Hunter Coastal Breeze question

[JW]

Picked up a 1997 Coastal Breeze (motor tag says "Type G") from a co-worker today, who took it down because it would not go fast. Sure enough, I hooked it up, and it only goes about 50ish RPM on the first pull (plastic Emerson low), 65ish on the second pull (builderfan low), and maybe 35-40 RPM on the third pull.

The capacitor in these fans is a double - 10m then 5m; it has five wires coming out of it. Is it a bad capacitor here or could the motor itself be shot?

I don't like the Coastal Breezes anyway, but at least it's a complete fan (except for the mounting plate). I could use it for parts but I need the practice on getting fans to run again if I want to start a ceiling fan service.

Any pointers?

[Deleted]

Definitely sounds like a capacitor issue.

[organist89]

jw said:

Sure enough, I hooked it up, and it only goes about 50ish RPM on the first pull (plastic Emerson low), 65ish on the second pull (builderfan low), and maybe 35-40 RPM on the third pull.

Is it a bad capacitor here or could the motor itself be shot?

I agree with Dan, insofar as his explanation makes sense and is most likely. I know very little about capacitors, so I can't be any more specific than that.

I DO know quite a bit about motors, however, and I will say that this cannot possibly be a shot motor. When a motor is "tired" (old, worn out, shot, whatever you want to call it), it doesn't do what you described. You described that the motor operates perfectly fine, it just doesn't go profoundly fast. When a motor is tired, it gets up to a certain speed (sometimes full speed) and then slowly slows down until it just sits there and hums.

If the 10uf and 5uf capacitors are in sequence, then it would make sense that one of those capacitors is dead, and so you're only really able to operate within the subset of voltages defined by the working capacitor.

I'd say just disconnect all the capacitors and hotwire it. If it spins up to full speed, then it's a capacitor issue.

[Deleted]

It cant be ran without the capacitors. This is a PSC motor.

[organist89]

spiffy said:

It cant be ran without the capacitors. This is a PSC motor.

Oh yeah.

Duh. ;D

Do you have a multitester?

[JW]

Never heard of a multitester. Are they expensive?

[John "Rockin" Reed]

I picked up an AB Coastal Breeze 44" from 1993 at a local flea market this fall for only $2. It does not have a switchplate...I think I'll just part it out.

[organist89]

jw said:

Never heard of a multitester. Are they expensive?

No. They're in the neighborhood of $20, and they pay for themselves multitudes of times over.

You can get one at Home Depot or Lowes, or any electrical supply place.

A multi-tester is essentially a handheld device with a dial knob and a display needle. There are two wired probes attached to it, one red and one black. You connect those two probes to an electrical circuit, and the display needle tells you information about the current in that circuit. The information it tells you depends on what you have the dial set to. The common functions are:

* AC voltage (tells you precisely how much voltage is in the circuit; this is great for knowing whether there's current in the wires you're about to grab)
* DC voltage (tells you precisely how much DC voltage is in the circuit; this is great for anything that involves an AC-DC transformer)
* DC amperage (great for testing batteries)
* Resistance (great for telling when a capacitor, or a component on a printed circuit board, is dead)

Multitesters are very, VERY useful. As I said, they pay for themselves.

Here is what one looks like:





One piece of advice: do not--DO NOT--buy one of the digital ones. Make SURE you get one of the analog ones. Having a digital display is about 0.0000000000000001% as useful as having a needle that you can see.