Ceiling fan light Problem

11 years ago

We have a Hunter ceiling fan, 5 years old with 4 candelabra bulb sockets. It was installed by a qualified electrician. All wiring was new. Lights are controlled by wall switches on either side off the room. Fan is also controlled the same way by separate switches.

The fixture specifies 40 watt bulbs, but we have always cheated up to 60 watt bulbs with no problem. With 1 bulb out that I hadn't gotten around to replacing, wife throws the switch and the other 3 bulbs go out with a pop and an electrical burn odor. Fan still continued to work with no problem.

Today I took the fixture apart, but found no loose wires, no wires touching, no scorch marks, no burn odor at the light kit level, or up higher at the ceiling level.

Using a voltage detector, I found current in all 4 bulb sockets, and all seemed to function properly using the wall switches, and the pull chain, which never gets used.

This is where it gets interesting. Screwing a bulb (40 watts only now) into any socket cuts voltage to all sockets. I tried putting all bulbs in, but no change in behavior.

My thinking is that use of higher wattage bulbs caused this problem somehow, but I am at a loss to understand how, or what the fix may be. Neutral wire tested out OK, and I'm getting 122 at the bulb sockets.

Anyone seen anything like this before, or have any advice on a fix?

Thanks,
Mike

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Comments (5)

bus_driver
11 years ago
As we are unable to examine the fixture, precise diagnosis is difficult.
The electric current for the 60 watt lamps is not a problem for that fixture but the extra heat is a BIG problem. Think cremation!
Replace the fixture and use in it whatever lamps you want.
User
11 years ago
Is there a built-in dimmer for those lamps? Perhaps that is what burnt out? You've been pushing extra watts though it (although with a lamp out, you are back in the approved range). Dimmers generate heat and larger bulbs would make the dimmer overheat.
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toxcrusadr
11 years ago
I agree with jreagan, all the sockets should normally be wired in parallel and have no effect on one another, unless there is some kind of dimmer in the circuit. If so it would have been stressed all along by the excess current. It probably just picked that time to go, and had nothing to do with the fact that there was one empty socket. The dimmer's circuitry may have caused a voltage spike though, and if a socket was empty, more voltage and current went to the remaining bulbs, blowing out the filaments. Perhaps it did this for awhile but the bulbs could take it momentarily if they were all there.

Some of those fixtures have plastic sockets which will start to crumble from the heat if the wrong bulbs are used.
Ron Natalie
11 years ago
The hunter fans that I have indeed have a dimmer feature on the controller. However I have serious doubts about his "voltage detector" measuring "current". I suspect the whole thing may be an open circuit. The voltage he's reading is just the inductive "phantom" voltage on the open wires. Putting a bulb in makes a (close to) hard short across what he is reading dispelling the stray reading.

Are there pull switches or remote control boards in this fan?

I suspect you burned one of these.
ionized_gw
11 years ago
I am on the side of the phantom.