal mount? Ignore the blade stuff, I guess. No idea.

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Caede

No I think your original advice is relevant. It's out of balance obviously but I couldn't figure out how it got that way and it's nice to know the causes of a problem before you try to fix it.

A couple people around here told me to check the screws holding the blades because if they loosen that will throw it off balance. So I'm going to start there because it would explain why it started "out of the blue".

Fucking ferrets, there's just no telling what they can undo when your back is turned.

[Gan]

1. Check the mounting. Screws can come loose on flush mounted fans the same way they can come loose on ball joint mounted fans (fans with poles extending the fan away from the ceiling).

2. Check fan blade anchor screws for tightness.

3. Stand eye level with the blades and give them a spin with your hand, does any appear to be out of alignment (bent blade mount bracket)?

4. Turn fan on lowest setting for cool air (blades moving forward). Hold your finger up (pad of finger facing against direction moving blades) towards the end of the blades and inch up slowly until a blade makes contact (forward moving blades will not hurt finger pad). Does just one blade make contact or do all the blades equally make contact? If only one blade makes contact, take a crayon (opposite color contrast to blade color) and do the same thing, thus effectively marking the 'lower' blade.

Here's the tricky part, the blade thats marked is either the heavy blade or directly opposite the light blade. Since you dont want to shave off material from the heavy blade, add counterweights to the light blade (you can buy counterweights or tape/glue pennies to top side of light blade). Just make sure you use good glue/tape so you dont projectile the pennies if they break loose. Dont forget to clean off crayon marks.

And quit letting your ferrits ride on your ceiling fan...

On the whole, I've found that 6 bladed fans stay in balance much better than 5/4/3 bladed fans.

[Trouble]

For me it's usually been the screws holding the blade coming loose.

[Ignot]

wow. So many ceiling fan experts here.

[Gan]

I've replaced all the ones in my house, all the ones in my in-laws house and added a few, all the ones in my grandparents house, and way back when - I got started helping my dad hang fans in the house we built while I was living with them in highschool.

Once your family finds out you are handy with tools they never stop calling. Never.

[Back]

So I have this ceiling fan (about a year old) that has started to "oscillate" on its universal mount when it is on as if it were off-balance. A little bit wouldn't bother me but on it's highest setting (which is necessary on the hottest days) it's really shakin' and noisey.

What you need to do is remove all the blades. Sharpen all the edges. Sharper blades cut through the air thus lessening wind resistance. Re-attach the blades, get your favorite chair, position it below the fan, then turn that sucker to it's highest speed and enjoy.

[Clove]

Right. Whirley-head-chopping-solution aside this is what I learned. There were some loose fan blades after I investigated the mounts but tightening them back up did no good and I wasn't able to get the blades balanced on their mounts again without weights. If anyone else has this problem this is the solution that worked for me:

I placed a couple clothes-pins on one blade at a time until I noticed a slightly less wiggle. Then I put clothes-pins on "opposite" blades (it's a 5 blade fan) until I found the two blades that (when weighted with a couple clothes-pins) stopped the fan from wiggling.

Once the blades that needed weighting were located I used some dabs of caulk on the back of the offending blades to permanently weight them. It's a little tricky weighting with caulk (than say a penny) but I found I didn't need much weight to balance my fan and caulk (unlike pennies) isn't very likely to crack your LCD TV, Grandma's Urn, Collectible Porcelain Jack-a-Lope figure etc. if it comes loose off your fan.

[Jayvn]

wow. So many ceiling fan experts here.

You didn't know 78% of gemstone players are avid ceiling fan repairmen :)
on a real note I think most guys just like to save money rather than paying someone 'professional' to come and fix crap in their house.