Ceiling Fan Remote Controls

[Bird]

We have one little bedroom and this room where my computer, desk, file cabinet, etc. are that have no ceiling fans. I have ordered fans that should be delivered tomorrow. But today I was looking at the remote controls for ceiling fans at both Lowe's and Home Depot, then looked some on the Internet, and can't decide. In the first place the remotes vary considerably in price and I don't know what the difference is. And in looking at some opinions on the Internet, it appears that some folks are very happy with their remote controls while others say they have had to replace theirs frequently. The idea of having to take a fan down to replace parts doesn't appeal to me. Have any of you had any experience with these things? Good? Bad? Any particular model you like or don't like?

The fans I'm going to install are these Hunter 23867s.

 

[SnowRidge]

We had the All Fan/Light Remote shown on that page. The only problem we had with it was a power failure would turn the light on and leave it it on when service was restored, until we turned it off ourselves. Not a real issue, but it could be if you lived someplace with flaky power.

We have never had to replace a fan remote. We have had to replace a couple of fans due to them getting noisy. They were Hampton Bays.

 

[Bird]

I guess Hampton Bay is Home Depot's house brand and Harbor Breeze is Lowe's. I can't remember for sure because it's been so long ago, but many years ago, I installed 4 ceiling fans in the house we owned, then later I installed 4 in my parents' home, and I think I've always bought Hunter fans, which both Lowe's and Home Depot sell. However, the particular fans I wanted were not in stock in either box store; would have to order them, so I found a considerably cheaper place to order then online. Now if FedEx delivers them undamaged everything will be OK.

 

[SpringHollow]

We have several of the Hampton Bay brand remotes that we retrofitted to some fans mainly because we wanted to add light kits to the fans and have a "light switch" without having to rip apart a cathedral ceiling. They have worked extremely well. We bought extra controllers (mounted them in the wall) so we have 3-way switching.

Ken

 

[GaryM]

I have nine Hunters at my place, all with the earlier model of the remote shown. They occasionally do turn the light on if there's a power fluctuation. other than that, and getting nine different codes set up, I've had no problems in three years.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've had remote control fans from both Home Depot and Lowes with good results. Our current home has one from Lowes that came with the the remote control already installed, which works great. We couldn't find a remote control fan that we (Steph) liked for our bedroom, so I bought the kit to convert the fan to remote control from Lowes. Both remotes are identical.

We've never had any problems with either remote in two years. The only thing we did have happen was the lights in our bedroom got kind of dim on us. We thought the bulbs were going bad, when by accident, we held down the light button and the lights got brighter!!! Neither of us had any idea that the button was also a dimmer. hahahaha

The secret to a ceiling fan is a solid mount. I like to run at least two screws through the box into a solid piece of wood. I use 2x6's, 2x4's or 3/4 inch plywood to secure them. You can't have it too solid, but if it's not, it will wiggle itself loose in time.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

The secret to a ceiling fan is a solid mount.

I certainly agree with that. Many years ago when I installed ceiling fans in our house and in my parents' house, I had to spend a lot of time in the attic anyway because I had to run the wiring, put in junction boxes, etc., so I put in additional 2 x 4s to attach the fans. However, I ain't gettin' in the attic this time, partly because of my age and physical condition, partly because there's 13" of blown in insulation up there so you'd have to feel your way around, and partly because Lowe's has some metal braces that can installed from underneath through a relatively small hole in the ceiling. They're rated for fans up to 70 pounds. And if I have to make too big a hole . . ., well, Lowe's and Home Depot have some decorative plastic disks up to 28" diameter. And I guess I'll have to buy a couple of remote control kits.

When our next door neighbors go out of town, I feed and water their cats, and they have one fan with a remote control mounted on the wall. I know once during a thunderstorm, brief power outage, etc. both a light and the fan came on, so when I went over there, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to turn them off.

 

[SpringHollow]

We have thunderstorms and power outages all of the time and I have never had the fan or lights turn on with the Hampton Bay.

Ken

 

[Bird]

Ken, the two fans we currently have, one in the living room and one in our bedroom, each has two wall switches; one for the lights and one for the fan, but no remotes. However, in the bedroom we have a couple of those lamps with no switches; just touch them to turn them on, a second touch gets brighter, the third touch gets the brightest, and the next touch turns them off. It certainly doesn't happen every time we have a power outage, but occasionally when the power comes back on, so does one or both of those lamps.

 

[jwstewar]

Bird,

We had a Harbor Breeze remote on our living room fan for almost 8 years. It was still working until about 2 weeks ago when our house burnt down. The way it worked, it would always shut the fan & light off should the power drop for a second. I was very happy with it. We also had one in our bedroom from Sears that didn't work worth a crap. Had to hold it almost to the light for it to work. In the new house that will hopefully be started before long, we will have Hunter fans and probably the Harbor Breeze remotes. The Hunter ceiling fan we used to have in our kitchen put out a lot more air than the Harbor Breeze throughout the rest of the house - though it was a lot pricier.

 

[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.