Noisy ceiling fans...
 

A number of rooms in our house have combined central ceiling lights &
fan.

Several of the fans are somewhat noisy including buzzing and grinding
type noises. Otherwise they work fine.

Is there anything one can do to give them a "tune-up" and/or lubricate
them to reduce the noise?

Thanks

"blueman" wrote in message
...
A number of rooms in our house have combined central ceiling lights &
fan.

Several of the fans are somewhat noisy including buzzing and grinding
type noises. Otherwise they work fine.

Is there anything one can do to give them a "tune-up" and/or lubricate
them to reduce the noise?

Is the noise constant or does it "oscillate"? If it's the latter, it means
the fan's out of balance. We have a fan like this in our bedroom -- makes
an oh-so-slight noise that annoys me but my wife can't even hear it. I know
the fan's a bit out of balance but I've tried and can't figure out why...

-Tim

Sorry Pop,

WD-40 s a penetrating oil, NOT a motor oil. It should NEVER be used to
oil motors.

Sleeve bearings should have oil, not grease. Put 20 or 30 weight non
detergent motor ol in the bearings. But if they are making grinding
noise, it is probably too late for that.

Stretch

"Tim Fischer" writes:
"blueman" wrote in message
...
A number of rooms in our house have combined central ceiling lights &
fan.

Several of the fans are somewhat noisy including buzzing and grinding
type noises. Otherwise they work fine.

Is there anything one can do to give them a "tune-up" and/or lubricate
them to reduce the noise?

Is the noise constant or does it "oscillate"? If it's the latter, it means
the fan's out of balance. We have a fan like this in our bedroom -- makes
an oh-so-slight noise that annoys me but my wife can't even hear it. I know
the fan's a bit out of balance but I've tried and can't figure out why...

Noise mostly goes away when power is cut to the fan. Sounds more like
the motor is straining.

One other potentially relevant point. The light (and therefore) fan
are on a Lutron slide dimmer switch, though when the fan is on, I keep
the dimmer in the fully on position. Could this be causing or
contributing to the problem?

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 19:50:11 GMT, blueman wrote:

"Tim Fischer" writes:
"blueman" wrote in message
...
A number of rooms in our house have combined central ceiling lights &
fan.

Several of the fans are somewhat noisy including buzzing and grinding
type noises. Otherwise they work fine.

Is there anything one can do to give them a "tune-up" and/or lubricate
them to reduce the noise?

Is the noise constant or does it "oscillate"? If it's the latter, it means
the fan's out of balance. We have a fan like this in our bedroom -- makes
an oh-so-slight noise that annoys me but my wife can't even hear it. I know
the fan's a bit out of balance but I've tried and can't figure out why...

Why not balance it? There is no excuse for an out-of-balance fan. I
have several in my house, even one on a 16' ceiling with a 5-foot
downrod. The pull chain is long enought to be reachable from floor
level, but is absolutely motionless when the fan is running.

Stick a small dab of modeling clay on a blade midway along its length.
Fire up the fan on slow speed and watch the wobble. If it's worse
than before, move the clay to another blade. If it gets better, move
it to the next one. Do this until it gets worse then back up one
blade and experiment with moving the clay along the length. Once you
have it balanced, you need a more permanent weight. Try a penny stuck
on with double-sticky foam tape. If the penny is lighter than the
clay, move it outward on the blade. If it's heavier move it toward
the motor.

Don't be surprised to see a slight imbalance when (if) you reverse the
fan though.


Noise mostly goes away when power is cut to the fan. Sounds more like
the motor is straining.

One other potentially relevant point. The light (and therefore) fan
are on a Lutron slide dimmer switch, though when the fan is on, I keep
the dimmer in the fully on position. Could this be causing or
contributing to the problem?

Yes. Dimmers work by "chopping" (for want of a better layman's term)
the AC waveform into smaller pieces. This lowers the average value
and dims the lights. Even some light bulbs will "sing" when highly
dimmed. Motors tend to not like these short pulses since they contain
higher order harmonics.

"blueman" wrote in message
...
A number of rooms in our house have combined central ceiling lights &
fan.

Several of the fans are somewhat noisy including buzzing and grinding
type noises. Otherwise they work fine.

Is there anything one can do to give them a "tune-up" and/or lubricate
them to reduce the noise?

If they are the $20 made in China fans, they will probably just get worse
over time. If they are quality made brand name fans, it could be the motor
bearings causing the grinding noise. .

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 19:50:11 GMT, blueman wrote:

One other potentially relevant point. The light (and therefore) fan
are on a Lutron slide dimmer switch, though when the fan is on, I keep
the dimmer in the fully on position. Could this be causing or
contributing to the problem?

Yes. The triac in the dimmer would be causing the buzzing.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

Don Wiss writes:
On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 19:50:11 GMT, blueman wrote:

One other potentially relevant point. The light (and therefore) fan
are on a Lutron slide dimmer switch, though when the fan is on, I keep
the dimmer in the fully on position. Could this be causing or
contributing to the problem?

Yes. The triac in the dimmer would be causing the buzzing.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

Interesting... because we have 5 identical fans with the same new
identical Lutron dimmers (all on maximum brightnes) but only 2 of them
make the growling noise and even then only with the power on.