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Post by garydennis on Apr 12, 2020 14:24:21 GMT -5
Idecided to go ahead and install my old hunter fan without the 2 to 3 speed conversion. truthfully as I am in South Texas i probably wouldn't have used the lowest speed anyway. pulled the fan completely apart, cleaned all the old oil out inspected the bearings and cleaned cleaned cleaned. I painted the fan a dark bronze and it looks spectacular. HOWEVER. The fan has an annoying hum at both speeds. It is not a constant hum but more of a WAH WAH WAh ... It hums on startup and the noise starts and increases in frequency as it accelerates . I don't believe it is the bearing because as soon as the power is shut off the humming ceases. There are no capacitors in the fan and no dimmer switch I did install a new three speed L 1-2-3 and. Black to L Blue to 1 Red to 3. ( 2 is vacant) Any ideas? I should point out that I never had this fan installed before so don't know if it was doing this before i started but it did not seem to make this sound when bench tested
Followuo I reinstalled the 2 speed switch and it made no difference. Hum stops as soon as the power is shut off.
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bs
New Member
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Post by bs on Apr 13, 2020 10:01:00 GMT -5
Gary,
Every old ceiling fan I have had experience with has had a bit of a periodic 'hum', even when well balanced. I strongly suspect that the low-frequency sound is a function of blade area and velocity. The oldest fan in my esperience was old 65 years ago...2 large blades and hummed. I bought and installed 3 36" and one ?52"? new hunters in the late 70's, 2 60" 1886 models in the mid 90s [really low frequency with these], and three 70s-to-early-80s 'originals' over the last 10 years. All have hummed a bit. It's what seems to me to be a characteristic of the beast that likely has a good explanation someplace in the laws of physics. It's a sort of 'white noise' that is un-noticeable after not too long a time. I'd suggest using the fan and if it still bugs you after a couple of weeks, you should be able to easily sell it for a good price, and replace it with something newer, perhaps quieter, and almost certainly of lower quality.
My two cents.
bs
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dano
Junior Member
Posts: 140 
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Post by dano on Apr 13, 2020 14:39:21 GMT -5
Idecided to go ahead and install my old hunter fan without the 2 to 3 speed conversion. truthfully as I am in South Texas i probably wouldn't have used the lowest speed anyway. pulled the fan completely apart, cleaned all the old oil out inspected the bearings and cleaned cleaned cleaned. I painted the fan a dark bronze and it looks spectacular. HOWEVER. The fan has an annoying hum at both speeds. It is not a constant hum but more of a WAH WAH WAh ... It hums on startup and the noise starts and increases in frequency as it accelerates . I don't believe it is the bearing because as soon as the power is shut off the humming ceases. There are no capacitors in the fan and no dimmer switch I did install a new three speed L 1-2-3 and. Black to L Blue to 1 Red to 3. ( 2 is vacant) Any ideas? I should point out that I never had this fan installed before so don't know if it was doing this before i started but it did not seem to make this sound when bench tested
Followuo I reinstalled the 2 speed switch and it made no difference. Hum stops as soon as the power is shut off.
I have two old originals over my workbench. They both have a low continuous hum (one more than the other). But what you describe as a noise is increasing in level with speed of the motor or blades, and possibly could be result of vibration of either. Try grabbing the switch housing and moving or twisting the fan while it is running and see if the noise goes away. Obviously, make sure you have clearance for this. I just went through that after I broke them down and cleaned out the oil passages and reassembled them. One was making a lot of noise but ultimately messing with the bushing and hanger connection removed it and now just the normal really low hum. Are the fans otherwise not wobbling and appear balanced?
I had a couple of my newer fans that were wobbling quite a bit, I noticed this only recently because they haven't been on med/high during the winter. After messing around for so long with clips and weights trying to figure out which blades were out of balance due to weight, I actually found in each case that the brackets attaching the blades to the motor had come lose a bit. Tightened them up and they are so smooth now. I am going back to my installs and removing the brackets and reassembling with blue loctiite so this doesn't happen again. There was a very good post I found here (old) that got into a pretty detailed way to get the weights (and tip weights) correctly without the hit or miss guess work but in my case it was just loosening hardware. |
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Post by garydennis on Apr 14, 2020 12:41:36 GMT -5
I removed the blades entirely and the hum is still present. I changed out the bearings and it made no difference. when the blades where installed the fan had zero wobble and appeared to be perfectly balanced. I believe the noise to be entirely electrical as when i cut the power it go away immediately. if you place your hands on the housing you can feel a vibration that stops the moment the power is cut with the blades still moving. Spinning the blades with no power is smooth and soft with no resistance I appreciate all the responses but I am at the end of my rope. I may have to buy a new POS fan.
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dano
Junior Member
Posts: 140
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Post by dano on Apr 14, 2020 14:26:25 GMT -5
I wouldn't give up although there are some really nice fans available now (some very cheaply on clearance). You said in your post that you didn't think it did this when it was bench tested. I was thinking just that if you can take the hanging out the equation by wiring it to run flat on a bench? The rubber bushing may be hard as a rock and sending vibrations through the unit. You probably could also put something between the hanger bracket and the steel rod it sits on to take out any vibration there and see if it changes thing so you have a better idea of the cause.
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Post by garydennis on Apr 15, 2020 13:40:36 GMT -5
I gave up. I used the bearing, oil reservoir and the switch housing from this fan on a 22274 solid brass fan that i had parted out. Its working fine Thanks to all of you for the responses but I think it is DOA
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bs
New Member
Posts: 8
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Post by bs on Apr 22, 2020 8:39:27 GMT -5
I gave up. I used the bearing, oil reservoir and the switch housing from this fan on a 22274 solid brass fan that i had parted out. Its working fine Thanks to all of you for the responses but I think it is DOA Been thinking about your issue while getting three my porch fans going. One has shown the speed-related noise on start up that was not present before. I traced it to the school-house globe on the light kit. The noise diminishes when I get the confining machine screws sufficiently tight. It's always something! |
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Post by garydennis on Jun 21, 2020 13:16:03 GMT -5
A quick followup. The second fan upon installation also had a distinct hum just not as pronounced as the first fan. I discovered that although i could not eliminate it entirely, it was being amplified by the school house light fixture. I surrounded the base of the light fixture, where the screws hit it, with thick two sided tape. The screws now hit the tape. This cut the noise by at least 50%. The fan has now been running continuously for about 8 weeks the noise has decreased even more over that time. it may be that the bearings are finding their groove. Whatever it is I couldn't be happier. It moves a tremendous amount of air on high ( which it is every night) and the white noise is welcome for reasons i wont go into.
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