# Ceiling Fan Wiring



## mark681137 (Sep 6, 2010)

Well while painting the ceiling I disconnected the ceiling fan and forgot to take notes on how it was wired.
This is a standard ceiling fan with light kit, I have a two switch plate on one wall, one switch is a dimmer for the light, the other is off/on for the fan. I have two other switches on two other walls to kill the light (off/on).
Coming out of the ceiling box I have 3 wires along with a copper ground wire to the box. 1-White, 1-Black, 1-Red.
Coming out of the fan I have 4 wires, 1-White, 1-Black, 1-Blue, and 1-Green that is grounded to the fan.

I've tried several ways but can't find the right combination. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!


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## kok328 (Sep 6, 2010)

Have you tried white to white, black to black & red to blue?


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## mark681137 (Sep 6, 2010)

Well I thought I had but I guess not just retested the wires and hooked it up that way and yes it works, fan and light but dimmer does not work, light is full on at all times. Dimmers seem top have a short life on this light as this is the second one.
Any suggestions?

Thanks for having patience with me.


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## kok328 (Sep 6, 2010)

Do you have the correct switch wires connected to the correct portion of the fixture?
In other words, is the dimmer controlling the fan and the switch controlling the light?
If so, then try white to white, black to blue and red to black.
Otherwise, the dimmer may be bad.  I know you need a special dimmer to control the fan but, not the light.  If you find that the wires were reversed, I suppose the fan burned up the dimmer portion of that switch.  Which means you need to replace the dimmer and hook it up to the correct wire.  It's worth a shot and if it doesn't solve the problem you can always return the dimmer and get your money back.


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## triple D (Sep 6, 2010)

If you have flourescent bulbs, you will also go through dimmers.


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## mark681137 (Sep 7, 2010)

These are standard bulbs not flourescent.

I tested the wires from the ceiling, black went to fan switch, red went to light dimmer, I connected the black to the black fan switch and the red to the blue light switch.

I got this dimmer from home depot, could be the wrong one for this application, plus most of the stuff I'm finding at hd nowadays is the cheapest crap you can get so my guess is its toast.

Thanks for reading and trying to help.


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## mark681137 (Dec 18, 2010)

Ok, I figured I needed to comeback and clear up what was wrong, bad dimmer switch, replaced it now it works fine. I had just put that switch in 3 months before, used to a switch lasted the life of the house, guess not any more.


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