I have a pair of Hunter ceiling fans that are 20 years old. In the past few years they have started to burn out bulbs in a few months. They always start by blinking intermittent blinking then they go out. I have taken down the light portion of the fan to see what might be going on. youtube videos suggest that a current limiter could be bad. Problem is that I do not see a current limiter as described in our lights. I was thinking of eliminating the pull cord light switch and there is a wire that goes from the light switch to a blue wire labeled for light that goes into the harness. We have tied all kind of bulbs but we now use LED 100 watt equivalent bulbs Cree was the last ones and we got 2 months and 3 OF 6 are dead already.
CEILING FAN LIGTHS BLINK THEN DIE IN TWO MONTHS
- Thread starter Brimfield
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Roadworthy
Elite Member
Incandescent bulbs can do that as they fail due to vibration. A filament can break and reestablish connection before the final break renders it useless. I rarely use my light fixtures in fans - for other reasons. If you've not done so, try LED bulbs in your fan fixture. It is possible you have a defective dimmer circuit being used on your light fixture. I do have dimmers on a couple of light / fan combinations. That may not be your issue but I could see it being a problem. If you're using too high a wattage bulb it's possible it's not getting adequate cooling airflow. Your problem description lacks for detail which limits my suggestions to supposition.
Diggin It
Super Star Member
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Are you using any kind of controller, remote, dimmer?
ruffdog
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My three 26 year old Hunter fans are still going strong and rarely burn bulbs. Our fans have a 60 w max bulb and one fan uses 60w eq LED bulbs. I wonder.... are your bulbs over heating? Agree^^^...a bad dimmer switch?
WE don't have any remote or dimmer on the lights and the bulbs are LED so no over heating. The ceiling fans work just fine. I have thought of replacing the bulb sockets just to see if that works but the sockets look fine right now.
reb
Veteran Member
Maybe the sockets are at fault. A weakened center contact can cause your problem.
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Is there a little rectangular thing under there with two leads coming out of it? Many hunter fans have some sort of limiter for voltage or wattage or something or other in them that frequently goes out. There's a bunch of u-tube videos on it. Anyhow, look for those videos. Specify hunter fan lights not working, and you'll find them and the repairs people have made to get them working correctly.
Hope that helps.
coobie
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Do yourself a favor and replace them.I had 3 hunter fans installed for 25 years one night when I was working my wife called and said the living room fan was smoking & burnt wire smell I told her to shut it down.I replaced all 3 I figured I got great use out of them.
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ruffdog
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I had that happen to one of mine within a few years of buying them. I replaced a small electrical part and they have been good since then.
Cougsfan
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I had a ceiling fan that started burning out its candelabra bulbs when I changed them out to high output LEDs. Turns out that you can't mount high output candelabra LED bulbs in places where the socket is on top because the bulbs overheat. Do you have them, or regular bulbs? Try a lower wattage in any case. Mine worked fine when I put 40w equivalents in.
I had seen the youtube videos showing the current limiter but mine do not have a part that looks like that. I guess I'll just replace the sockets and eliminate the light pull cord. 20' from the floor so I don't see using the pull cord.
PILOON
Super Star Member
Perhaps you have had numerous brief power outages that U are not aware of.
The on/off (off/on) pulses or spikes are hard on bulbs.
Last week we has 13 (thirteen) brief outages on our grid all over 72 hrs.
Most frustrating as everything has to re-boot and I fear for the effects on life expectancy.
My fridge sure does not like re starting mid power blip.
Now I tried to contact our provider but they have cleverly disactivated all the links so the only choice was the phone. (tried some 8-10 links, can't even copy/click)
Even the phone was super frustrating with all the useless information and no human contact.
They suggest to go on web or to use cell phone if web is down.
LOL, no power = no web, add that cell reception is very spotty here.
My take is branches make shorts and automatic breakers reset after a brief cooldown period, hence the 2-5 min outage.
The on/off (off/on) pulses or spikes are hard on bulbs.
Last week we has 13 (thirteen) brief outages on our grid all over 72 hrs.
Most frustrating as everything has to re-boot and I fear for the effects on life expectancy.
My fridge sure does not like re starting mid power blip.
Now I tried to contact our provider but they have cleverly disactivated all the links so the only choice was the phone. (tried some 8-10 links, can't even copy/click)
Even the phone was super frustrating with all the useless information and no human contact.
They suggest to go on web or to use cell phone if web is down.
LOL, no power = no web, add that cell reception is very spotty here.
My take is branches make shorts and automatic breakers reset after a brief cooldown period, hence the 2-5 min outage.
oosik
Epic Contributor
I installed a Hunter fan when we built this house - 1982. It lasted 27 years. One evening it began smoking. I turned it off - replaced with a new Hunter. It's been working fine for 12 years.
I didn't have/don't have light fixtures with either Hunter.
In my case I blame it on all the dust and volcanic ash in this part of the country.
It's going to take a whole lot more time before the 1980 Mt St Helens eruption is no longer a factor around here.
I didn't have/don't have light fixtures with either Hunter.
In my case I blame it on all the dust and volcanic ash in this part of the country.
It's going to take a whole lot more time before the 1980 Mt St Helens eruption is no longer a factor around here.
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I looked at the pull cord switch and saw " 6a 125vl " stamped on it. I assume this might be voltage limiter. It also has " 6a125vac " on it. Led 100w bulbs draw .83 amps according to what I read. So I hope bypassing the light switch fixes this . But does anyone know for sure what 6A 125vl stands for ?
workinonit
Elite Member
That switch appears to be rated for both AC and DC. Looks like that's a 6A 125 VDC rating.
