How Do I Balance a Ceiling Fan?

If you turn on your ceiling fan and it wobbles, it may be out of balance. You can balance it yourself by following the steps in this Angi, formerly Angie’s List, a guide to the process. No one wants to spend time under a wobbly fan, and it can get highly annoying over time. However, there’s no reason that you have to live with an unbalanced fan.

If you aren’t sure that you can do it yourself, you can always call in a handyman to do it for you. These generally charge a flat fee for the service call, usually between $50 and $75 and then an hourly labor fee. If there are no problems, balancing the fan should take at most 45 minutes to complete for one fan, and it’s an easy job for a handyman to do. However, it’s not as hard as you might think to do this ceiling fan repair job yourself.

Start at the Ceiling

When you begin balancing your fan, start at the mounting bracket that holds it to the ceiling. Take a look at this bracket and its screws. If there are any loose screws, this may be what’s causing the wobbling. If there are loose screws tighten them, but don’t overtighten. Turn on the fan again and see if it still wobbles. If it doesn’t, your job is finished. If it does, you will need to move on to the fan blades.

Balancing the Ceiling Fan Blades

There are special tools that you can use to help you to balance a ceiling fan. You can buy a ceiling fan balancing kit that will have everything you need it in, including a clip and some weights. These are available at most home improvement stores and are available for under $5. Another option is to instead use items that you already have at home.

You can use dimes, quarters, and nickels to balance the fan blades. Just tape these tiny weights to the top side of the blades and balance them with these. To do this properly, it’s important to start with a single fan blade. Choose one and add a coin weight or a test clip to it. If you use a test clip, place it in the middle of the blade on the side that is the outer edge of the direction the fan turns in. Then, turn it on and notice whether it gets more wobbly or less so.

If your ceiling fan is then less wobbly than before, you have added weight to the correct blade. If it does not get less wobbly, remove the clip or weight and choose another blade. Do the same with each blade until you find the one that is imbalanced. Apply the weight to the blade that is imbalanced in the same place where the test clip had been. When using coins for this, it’s helpful to have several of each denomination available so that you can try different ones to see which gives the fan the least wobble. You may need multiple weights for the imbalanced blade. It shouldn’t take long to see a big improvement in the way the fan moves. You can then do the same to all of the fans that are unbalanced.

It can be hard to decide whether to do a home project like balancing a ceiling fan yourself or to call a professional to do the job. If you look over the steps in this Angi guide and feel confident that you can do it, it may be best to give it a try. If you have problems, you can call on a ceiling fan handyman to come out and do a professional job.

 

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