I installed a Blue Series Fan Switch and seem to have an issue with the fan speeds. On Low, the fan is super slow; on Medium, it is slow; and on High, it is at the fastest speed. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.
This switch replaced an existing 4-Speed Fan Controller (Rhine UC9020). I included a photo below of the replaced switch. I can’t reach the fan to get information from it, but it is just a fan with no light.
The switch is connected with a neutral wire, and the firmware was updated to 1.07. Am I missing anything in the settings, or is the switch not compatible with replacing my old one?
I’m going to make an educated guess. Hopefully someone can add to this.
The old controller is a 4 speeds on controller. Since all four on speeds worked with your fan, the logical assumption is that your fan is also a 4 speed.
The VZM35-SN is a 3 speeds on controller. It provides “on” outputs at three levels. The outputs from the switch are mapped by the fan to its four speeds. I’m guessing that the three Inovelli outputs are mapping to very low, low and high on your fan. This leaves you missing the medium speed.
If there is a solution, I don’t know what it is, but someone else might.
Thank you. I recently got a 4-speed WiFi fan controller that I will try, but I was going to return it as it is not cUL certified. I already have other Inovelli switches, and getting this one made perfect sense. Too bad I won’t be able to use it.
For what it’s worth, I also have a 4-speed fan controlled by an Inovelli (canopy module in my case). For that fan, I get the very low, medium, and high which is a much more reasonable mapping than what you are seeing.
I’m not sure why different fans map differently though.
I tried the 4-speed WiFi fan controller and got similar results. On the Lowest and Low settings, the speed is the same but much slower than the old controller’s slowest speed (setting 4); on Medium, it is similar to slow (setting 4); and on Fast, it is similar to Medium-High (setting 2). So, from the old controller, we are missing settings 3 and 1, and of course, we use 3 the most.
The fan is about 18 feet up, so I can’t get close enough to obtain any details from it. I suspect other smart fan controllers will be similar, so for now I reinstalled the old manual one.
Hopefully, this information can be of use to someone else.
The fan itself doesn’t have fixed speeds when controlling it via an external switch like this, which is basically controlling the applied voltage. These controllers put different size capacitors in series with the fan motor to change the speed. The internal 3-speed pull cord versions do the same thing. So, what is happening is your fan motor is higher power than most so it runs slower on the lower speed capacitors. I’m guessing the manual controller came with the fan and is built with capacitors to match the motor and get 4 proper speeds.
I know that people have taken apart these types of devices and changed the capacitors.
Thank you. Yes, it appears the controller came with the fan. I found the manual and it is a Hampton Bay Industrial 60-Inch Ceiling Fan Model 52960 with the following specs: https://imgur.com/a/DtD0C2S.
@iAutom8 - I used to use HomeSeer’s fan controller and had 4 speeds of which the 3rd was also our favorite. Having upgraded the switch to the Inovelli one, I always wonder if there is some way to get that perfect speed back.
My fan is installed on a 21ft ceiling but I swapped the original pole to two coupled together bringing the 60in fan down to about 12ft. Isn’t having it at 18ft a bit too far up for it to be effective? Maybe lowering it might mitigate the missing speed allowing you to use a slower speed but getting the same air flow.
