Best way to balance a ceiling fan so it doesn't wobble

[Lorne]

I thought of taping a penny onto it.
Should it be taken down and held horizontally like balancing a tire?
Or, take off each bladed and weight each one?

[masswood]

You Should be able to buy a balancing kit from home depot or Menards or Lowes. Should not cost much at all.

Joe

[Maureen]

Hi Lorne,

Sounds like you need a ceiling fan support bar! Most of our homes are not constructed as stick builts. We're notorious for have weaker ceilings.

If you can't find these locally, Mark sells these here on the site! Just look under the Books & Parts link at teh top of the page. This will take care of the wobble.

Maureen

[Lorne]

I think I'll try the balancing kit. Thanks.

[Yanita]

I would go with the support bar as Maureen suggested.

A fan typically only wobbles when it does not have a secure mount.

~Yanita~

[MacAttack]

When you buy a new fan, they come with adhesive-backed lead weights. If it were me, I'd try a penny and tape.

[Lorne]

Using A penny would save me a trip to the store.

As to the support bar, the fans have ball joint gimble mounts so just the blade and motor swing and not the mount to the ceiling.

[Greg]

Check first to see if there is a lot of dust on the top of the blades, that will throw it off also, speaking from experience. Greg

[Archie]

Some ceiling fan manufacturers suggest switching the blades around to find the best balance.

Find the blade that seems to be the most out of balance and swap it with one on the opposite side of the fan. It takes some time but costs nothing.

[DannyBob]

...
...
Am *I* the only one who thinks that, maybe, it JUST MIGHT be 'outta flat' ... ???

that if you turn it by hand, you MIGHT see that -1- blade is not on the same horizontal plane as the others ...???

that, then you MIGHT try 'tweaking' UP or DOWN until the blade is in line w/ the others ...???

...

just a "Humble Opinion" ...

*DannyBob

[kashton]

In my opinion, I would get the bar or kit. I,ve had lights that were too heavy for a mobile cause damage. Better safe than sorry. Another thing that sets it off balance is if the blades have been painted.

Tweaking a blade can cause cracks in the blade. I've tried to reshape the blades, and they never work the same again. It can really cause an imbalance.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what does out of flat mean? Blades on a fan are angled, and if you mean one blade is sitting higher or lower, you don't want to bend where it attaches to the metal, or you could really screw it.

[Yanita]

Hi,

Most blades are held in place with screws. Sometimes over years of spinning and cleaning these screws get lose...try tightening them and see if that helps.

~Yanita~

[readysetgo]

Funny thing about one of our ceiling fans is that I cleaned mine about a week ago and it's been wobbling ever since. This has happened before also. It just took time in the past to level off for some reason. We tighten up all the screws, clean, check for damage, stuff like that about twice a year and everytime we do, it takes time being on fastest speed in order to get balanced again. This is just one of our ceiling fans that does this.

[sidewinder]

My wife tried tweaking our fan blade and the bracket that holds the blade to the fan broke.

Unfotunately for me i was sitting in it's direct path got a good black eye out of it just glad it was on medium.

I've tried those weights that come with fans to balance them but they like to fly off when you turn them on high

[wayne]

I had one blade that wasn't bent as much as the rest and I measured down from the celling to the blade and made them all the same. It fixed the wobble in mine.