4 Ways To Stop Wobbling Ceiling Fan

Like many other mechanical machines, a ceiling fan is assured to develop defects with continued use because of wear and tear. When this happens, the ceiling fan tends to wobble slightly at first, and then by greater degrees as time goes by and with continued use. If left unattended, this can pose potentially deadly risks.

How is a wobbling ceiling fan dangerous?

The hot season in Singapore can prove intolerable. Fortunately, ceiling fans help regulate the air, substituting hot and stale air with fresh air by continuously revolving.

However, with a wobbling ceiling fan, this revolving action may lead to great damages and loss and even cause harm to you. This is because at high speeds, the fan may break loose, revolving around the room randomly and causing damage to the property within. Worse, the blades can cause serious cuts and other injuries to people who may be in the house, causing pain, trauma and even death in extreme cases.

As such, it is important to prevent such awful scenarios by fixing a wobbling fan immediately you notice inconsistencies with the spin.

Here are four effective ways to do this:

1. Check for loose connections

The spinning momentum of a ceiling fan causes the connection to get lose over time, losing the firm effect of the initial installation process. With a loose joint exposed, the spinning blades gain more momentum, causing extension in the disjointed gaps and increasing the degree of the wobbling.

As such, this should be the first sign to look out for.

Follow the following steps to determine whether your ceiling fan has loose connections:

• First switch off the fan’s power supply and disconnect the cable as a precautionary measure.
• Standing on an elevated position, shake the fan slightly from below it to feel whether it will move. Make sure that you shake it gently from below to give the weight of the blades room to take effect.
• If it shakes, this could point to loose screws and joints in the junction box attaching the fan to the ceiling. In this case, you may choose to ask for technical help, but doing it yourself is simple, fast and free.
• Take a screw driver and take the screws off the canopy to expose the junction box. Here, tighten the screws joining the box to the ceiling to stop the wobbling, or replace them if they are worn out to give them a firmer grip.

This should stop the wobbling and give your ceiling fan a steady rhythm. Once you have enclose the junction box and the canopy, plug the cord back in and turn the power on to observe that the fan does not wobble.

2. Unbalanced blades

Ceiling fans with bigger blades are usually more popular with most people in Singapore as they offer a cooler breeze. However, they are also more prone to wobbling, as the increased size of the blades requires better and firmer balancing. Consequently, this may very well be the reason behind your ceiling fan’s wobbling.

Follow the following steps to determine whether your fan is indeed imbalanced:

• Clip a cloth spin on each of the blades. To ensure it does not contribute to the wobbling, clip it right in the middle of the blade’s length.
• Turn on the fan at its lowest speed after clipping on the cloth spin to observe whether it wobbles.
• If the fan goes on wobbling, then you have not yet found your imbalanced blade, and as such should try the same procedure with all the blades. However, if it stops wobbling then it means the blade with the attached spin cloth is out of balance.

Here, you can purchase a blade balancing kit of follow a conventional method by attaching slightly weight objects on the imbalanced blade.

3. Loose shaft

This is especially common with substandard ceiling fans. In this case, the shaft connecting the blades and the junction base is loose, and hence sways easily as the blades spin. This causes wobbling just a short while after purchasing and using the fan, or even during its initial use.

To determine whether this is the case with your fan:

• Stand on an elevated object to get a close-up view of the shaft, the blades and the junction box.
• Check to see that the connection between the shaft and the connection box and between the shaft and the blades is intact. Gaps in these areas may also cause wobbling.
• Finally, hold the shaft with both hands and try to bend it slightly. If it bends easily then it is not as strong as required, and may be contributing to the wobbling.

If there are loose joints in the junction box and/or blades, disconnect the power supply and tighten them firmly. On the other hand, if the shaft is made of weak material, you can easily reinforce it with a firmer material, or alternatively have it replaced.

4. Uneven surface

Albeit a rare case, an uneven surface is a sure cause of wobbling in ceiling fans. This is because when bent, the weight of the different blades tends to accumulate to one side, causing more pressure on that side as the blades spin, and consequently causing wobbling.

In this case, the fault would be with your ceiling. Here are steps to follow to determine this:

• Observe the surface of the ceiling to see that it is not bent
• Further, observe the space between the ceiling and the conjunction box to see that it is shut tight as particles may contribute to unevenness.

If the ceiling is not even, you can easily lay a precisely shaped piece of wood under it to achieve evenness and then firmly install the fan under the wood. Alternatively, you can have the position of the fan changed to an even surface, or buy a customized and slanted ceiling fan.

Conclusion

For most people in Singapore, that cooling breeze is usually more than welcome during the hot season. However, a wobbling ceiling fan can significantly disrupt the regulation of air and temperature, leaving you to bake in the hot temperatures. To avoid this, make sure you explore these options immediately you notice wobbling to save some money and save your house possible damage.