Dangerous Ceiling Fan?

My wife bought herself a Hampton Bay ceiling fan at Home Depot for Xmas.
My part of the gift (I soon learned) was to install it. This turned out
to be a much bigger job than expected, and not just because the intended
outlet box was mounted at a severe angle to the ceiling and did not look
like it should be asked to support a heavy fan.

After removing the poorly installed outlet box and installing a level,
solid mount and new box, I proceeded to assemble and install the fan,
being careful to set the remote control codes differently to avoid any
interference with the existing Hampton Bay fan upstairs. It worked,
although remote control of the built-in lights seemed a bit erratic.

Two hours later during dinner, the lights flickered a couple of times
and went out, and the fan stopped. New fan was dead.

Today I reprogrammed the new remote to match the codes upstairs, that
worked so it's not the remote, then partly disassembled the newly
installed fan and bypassed the wireless receiver - fan and lights work.
Just great, the receiver died but Home Depot is probably going to insist
I return the whole fan for exchange.

I figured I had little to loose if I could open the receiver without
leaving evidence of having done so, and what I found inside was rather
disconcerting - the whole board was a mass of dry solder joints. The
reason for complete failure was a dry joint at one end of a large 27 ohm
resistor, looks like about 5W, which had obviously sputtered and sparked
before completely disconnecting itself. The pad and part of the trace
were gone.

The fan now works perfectly after I reflowed a couple of dozen solder
joints and reconnected the resistor - but this is a mains-powered device
without a transformer. The thing could easily have caught fire!

I suppose I should complain to the retailer and whoever enforces
electrical standards in Canada before one of these poorly assembled
devices causes a fire or worse.

Sunny

 

This is the way that China can win a war with the West.
Try to buy something today that is not built in the Orient.
--------------------------------\\

 

I have seen many such defects coming out of China in the low cost home
products. They will manufacture the quality level demanded by the importer.
This is nothing new. Probably in the assembly, the board missed the solder
bath. It is too late for you to return it. You should have returned the fan
and bought another make. It would be best to buy one that is under a North
American company. It is well worth the few extra dollars. The item may still
be made in China, but they would have put more emphasis in the inspection
and testing of the product during assembly. There is an added cost for this.

If you tell the store manager about what happened, he will probably politely
nod his head, but will not have a clue to what you are really talking about,
or not fully believe you. When you leave, he may even find this a bit
confusing. These people have no technical clue most of the time.

If you simply brought the thing to the return's counter for a full refund,
and took your money, there would be less aggravation. Then you would be able
to shop around for a good one that is American or Canadian designed, and
built to North American standards.

In the Orient there are many levels of quality assemblies being exported.
They range from excellent to poor. The price of the item will usually be an
indication of the quality level. I have seen some very sophisticated
machine tooling, and medical instruments coming from there. The quality of
these instruments were a very strong match to anything made elsewhere. The
problem arises with the low cost consumer goods. The companies importing
these goods are in too strong a competition with each other, and are trying
to cut expenses in any possible way. During assembly having a more ridged
testing and inspection will raise the price to a large degree. Therefore
they take the gamble on the goods not being properly inspected and tested.

--

Greetings,

Jerry G.
=========================================


My wife bought herself a Hampton Bay ceiling fan at Home Depot for Xmas.
My part of the gift (I soon learned) was to install it. This turned out
to be a much bigger job than expected, and not just because the intended
outlet box was mounted at a severe angle to the ceiling and did not look
like it should be asked to support a heavy fan.

After removing the poorly installed outlet box and installing a level,
solid mount and new box, I proceeded to assemble and install the fan,
being careful to set the remote control codes differently to avoid any
interference with the existing Hampton Bay fan upstairs. It worked,
although remote control of the built-in lights seemed a bit erratic.

Two hours later during dinner, the lights flickered a couple of times
and went out, and the fan stopped. New fan was dead.

Today I reprogrammed the new remote to match the codes upstairs, that
worked so it's not the remote, then partly disassembled the newly
installed fan and bypassed the wireless receiver - fan and lights work.
Just great, the receiver died but Home Depot is probably going to insist
I return the whole fan for exchange.

I figured I had little to loose if I could open the receiver without
leaving evidence of having done so, and what I found inside was rather
disconcerting - the whole board was a mass of dry solder joints. The
reason for complete failure was a dry joint at one end of a large 27 ohm
resistor, looks like about 5W, which had obviously sputtered and sparked
before completely disconnecting itself. The pad and part of the trace
were gone.

The fan now works perfectly after I reflowed a couple of dozen solder
joints and reconnected the resistor - but this is a mains-powered device
without a transformer. The thing could easily have caught fire!

I suppose I should complain to the retailer and whoever enforces
electrical standards in Canada before one of these poorly assembled
devices causes a fire or worse.

Sunny

 

Jerry, unfortunately that's the saddest part of the whole story.

Hampton Bay ceiling fans are designed and manufactured in California
exclusively for Home Depot. We paid the extra dollars for a North
American product, and still received dangerously defective goods.

Sunny

 

That's the sad part - Hampton Bay ceiling fans are designed and
manufactured in California.

Sunny

 

Jerry, unfortunately that's the saddest part of the whole story.

Hampton Bay ceiling fans are designed and manufactured in California
exclusively for Home Depot. We paid the extra dollars for a North
American product, and still received dangerously defective goods.

Sunny

 

Subject: Re: Dangerous Ceiling Fan?

While I certainly don't know where they're designed, I can tell you that I went
through every fan at Depot and Lowes looking for one that wasn't Chinese or
Taiwanese. Every Hampton Bay was from Taiwan or China. Every one.

John Del
Wolcott, CT

"I'm just trying to get into heaven, I'm not running for Jesus!"
Homer Simpson

(remove S for email reply)

 

if you got here in Canada it must have a UL sticker (Underwriters Lab,
blue). If the sticker is missing returm the unit, too dangerous to
handle. And in case of any fire the investigators will notce this and
your house insurance is void.

 

Yep... Even the Hunter fans are now made overseas. They used to be
made here in the US until about a year ago, but not anymore.

 

Subject: Re: Dangerous Ceiling Fan?

Actually, Hunter does make one here, but you won't find it at any depot type
store. It's a huge cast iron reproduction of their 1920s era stuff. (I did a
lot of research on this months ago). The problem is that it's very heavy and
it wouldn't fit the decor of the game room I built. We settled on the Hampton
Bay fans with the lifetime warranty, but theyr'e still made in Taiwan. I have 4
fans made by Lasko when they still made ceiling fans, but they don't make them
anymore. These US built fans are now 10 years old, and they run better than
the new Hamptons we just bought.

John Del
Wolcott, CT

"I'm just trying to get into heaven, I'm not running for Jesus!"
Homer Simpson

(remove S for email reply)

 

I have trouble believing that a lack of a UL sticker will void your
insurance. Opps, sorry that sticker burned off that extension cord so
we're refusing to pay for the house....

UL ratings are BS nowadays anyway . Having a UL rating doesn't imply
it's safe. For example, most powerstrip/surge supressors have a UL
sticker, but the number on the sticker is for extension cords.

-Chris

 

That's because the powerstrip/surge supressor is an extension cord.

 

The circuit you found was inside the metal fan housing ?? i doubt it
would be able to catch enough fire to burn outside the fan unless that
modual was in the part against the ceiling where flames could reach wood
..

Glad you got it fixed

I have taken apart many of those screw in florescent bulbs . inside is a
circuit board full of parts .
I have seen several with burned to ashes parts inside blackening the
whole innards of the base but never seen the outside plastic melted . I
find no fuses inside these either .

Scary .....

 

But, isn't there a UL test for surge supressors? I've even seen
appliances with a UL label on the box and the number just means they
tested the cord and not the appliance for safety.

UL ratings have become worthless in my opinion. The poorly
manufactured fan in this article is a prime example of why. The
manufacturer sends a couple of units in for the rubber stamp and the
production line quality is irrelevant.

-Chris

 

The controller board is in a plastic casing, which is installed against
the ceiling directly under the electrical outlet box.

 

I will agree. I also think the UL ratings are worthless, and would
never depend on them to tell me if a product is built safe or not.

Besides, the UL gets swamped with so many products nowdays, how can they
possibly test them all?

 

[screw in fluorescent bulbs]

What, those Low-Energy lamps? We've had a few, different brands, that have
expired with an impressive bang. On investigation :-

1) The lamp is very hot
2) The plastic casing is split open
3) There's a smell like burnt toast or toffee, but not as pleasant
4) The fuse for the circuit or lamp has gone

They've got the appropriate CE/UL marks, but they still fail in an interesting
way.

Mike.

 

Can we make anything here anymore? Used to be just our cars sucked, now it
seems like *everything* is made in China, if there's such low demand for
domestically manufactured goods it won't be long before no one goes into
manufacturing them, and all we'll be able to produce are lawyers.

 

They use either a tiny fuse, or a fusible resistor, they are protected
though. The vast majority of failures I've found have been shorted mylar
capacitors and bad solder joints.

 

Hi!

Well it seems like we can...it's just that this country is making things you
would really think might be made overseas. It's funny how many simple things
like air fresheners or even drain grilles are still made here. That doesn't
make any sense when you compare what we make here to what is made
overseas...like DVD players, stereo systems, TV sets, etc...

William