1

The home I bought has 3 bedrooms each with a ceiling fan and single switch. I think these are Hunters, they have a remote and require T4 bulbs. These are not on the same circuit.

All 3 of these do the same thing when you flip the switch on. The light comes on at full strength, then after maybe 1 second, they dim to less than 50%.

I originally purchased 100W bulbs but then noticed inside the fixture it says 75W max, so I've now tried 75W T4 bulbs with the same result.

Improve this question
6
  • 1
    They're probably expecting you to be using the remote to turn them on & off. When you use the switch to turn them off, when you turn them back on they take a second or so to 'remember' where you last had them dimmed to using the remote. Just leave the switch turned on and use the remote.
    – brhans
    Mar 14, 2017 at 13:13
  • I originally thought this, but the remote seems to have no effect. There is a single light button and when pressed it goes to the same 50% dimness.
    – What-About-Bob
    Mar 14, 2017 at 13:14
  • 1
    What if you press-and-hold?
    – brhans
    Mar 14, 2017 at 13:15
  • 1
    I'll try that tonight. But reading now about wattage limiters, I wonder if these come on using the full 75W then that thing kicks in to reduce to 40W? "As per the Energy Policy Act of 2005, all ceiling fans manufactured or imported into the United States must utilize a light bulb wattage limiter as of January 1, 2007. This limiter limits the capacity of the fan's light kit to a maximum of 40 watts per bulb."
    – What-About-Bob
    Mar 14, 2017 at 13:23
  • Thanks guys, I'll definitely try that tonight. Doesn't seem very intuitive to have to press and hold, but I see now that that's the way it works >> homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/f4/…
    – What-About-Bob
    Mar 14, 2017 at 14:06

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

One professional installer (who wasn't hired) told me that there was some power limiter in these fans that they routinely disabled on installation because of call-backs. I installed three of these fans myself in a relative's house (no remotes) with existing ceiling fixtures and wall switches. I just followed the directions and so far no complaints. My wife had two similar Hunter fans with remotes installed in our house in rooms with no ceiling fixtures. Pressing and holding the light button brightens or dims the lights. The installers didn't disable any power limiters present. No wall switches for our fans.

The absence of wall switches for our Hunter fans means I can't replicate your report. Without a wall switch the receiver is always powered and I don't have a major transient when using the button. I did have one failure with one of our two fan--neither light nor fan would come on. I assumed the connections were bad and I redid each connection in the fan shroud and it worked. Problem solved.

Then it did it again. Thinking the receiver was bad I removed it and wired the fan straight and we used the pull chains. Then I rigged up a test apparatus with a bulb as load and tested the receiver for both light and fan (using a single 40 W incandescent bulb as both load and indicator) and it passed all the tests. I reinstalled the receiver and it worked . . . but then had another failure. This time I just cycled the breaker on the circuit and the fan worked again, and has not failed for a year since.

Improve this answer
1
  • There limiters but from memory the total wattage was limited. As for personal experience I have replaced or bypassed them and there was only 1 limiter no matter the number of lamp fixtures. I think the limiters are regulated to 190w. A easy way to get more lumens or light without hitting a possible wattage limit would be to switch to LED's
    – Ed Beal
    Mar 6, 2019 at 5:05

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.