Lights and fan suddenly stopped working

1,286 Views | 15 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by FatZilla
bigevent99
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AG
2 sets of can lights and a fan in my living room just stopped working. Odd thing is that the lights on the fan work, but the fan doesn't turn on. Any ideas?
Pinochet
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Are all the lights on the same circuit? And the fan on a different circuit?
bigevent99
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AG
yes, but so is the light for the fan. I tried resetting that circuit at the breaker with no luck. Don't understand why half the lights on the circuit work (fan lights, closet), but the other 2 sets of lights and the fan itself don't.
BenTheGoodAg
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AG
I'd start by checking the wirenuts in the box where the light switches to the fan lights/fan motor are. I bet power goes into that box and splits to the respective switches, as well as downstream loads. My guess is that the twisted wire connection where that splits wasn't great and finally came loose after thermal cycling. Take the wirenuts off of the hot and neutral respectively and ensure that all wires are making good contact in the exposed, twisted copper before reinstalling the wirenuts.
UmustBKidding
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Or they daisy chained the hots with the back stab contacts and its has melted one. Stupid stab connection should be outlawed.
BenTheGoodAg
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AG
If true, agreed - back stabs are awful. Though I don't think they are as common on switches.
1988PA-Aggie
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Are they standard hardwired cans, or could they be low-voltage? I recently had a row of smallish cans fail, turned out they were "hardwired" with 12g wire, but as I dug into the ceiling joist bays, I found previous renovation worker had just used that wire to connect to a buried transformer.
UmustBKidding
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Unfortunately I got em. And went through every outlet and switch and changed to use the screw terminals.
cevans_40
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AG
I would guess the neutrals are all tied together behind the switches and some have come loose
bigevent99
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AG
Thanks for the responses. I took the switches out of the wall today and tried to tighten all of the wirenuts. This didn't seem to change anything, unfortunately.
UnderoosAg
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AG
I had a couple laying around where they'd started to melt the whole device. At least one recep and I think other was a switch. It was my "this is why you don't do this" visual aid.

Seems like the early Wago Wallnuts used to do the same thing.

cevans_40
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AG
bigevent99 said:

Thanks for the responses. I took the switches out of the wall today and tried to tighten all of the wirenuts. This didn't seem to change anything, unfortunately.

Any 3 way switches involved?
bigevent99
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AG
Yes, as a matter of fact. I didn't think to check the switches in the other places. The fan isn't a 3 way, however.
cevans_40
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AG
bigevent99 said:

Yes, as a matter of fact. I didn't think to check the switches in the other places. The fan isn't a 3 way, however.

Gotta believe your problem is in a switch box somewhere.
BenTheGoodAg
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AG
cevans_40 said:

bigevent99 said:

Yes, as a matter of fact. I didn't think to check the switches in the other places. The fan isn't a 3 way, however.

Gotta believe your problem is in a switch box somewhere.
I tend to agree. If you have a multimeter and are comfortable using it, that's the best tool to diagnose where the disconnect is. If you are able to get a clear picture of how it's wired inside the switch box, there might be something else for us to consider.
FatZilla
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AG
Fan and light are usually on 2 separate hots(blue and black usually). Guessing the hot for fan came lose in a junction and the lights were downstream.
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