|
C-Euro posted:The house I bought last year came with a few basic Hampton Bay ceiling fans installed. One of them suddenly stopped responding to its corresponding light switch and its remote control. What electrical troubleshooting can I do to diagnose the problem before just going out and getting a replacement? Everything else in the room works and there's still a readable voltage at the switch. Take the fan down and see if there is voltage at the fan. Inspect both the switch box and the fan box for scorching, loose connections, or other signs of not correctness. Post pictures of the guts. How many volts are you reading? Across which points?
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2022 05:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 00:21 |
|
|
C-Euro posted:The house I bought last year came with a few basic Hampton Bay ceiling fans installed. One of them suddenly stopped responding to its corresponding light switch and its remote control. What electrical troubleshooting can I do to diagnose the problem before just going out and getting a replacement? Everything else in the room works and there's still a readable voltage at the switch. Sounds like the remote control module died. They're pretty cheap and swapping it out is usually pretty easy, depending on your ceiling fan.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2022 05:11
|
|
|
C-Euro posted:The house I bought last year came with a few basic Hampton Bay ceiling fans installed. One of them suddenly stopped responding to its corresponding light switch and its remote control. What electrical troubleshooting can I do to diagnose the problem before just going out and getting a replacement? Everything else in the room works and there's still a readable voltage at the switch. Does it work at all? Have you looked at your breakers to see if it tripped one?
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2022 05:32
|
|
|
Weirdly enough, I tried it again this morning and it responds to both the switch and its remote. A rare victory for my tactic of "I don't want to deal with this before bed, I'm just going to hope that it magically fixes itself by morning" but I'll keep your posts in mind if it futzs out again. Thanks.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2022 14:12
|
|
|
SpartanIvy posted:Sounds like the remote control module died. They're pretty cheap and swapping it out is usually pretty easy, depending on your ceiling fan. Honestly the hardest part is not getting the wires rubbing on stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2022 17:03
|
|
|
I want to mount some lights on the outside of my garage, on either side of my garage door. The garage door is pretty close to the edge of the garage, such that I've got less than a foot of space from the end of the garage door to the end of the wall. And because of trim I've got even less space, basically exactly enough space to put in a j-block. On the inside, because of studs, I've just barely got enough space to put in a round electrical box, but it would be way off center from the j-block. Can I put a pancake box on the outside of the sheathing (under the jbox) and just poke romex through a hole into the pancake box on the outside, or do I need a junction box on the "inside"? Some pics of the inside and outside if my description doesn't make any sense.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 17:20
|
|
|
We moved about a year ago, and took our medium-size chest freezer with us. It's in the garage, and frequently trips the GFCI. It never did that at our old house. But at the new house I'm using an extension cord, and I didn't before. Could that be the problem? I was going to just go buy a 10-ga cord to test the theory, but man they are expensive. I don't know what gauge cord I'm using now, but it reads: "15A 125V 1875W YFC-U E94923"
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2022 21:13
|
|
|
Lincoln posted:We moved about a year ago, and took our medium-size chest freezer with us. It's in the garage, and frequently trips the GFCI. It never did that at our old house. But at the new house I'm using an extension cord, and I didn't before. Could that be the problem? I was going to just go buy a 10-ga cord to test the theory, but man they are expensive. I don't know what gauge cord I'm using now, but it reads: "15A 125V 1875W YFC-U E94923" Could be, how many feet of extension cord are you running? How far from your electrical panel are you to the outlet (roughly)? Buy one you can return. I bet Amazon has one. You can also see if just replacing the GFCI outlet helps, but that's also $25 or something stupid right now.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2022 21:50
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:Could be, how many feet of extension cord are you running? How far from your electrical panel are you to the outlet (roughly)? Buy one you can return. I bet Amazon has one. You can also see if just replacing the GFCI outlet helps, but that's also $25 or something stupid right now. The extension cord is 6 feet; I need about half that, but I can't move the freezer itself any closer.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2022 22:04
|
|
|
Lincoln posted:The extension cord is 6 feet; I need about half that, but I can't move the freezer itself any closer. Oh 6 feet is nothing. You could make a longer appliance cord if yours is replaceable. Buy an Amazon basics free returns 10awg cable to see if it magically goes away. How old is your panel? How old is your house? Is it older than your last one? You might also have a crappy outlet or a gfci on the end of its life.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2022 22:09
|
|
|
Have you tried it on another outlet on a different circuit yet? What else is on the circuit?
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2022 01:56
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/USCPSC/status/1537473976825413632
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2022 17:38
|
|
|
quote:Incidents/Injuries: This is an interesting level of response compared to what they are currently disclosing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2022 17:44
|
|
|
I'm getting the impression that even if you properly torqued it down with the correct tool, it might not have actually been? I've been pretty butt hurt over selling our house last year, this is the first thing that makes me feel relieved about it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2022 19:30
|
|
|
I really appreciate how they won’t give inspection instructions to the general public.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2022 13:15
|
|
|
Just moved into a house and I want to replace a receptacle. I currently have this:  The top controls the light in the fan (bathroom), the bottom controls the fan. I want to use this:  Where the switch will turn the fan AND light on, and then I can have a separate outlet to plug my toothbrush into. I see NO white wires on any of the existing screws. I see black and red wires, and then uncovered copper wires (ground I assume). I do see some white wires in the receptacle box, but they’re all spliced into different wire caps. Is what I’m trying to do possible? I watched some YouTube videos and no matter what I tried, the only way ahead to get what I want would be to connect the red (light) and the black1 (fan) via a wire cap, then have another wire going out to my terminal…but I dunno enough about electricity to know if that’s a bad idea or not. I did run a multimeter and identified that one of the black wires is the live one, but with the other two being spoken for (fan and light), I dunno what would go to neutral.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 00:40
|
|
|
nwin posted:I see NO white wires on any of the existing screws. I see black and red wires, and then uncovered copper wires (ground I assume). No, not without rewiring that box. Back in the day you didn't need to run neutrals to switch-only boxes so that often didn't happen because you don't need them to just interrupt a hot (i.e a switch).
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 00:59
|
|
|
Motronic posted:No, not without rewiring that box. drat. That seems like something beyond my comfort level. I was asking the electrician about it when he was over fixing the wire I drilled through on my tv mount and he was like “oh that’s easy-just make sure you connect the white/neutral wire.” So I figured I’d give it a shot until I realized the white wire isn’t in play in that box.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 01:06
|
|
|
nwin posted:drat. That seems like something beyond my comfort level. I was asking the electrician about it when he was over fixing the wire I drilled through on my tv mount and he was like “oh that’s easy-just make sure you connect the white/neutral wire.” So I figured I’d give it a shot until I realized the white wire isn’t in play in that box. Yeah, your electrician pretty reasonably assumed that switch box was wired up to code from at least 15 years ago and it's not. There's not a lot you can do without some drywall patching even if you are a top notch electrician, so put that in your "how much is this worth to me right now" vs. "how long until we gut this bathroom to redo it" calculator.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 01:12
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Yeah, your electrician pretty reasonably assumed that switch box was wired up to code from at least 15 years ago and it's not. There's not a lot you can do without some drywall patching even if you are a top notch electrician, so put that in your "how much is this worth to me right now" vs. "how long until we gut this bathroom to redo it" calculator. Thanks! Putting this on the back burner. We’ve got another outlet receptacle on the other side of the sink my wife is using so I’ll just throw a three outlet adapter on that and call it good.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 01:17
|
|
|
It sounds like they do have a neutral in the box though?
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 01:33
|
|
|
Yeah unless I'm missing something it sounds like there's already a neutral bundle in the box, just need to add a pigtail.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 01:36
|
|
|
I’ll have to take a picture tomorrow but there’s 3 parts in the junction box: 1 main light switch for vanity 1 switch for fan 1 switch for light in the fan In the box I mainly see red, black, and bare copper wires hooked up to the three switches, but coming INTO the box, I see 4 sets of stuff, some of which contain white wires.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 01:38
|
|
|
nwin posted:I’ll have to take a picture tomorrow but there’s 3 parts in the junction box: Better pictures then. Kill the power, verify off, LABEL THE WIRES, and unscrew the switch. Take some pictures deep inside. When was your house or that bathroom built?
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 03:16
|
|
|
Am I mistaken that tying the switch/outlet combo into a random set of neutrals might result in a shared neutral? If so, he'd have to ensure that the two circuits are on opposite phases, right? Or is that not a huge concern?
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 03:49
|
|
|
Slugworth posted:Am I mistaken that tying the switch/outlet combo into a random set of neutrals might result in a shared neutral? If so, he'd have to ensure that the two circuits are on opposite phases, right? Or is that not a huge concern? I think it's more likely that there are 4 bundles of romex in there, 1 in, 3 out, with the whites jammed in first to get them out of the way. Pray for OP.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 04:16
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:I think it's more likely that there are 4 bundles of romex in there, 1 in, 3 out, with the whites jammed in first to get them out of the way. Pray for OP. That's not what I got from the description, but it would be the best case scenario here.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 15:29
|
|
|
Motronic posted:That's not what I got from the description, but it would be the best case scenario here. Yeah, it's impossible to know with one partial picture.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 15:36
|
|
|
It looks like a rats nest in there…  
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 15:46
|
|
|
Here’s an overhead shot. The black wire with the electrical tape on the double switch is the live wire. I didn’t test the single switch with my multimeter yet 
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 15:48
|
|
|
Oh, nice. So red and black together from the left side of the existing double switch onto one terminal of your new switch. You'll need to make a jumper to pigtail out of that bundle of neutrals and use the hot on the other side of the switch. I don't know exactly what your switch outlet combo looks like so I don't know if you can just hook those up to individual terminals or if you'll need to pigtail/jumper the hot from the other side of the switch to the outlet.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 15:50
|
|
|
This is a bathroom, shouldn't you have a GFCI? If it's not close to a sink, or you have a GFCI breaker it may not be required. You might use the double switch still, the upper can control the vanity light, and the lower could control the fan/light. Or the upper can do both lights and the lower the fan only. That would leave room for a duplex GFCI. As a bonus, two sockets.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 23:41
|
|
|
Guy Axlerod posted:This is a bathroom, shouldn't you have a GFCI? If it's not close to a sink, or you have a GFCI breaker it may not be required. It is close to a sink but my breaker panel has GFCi’s. It’s weird but my inspector said it was kosher. My assumption is that they are all in parallel so when I trip one, it trips them all and I need to go to the breaker to reset it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 00:35
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Oh, nice. So red and black together from the left side of the existing double switch onto one terminal of your new switch. You'll need to make a jumper to pigtail out of that bundle of neutrals and use the hot on the other side of the switch. So I can put the red and black wire on the same terminal? Would there be enough room for both of them on one post? Seems like maybe not… Also can you provide a link/more info on “making a jumper to pigtail out of that bundle of neutrals”? Couldn’t I just take one of those white wires out of the wire cap and connect that to the neutral terminal?
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 02:42
|
|
|
nwin posted:So I can put the red and black wire on the same terminal? Would there be enough room for both of them on one post? Seems like maybe not… This is getting super specific for advice for something like this on a comedy forum. Or any forum. As to your second question it just goes toward what I said in the first: holy poo poo no don't do that. I think you want to get your electrician to do this. I get that you're trying to save a few bucks, but this isn't the way to do it. You've researched this one and good on you. Now pay someone to do it and ask if you can watch them/have it explained as they do it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 02:52
|
|
|
you might be able to get this with some more instruction but i'm gonna side with mo right now, get someone to do this because you essentially just asked if you could take just take the drain from one sink and attach it to an additional sink so neither of them are on the sewer line.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 03:18
|
|
|
nwin posted:So I can put the red and black wire on the same terminal? Would there be enough room for both of them on one post? Seems like maybe not… https://www.thespruce.com/make-pigtail-wire-connections-1152879 This is what they mean. BUT you should head over to the home wiring thread if you want to learn more. You're basically going to be adding 3ish wires to that setup. You need several tools and some consumables. You are in over your head right now and could make a few lethal mistakes that are trivially avoided. You have and are properly using a non-contact voltage tester or multimeter right? Right? Because you wouldn't be pulling devices out of boxes without one right?
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 03:28
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:This is what they mean. BUT you should head over to the home wiring thread if you want to learn more. Pretty sure we're there and 100% sure this isn't a teachable moment via the forums.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 03:36
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Pretty sure we're there and 100% sure this isn't a teachable moment via the forums. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 03:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 00:21 |
|
|
If only we could find one......
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 03:42
|
|