Ceiling fan wackiness?

[zepper]

Greetings oh noble saviours of humanity,

My wife and I just ordered two “Tannersville” (a.k.a. TFCFL) 48” ceiling fans with LED lights from Wayfair.ca. I’ve done a fair amount of electrical, including ceiling fans, but these have me baffled.

The manual (and that’s a great word for it) seems to be a generic one the company sends out with ALL its fans. It shows parts ours don't even have, and doesn’t give a clue where anything actually goes.

As you can see in the photos I’ve attached, the motor has:

• Five leads coming out the top (blue, white, pink, red, orange)

• Four leads coming out the bottom (black, white), presumably for the LED light

There are also:

• LED assembly w/female Molex

• LED driver circuit board in small box, with four leads (two joined in male Molex)

• “DC inverter fan remote control” module with seven leads (gray, pink, black, white, blue, and two orange—with the black, blue, and one orange labeled in Chinese [anyone?] )

• A six-place female Molex connector that was attached to the side of the ceiling bracket–so I’m assuming some of the leads from the motor and/or LED driver go there—but which, where? None of its openings are labeled.

• Other hardware:

_ Downrods (standard plus extension, which we won't need)

_ Dome canopy

_ “Yoke cover” (sez manual)

_ Two small (~2”) anodized steel bolts, each with a sliding sleeve, washer, spring washer, and nut (for what?)

I didn’t bother photographing the translucent dome that goes over the LEDs.

The other fans I’ve put up were “smart” fans with just the usual hot, neutral and ground. You turned them on, paired the remotes, and that was that.

Had I any idea how complicated these were, I would’ve sent ‘em back—but unfortunately we’ve just gotten to this part of our reno and the return window has slammed shut closed.

Can anyone point me in the right direction, other than the loony bin? Sure appreciate any hope you can send our way! Thanks, Z.

 

[zepper]

Oh, and here are the actual manual pages–though they may be more confusing than helpful–and the one-page instructions for the remote-control module.

And I guess I should also show you the Chinese labeling on three of the remote module's leads (the others are unlabeled), in case anyone has a clue with that. 我的中文和我的匈牙利语差不多 ("My Chinese is about as good as my Hungarian")

Thanks again! 🤪

 

[zepper]

Yikes—nobody? Was the Chinese was a bit much? Or maybe there's a more specialized Ceiling Fan part of the forum? Wife tapping foot as we speak. 😬💦

 

[havasu]

Bump for help for this member?

 

[afjes_2016]

Unfortunately you are not going to get much help from me on this one.
My biggest concern is if this is even if is "UL Listed approved". I don't see the symbol anywhere on the parts or instructions.

Many products (electrical) that you buy from these sites are made in China and have horrible instructions (generic as you see-broken English also) and will cause guess work for installing.

The difficult part is figuring out the remote connections. This adds complexity to the installation.

I checked out some of the "reviews" on the listings I found for this fan on some sites and it seems "Andy" may be the OP here who gave it one star and Jennifer who gave it 5 stars, but Jennifer seems to be from the company that sells it listing her/his review on a few sites promoting the product.

Maybe someone else can help with the remote.

Sorry

 

[Sparky617]

Yikes—nobody? Was the Chinese was a bit much? Or maybe there's a more specialized Ceiling Fan part of the forum? Wife tapping foot as we speak. 😬💦

The sleeves in the one picture are for mounting it on a concrete ceiling. They are expansion anchors. Other than that, I got nothing for you sorry.

When I come to this forum, I use the "what's new" button to bring up any posts across all the forums that I hadn't seen yet. I'll hop in if I have something constructive to say.

 

[ekrig]

The instructions are indeed really confusing. I would start by doing some checks to establish some general parameters with a continuity tester or multimeter. For example, and referring to the order of the pictures in the first post:

• Are the blue and white wires in the 4th picture connected through, and not cross-connected?
• The white light wire seems to act as the neutral. On the remote, is it connected/common to any of the motor wires?
• Very carefully: supply power to the remote and measure the output voltages between wires when you press on the buttons of the remote. Do the voltages of the motor output wires change according to the fan remote speed? They should, or something is wrong about our understanding or the system.

And so on... In other words, apply the scientific process:

1. Based on a given understanding, then X should be true.
2. Try it out!
3. If correct, then what else should be true, and go back to 2.
4. Otherwise, what could be an alternative explanation of everything that was verified so far? Go back to 1 to iterate until problem solved.

 

[zepper]

Thanks very much for your ideas... Will try & get back here ASAP. Cheers!

 

[afjes_2016]

What I would do is contact Cust Service at Wayfair and explain to them that the fan did not come with proper instructions to hook up the electrical part namely the remote. The manual included was "generic" in nature and even an electrician hesitate in installing the fan because of the lack of instructions for the remote which is "proprietary in nature" which means unless you have written instructions to install it there is a great chance that it can burn out if not installed properly. For this reason you want to return the unit/s.

Be done with it. I think there is too much guess work and hooking it up incorrectly will only result in a problem.. Once you burn it out then it is too late. Find something different especially one with at least a UL Listing. Look back at the listing on Wayfair, does it specify the UL listing? Use that against them so you can get your money back. Return the darn things before they burn out. Here is some information on UL

UL information. Read up on it so when you select your next fan you have a better idea of what you are purchasing and why you may need to spend a bit more money.

 

[ekrig]

Note that I completely agree with @afjes_2016. Personally, I would just return the fan because I want those things to simply work and not give me grief.

My comments were meant mainly from the point of view of how one would solve a general electrical/electronics problem, if I was so inclined mainly out of curiosity or intellectual interest. In other words, think of it mainly as solving a puzzle where the process is the goal. If instead the goal is to have a reliable house fixture, that is not a route that I recommend.

 

[zepper]

Note that I completely agree with @afjes_2016. Personally, I would just return the fan because I want those things to simply work and not give me grief... My comments were meant mainly from the point of view of how one would solve a general electrical/electronics problem, if I was so inclined mainly out of curiosity or intellectual interest. In other words, think of it mainly as solving a puzzle where the process is the goal. If instead the goal is to have a reliable house fixture, that is not a route that I recommend.

And I sure appreciate it—that's why I come here, because you guys know!

Happy ending, as it turned out... Based partly on the strength of your responses here, Wayfair refunded us for both fans, over the phone, and isn't even requiring us to ship them back. (Maybe someone at ReStore / Habitat for Humanity would like to puzzle them out!)

Thanks again for your interest, help & general swellness 👋😊