When it comes to cooling down the household, air conditioning is king. But air conditioning is also highly expensive and can be even more so if kept on for the duration of the summer months. Sometimes the cool breeze from a good ceiling fan is all the air treatment your home needs, but poorly maintained fans look bad and can even keep you up at night with their constant squeaking. That said, now is a perfect time to perform a little maintenance and make sure that blade-driven breeze will be keeping you and your family cool by flowing smoothly throughout all corners of the house this summer. 

1. Clicks and Squeaks: One of the most common problems with ceiling fans is that they can be noisy when running at high speeds. In bedrooms this is especially an issue when you want a cool breeze but don’t want to be kept up by the constant clicking and screeching of the fan. If you have a ceiling fan that is more vocal than you’d prefer, there are a few things you can do to try and eliminate the excess noise. If your fan hasn’t been run in a while, try running the fan for a full day straight and see if the squeaking goes away. After a winter’s hiatus, a fan’s bearings need to be worn back in and running the fan will rework the bearings on its own. Another thing to check is that the glass light fixture attached to the fan, if you have one, has not begun to shake loose. If it has, try wrapping some rubber bands around the point where you find the fixture’s screws so the glass is pulled tighter to the frame of the fan. The last thing to check is that the wall speed control isn’t the cause of the problems. Try running a direct power source to the fan and see if the noise goes away. If it does, you need to make sure the speed control on the wall is compatible with the number of speed adjustments your fan is capable of.
2. A Balanced Spin: You know the kind of wobbling ceiling fans that look like they’re about to fly of the hinges? Well, even though the threat of them crashing down might not be realistic, the fact that they are doing damage to the motor bearings is very much the truth. If you find your fan spinning off balance, you need to fix it before putting the fan back in use. Start by cleaning the dust from the blades as an uneven build-up can also lead to an uneven spin. If this doesn’t work, tighten the screws on the blade brackets themselves and make sure there are no loose blades causing the rotation to go off-course. If this doesn’t work, it’s time to purchase a balancing kit online and readjust the blade heights to restore the equilibrium of your fan’s spin.
3. Lubing the Track: With a device that operates at such high speeds, lubrication is a must to keep the bearings in healthy shape. Though some fans use maintenance-free sealed ball bearings, many others will have an oil hole located above the motor that you can access for lubrication. When you are ready to lubricate, stand on a sturdy stepladder and locate the oil hole. Place light machine/motor oil in the hole and be sure to clean any excess grease off the surrounding surface to prevent it from collecting grime. After this, just run the fan and the bearings should be well lubed and ready to run.

TIP: WD-40® Multi-Use Product can help eliminate squeaks coming from the fan belt.