Ceiling Fan Remote Controls

[Chuck52]

Bird,

I've got a remote controlled fan in our bedroom and I do wish it had manual controls on it, too. I don't remember if it's a Hunter or the Lowes brand, but we did get it there. Sometimes it doesn't answer to the remote, or it will only run in reverse. Sometimes hitting the reverse button will turn on the light. If I keep fooling with the remote I can usually get it to work correctly, but if I give up it seems to "cure" itself eventually and go back to working fine. There is no obvious rhyme or reason for the behavior. I thought the battery in the remote might be weak and changed it, but that didn't make any difference. I still like the remote because it let me replace the light with the fan and light and still be able to turn on the light at the door, without having to re-wire anything. It would be nice if it also had manual controls for when these weird things happen.

Chuck

 

[Bird]

Always sorry to hear anyone's house burned down; hope it was well insured. I'm curious as to why you'd go with Hunter fans, but Harbor Breeze remotes. I didn't see any Hunter remotes at Lowe's, but I did see them at Home Depot. Of course, the other thing is that Home Depot had Hunter model 27157 remote (battery not included) for $19.97 and model 27144 (battery included) for $42.97. Other than the battery being included or not, I wondered what the difference is.

 

[SnowRidge]

We put a Hunter fan in our bedroom. It replaced a noisy POS Hampton Bay. When we looked at remotes, the nicest unit we could find was a Hampton Bay, and that's what we installed in the Hunter fan.

We only use the remote for the fan. We left the light on a separate switch and elected not to use the remote for that function.

 

[jwstewar]

Were still working with the insurance company Bird. Looks like we are going to be OK house wise, contents might be low, but that was the max we were allowed to carry based on the cost of the house. We were just glad none of us were hurt and that no firemen were hurt. BTW, I've attached a picture of the remains of the house. Just called the excavator company to give them the go ahead to finish tearing it down and hauling it away.

Why Hunter fans with Harbor Breeze remote? Mainly because I hadn't seen a Hunter remote at Lowes and the Harbor Breeze always worked well. In the 8 years of having the HB remote I think we only replaced the batteries 2 or 3 times and it just took 2 AA or AAAs. Maybe by the time we are buying them again our Menards will be open and that will all change, but they will still probably be Hunter fans.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

We've had one of Lowes house brand fans for a yr now, one of the higher end models. Never a problem with the fan or remote. Remote has 3 speeds, rev and rocker switch for the 2 tiers of lights. Remote is gental on the fan/lights. Hard to tell about the fan itself but you can see for the lights they turn on/off in several steps over about a sec, no instant on/off that can be hard on incandesent lamps. Never a lamp failure.

I see Lowes offers remotes separate from the fan. They have 2 models the lower cost one is like the one that came with our fan. The higher price model has an LCD display and you can program the remote to turn on/off the fan and control speed by setting a temp. Seems like I remember the the higher priced model was under $40.

 

[dbdartman]

I have the cheap Hampton Bay add-on remotes on 4 out of 7 ceiling fans in our house. Have yet to changed any batteries in 3 years. They control the fan in 3 speeds, plus the lights & act as a dimmer. The only problem I've had with them is one that wouldn't work when it was installed, & the light control of the one in my bed room is "touchy" (push it too hard & it won't work, use a real light touch & it will). Of the fans I didn't add the remotes to, one already had one, & the other two were too small to fit the receiver in their bases.

 

[kenmac]

I have to say I haven't had any luck with remote control ceiling fans. Bought 2 from H.D. & the remote went bad on both after about 1 yr.

 

[Chuck52]

I never knew my controller had the light dimmer function. It pays to read these threads, don't it?

Chuck

 

[Bird]

Home Depot had Hunter model 27157 remote (battery not included) for $19.97 and model 27144 (battery included) for $42.97. Other than the battery being included or not, I wondered what the difference is

I called Hunter's tech support and learned the cheap one turns fan and lights on and off, period. The higher priced one will change the fan speeds and dim the lights.

In reading the fan installation instructions, I found that the fan must be set on the highest speed and the lights must be turned on with the pull chains when you install the remote control. Now how are you going to know for sure what the switches are set on until you install the fan and turn it on? Then you'd have a fair amount of disassembly to do to install the remote. So I haven't bought the remotes yet, but quite likely will in the near future.

FedEx driver delivered the fans, put the boxes by the front door, rang the doorbell, and ran for his truck as fast as he could run at 4:45 p.m. yesterday. I guess he was just in a hurry because the boxes were in good shape.

So I installed one of the fans today and it worked, but I could hear a click, click, click as the fan turned. I told my wife I guess I'd have to disassemble it and find out where that sound was coming from, but I also had an appointment I had to go to right then, and I had to buy some light bulbs for the lights on the fan. When I got back I put the bulbs in, turned everything on, tried all the speeds on the fan twice, and no clicking sound.

Now my appointment was to get my hearing aids re-programmed, but my wife doesn't hear any clicking sound from the fan anymore either.

 

[jwstewar]

Don't worry about the settings Bird. Put the remote in as you do the install. You can then set the pull chains as needed. That is how I've done all of the fan remotes that I've done - I only had 2, but I've installed several. I usually then just shorten the chains up so that nobody messes with them.