Ceiling Fan Capacitor

[sKiTzo]

The other day I noticed my ceiling fan wouldn't turn on. The light still worked but the fan was dead. Is it possible for the capacitor to look pristine with no bulges or even a burnt smell and still be bad?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Yes, they can fail open-circuit.

 

[sKiTzo]

Yes, they can fail open-circuit.

....and the light would still work, meaning, the bad capacitor affects the fan only?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Yes, the light would still work. There could be other problems with the fan motor too though.

 

[Marvo]

In all my life I've never seen a failed capacitor on a ceiling fan and I live in a country where they're very common. It's possible but very unlikely. More likely to be the pull switch or the speed controller on the wall that's at fault.

 

[sKiTzo]

Yes, the light would still work. There could be other problems with the fan motor too though.

True, but if it was the fan motor wouldn't there have been some symptoms like noise first?

 

[Marvo]

You might hear noise if the root cause of the failure was mechanical ie bearing failure for example. There's other possible failures that wouldn't make noise such as if the safety thermistor on the windings went open circuit or if the windings themselves or one of the internal wire connections went open circuit.

 

[Avo Mk8]

If you really want to DIY this, if you don't have one already, you could equip yourself with a multimeter and check the many possibilities already suggested to find the problem.
e.g: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mercury-60...itester/dp/B00LEHFUVC/ref=asc_df_B00LEHFUVC/?
I appreciate this link is for UK - you may be able to find something similar that measures capacitance!