"phaeton" wrote in
oups.com:

You know that somewhat familiar 'buzzing' noise that ceiling fans make,
right?

We have one that came with the house. It *looks* fairly new, at least
as far as I can tell from the floor- it's a nice stainless steel
Hunter. When we moved in in December, it only made this buzzing noise
when you turned it up to its higher speeds (it is on a dimmer switch on
the wall). As time as progressed, it has gotten noisier and noisier at
lower RPMs until now it makes noise at its slowest possible setting.

Do they do this because they're dirty, worn out, or otherwise broken?
Is there anything dangerous about operating them in this fashion?
What's the recommended fix for this?

Part of the problem is that the ceiling that it is on is vaulted. When
I say vaulted, don't think of your average house ceiling, think of a
church ceiling. This damn thing is about 20 feet off the floor, taller
than any ladder I own. I'm highly unmotivated to climb up there and
take it down, but I'm sure that any fix will involve doing just that.
If this sound doesn't mean it's about to burst into flames, then I'll
wait till I can budget someone to come in and do it. Otherwise, I'll
leave it off until then.

Thanks for any and all!

-phaeton



Temporairly replace the dimmer with a switch to see if the buzzing goes
away. Then you heve some direction as to if it's the fan/fan wiring or
the dimmer. Then put the dimmer back on to see if the problem returns
(assuming it went away). If it doesn't return, then a bad connection at
the dimmer.