Bizarre ceiling fan problem

10 years ago

In spring 2015, I bought a ceiling fan, one of the better brands. It worked fine for a couple of months. Then, it started to emit a burnt rubber-like odor, but only when it was first turned on.

The odor intensity, on a scale of 1 to 10, was mostly around 5, occasionally 8-10 and very few times at 0. When it was mild, the odor usually dissipated in about 15-20 minutes tho' a very slight whiff usually lingered for the rest of the day.

The company sent me a replacement center (motor). In fall 2015, my electrician swapped the fans. Between then and spring 2016, the fan was used on a few occasions and it worked normally.

As the weather got warmer, I started using the fan more often. In June, it started acting up like the first unit. I contacted the company again. They said they had not received reports of other fans for that model acting that way, and said that it was unlikely that the second unit was also defective. They suggested that I have an electrician inspect the wiring,

Well, the electrician arrived yesterday. I switched on the fan and it behaved normally! That visit cost $100 so I was really pissed! He checked the wiring in the junction box--it was pristine. He took out the bottom cover, where a light fixture could be attached, and did not see anything unusual around the motor. He even checked my circuit breaker panel to make sure it was in good shape.

This afternoon, I turned on the fan and was hit with a high blast of that horrible burning odor, so bad that I've had a headache all day. This is driving me NUTS.

I don't know what else to do. Why would the odor not appear for a long time, then suddenly come back with a vengeance? Why the differences in odor intensity? Is it caused by the fan or a wiring defect upstream from the junction box?

Any advice would be appreciated. This fan cost a lot of money--it was supposed to be a good long-term investment. So far, I've spent almost half its price on re-installation and inspection costs! Not only is it a mystery and a headache, it's punching some big holes in my meagre financial pocket.

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Comments (3)

randy427
10 years ago
It sounds like a fried capacitor.
jellytoast
10 years ago
What brand is it?
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sgmd
Original Author
10 years ago
Hi randy427 and jellytoast,

thanks for responding. My regular electrician, Mark, who is also a home inspector, identified the source of the smell. The problem, it turns out, is not electrical.

The ceiling fan hangs from a vaulted ceiling. The smell that I thought was burning plastic was actually moist hot insulation -- I've never smelled moist hot insulation before, so burning plastic was the closest comparison I could use to describe it.

The odor must have been gathering at the top of the ceiling, and when the fan was turned on during hot days (and we've had a lot of thunderstorms moving through), that awful smell hit me!

It explains a lot of things I've been puzzling over: there's no smell when the weather is cool/cold; the different levels of intensity of the odor; it's worst during the daytime. The other electrician I hired came at 7:30am, and that's why he did not smell it.

Short of replacing the roof and ceiling, or redoing the insulation, both of which will cost huge amounts of money, there's not much I can do about it. Mark suggested I keep the fan going all day. It's not going to eliminate the odor on hot days, but it won't be strong enough to make me feel sick.