A month or so ago I posted about a hunter fan that was severely out of balance. I questioned if I had installed correctly and was looking for advice on getting the wobble out. It was not a pressing issue as summer was looking distant at that point, so I must admit, with all the other things I have going on I diddn’t get to balancing it this weekend. WHAT A NIGHTMARE.
2 hours of turning the fan off and on with the clip on different blades. I got so in the zone that I lost track of time. So…two hours and 7, YES 7 weights later I had the thing spinning percectly. Then it was making a burning smell (probably from pulling the chain two hundred or so times), so I got pizzed and just pulled it off the ceiling and threw it in the box and brought it to the Depot.
Heres a suprising part, they just gave me a new one. Diddn’t even ask for a receipt.
I put the new one up, went and turned the electric back on, and when I came in the room it was already spinning without the slightest bit of wobble. A tear rolled down my cheek.
I can’t believe I got such a crappy product from Hunter, but I can tell you this; If I ever install another fan and it wobbles that bad, I am not gonna waste time trying to balance it. It’s going right back to the store it came from.
Why should I waste an hour balancing a fan that should already be somewhat balanced at the factory?
Replies
I feel your pain. Anything I buy from a big box is about 50/50 whether I'm just wasting time installing it 'cause it has to be boxed back up and returned.
Lucky that a lot of the bad stuff is obviously missing parts so I don't even have to waste time getting it installed before it has to go back.
For lighting, that is a tough one. Round here, lighting stores have outrageous prices, so the big box is just about it.
Anyone know where to go for decent lighting that won't break the bank?
"Let's get crack-a-lackin" --- Adam Carolla
It brings to mind a point I have heard before, but have never been able to really prove to be true for myself. Do companies make lesser products that can be sold at big box stores?Like a Kohler faucet, for example, may have different internal parts. I have even heard that an Andersen 400 series TW window that you buy at the depot is not the same 400 series window you get elsewhere. They have different parts / weatherstripping etc. Is there any truth to this?I don't know, I guess I'm just skeptical lately.
Edited 4/4/2006 9:59 am ET by xosder11
Well, you could have tried changing the blades. Find the two heaviest ones that weigh the same (or close) and install them so they oppose, then install the others. Also, screwing them into the brackets when they aren't truly radial throws the balance off.
One thing about the weights- their effect increases as you go farther from the center and if it took 7 weights to not get it right, they were on the wrong blade(s) and/or the heaviest blades were installed next to each other.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Edited 4/4/2006 10:34 am by highfigh
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but shouldn't the blades all weigh the same when they come from the factory? I mean, since that's such an intregal part of a ceiling fan spinning without wobble, I would think that part of the quality assurance department at Hunter would be making sure that the fans they box up have blades that weigh roughly the same amount. This thing was way way off. I noticed the lamination was a little wrinkled on one blade, but it was the top of the blade, so I was not concerned as I would not be seen. I wonder if that was the offending blade. I also wonder if the motor was not balanced.
I just read your edit. Three weights on one blade, and 4 on the other, all at the very ends of the blades. The blades I added the weights to were right next to each other. I suspect, as you say, that the two heaviest blades are right next to each other. It is not Rocket science, but at the same time, there is some difficulty in seeing a discernable difference from one blade to the next with the weighted clip when you are trying to find the least amount of wobble.I guess it doesn't matter now anyway. All's well that ends well.
Edited 4/4/2006 11:07 am ET by xosder11
Was it really a new motor that came out of the box? Was it even a real Hunter motor?
There are some scummy people that return stuff to bigbox stores with their old unit neatly repackaged in the new box. Or they return the more expensive box neatly taped up with a cheapo unit inside.
I once bought an exhaust fan from HD. Got home to install it and saw that the fan housing had saw dust all over it and the stranded electric wires had obviously been twisted into wirenuts already. But the box was looking brand new and neatly taped up. Someone returned a used unit.
Now I check out the packaging very well, often digging in the back of the shelf for one. Or I find the new stock up high and go get their stair ladder to fetch my own.