Worth the risk?

faradaygauge · Jul 21, 2016

Hi guys, first time caller...

I just acquired a broken fan. It's big, about 15" in diameter, had its own stand (though not strong enough, hence the breakage) and the current went through a circuit board in order to change by remote control which of three speeds it operated at, and for how long. It looks like this - sorry for the poor image quality, the black cable is marked S, the red M and the white L.

Those three wires feed into this at the fan head

So what I'm asking here is - if I connect the (UK) mains directly to one of those wires to dispense with the middle man, insulate it and then insulate it some more - could it be made to work without me dying or catching fire, and if so how should I deal with the two unused connections? It's a bigger fan than I can afford, and it would be a shame to consign it to the bin.

Thanks in advance.

Darkwood · Jul 21, 2016

Hi, Welcome to the forum

.

I have edited your first post of a few profanities, this is a public forum and we would appreciated you do not post in a manner that would reflect negatively on the forum.. IE - refrain from the colourful language. Thankyou.

In reply to your post, we would need a lot more info to advise on this, with many companies and models out there all with there individual controls and markings. My opinion here is to find the nearest bin and spend a few quid on a new one, 15'' fans are pretty cheap nowadays and its not worth the risk of trying to mod' a broken fan especially as it will run on voltages that can kill and/or cause a fire hazard.

The link shows these fans at the original price but they are going for less than £12 at the moment, just type pedestal fan into Amazon search.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...f_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=798410487&pf_rd_i=11712361

telectrix · Jul 21, 2016

wot he said. ^^^^^^. give it to your local totter. invest in a new fan. meanwhile sweat like a pig. same as the rest of us. or you could experiment. tell us what flowers you prefer. :21:

Pete999 · Jul 21, 2016

What they said

Lucien Nunes · Jul 21, 2016

Funny, someone asked me the same question only yesterday. The speeds are selected by energising the appropriate motor winding tap via what looks like a TO92-packaged thyristor. Applying mains between one tap and the common end of the winding will make the motor run at that speed. The taps for other speed(s) must be insulated. Note the fuse which, if it is in the motor circuit, you must include. I won't give specifics for the method as I'm not recommending you do it.

JohnnyRingmain · Jul 21, 2016

Definitely needs to be thrown out. As the others have said, for the sake of a couple of quid it's not worth the risks.

Look on the bright side, at least the weathers a little cooler now.

davesparks · Jul 21, 2016

I'm a little lost, your OP suggests that the only thing broken is the stand, so why not just repair the stand and use it with the existing control?

faradaygauge · Jul 22, 2016

Thanks all, and apologies for the language. Lol teletrix

Unfortunately my effort to repair the stand involved severing those three connections to get the (broken) bracket on which it stood out of the way. Leaving it like that was too precarious, and I couldn't separate the plastic around the wires (plastic too hard to wrench off even with pliers - I could have tried sawing it, in retrospect...) so I rewired and insulated everything as it was but all that worked afterwards was the LEDs. Still, they're very nice LEDs.

Will pony up for a new fan.

Chris