Hatari fan repairs - Fed Up :(

[Daffy D]

Have been repairing my Hatari fans for many years, normally with no problem.

 

Most times just needed a good clean and sometimes a replacement capacitor, but recently seem to have lost my fixing mojo as cleaning and capacitor replacement did not make the fans spring back to life.

 

Most times the fan will just make a low humming noise when you try to switch it on. Even spinning the blade by hand will not get it to attempt to start.

 

Could be a burnt out motor but then should smell something, but nothing just this low humming noise.

 

Had about 4 fans with the same problem now and am getting really fed up with it. 

 

Any ideas? 

 

[Jai Dee]

Have you tried oiling the bearings?

 

There are a lot of videos on YouTube that may give you further ideas... see here.

[ravip]

When switched off, does the blades spin freely when you give it a push?

Check the switches - on the fan and on the wall socket (or you may try out on a wall socket at another location). A bit of switch cleaner might help.

Edit

Any rare possibility that the replaced capacitor is faulty?

[Daffy D]

3 hours ago, Jai Dee said:

Have you tried oiling the bearings?

 

There are a lot of videos on YouTube that may give you further ideas... see here.

Yes, have dismantled and reassembled and oiled many fans over the years

 

3 hours ago, ravip said:

When switched off, does the blades spin freely when you give it a push?

Check the switches - on the fan and on the wall socket (or you may try out on a wall socket at another location). A bit of switch cleaner might help.

Edit

Any rare possibility that the replaced capacitor is faulty?

Yes! and Yes!  Have a box full of new and used capacitors and tried them all but that does not seem to be the problem.  

[impulse]

I've watched sidewalk guys in Ban Mo rewinding the motors on household fans.  Which leads me to believe that the motor windings do wear out.  It's not always the bearings or the capacitors.

 

Those guys must work real cheap to dis-assemble a $10-30 fan, spend the time and labor to rewind the motor, and reassemble the fan.  Back home, they'd charge you $50 just to diagnose it.

 

(Edit:  I'd add that the bulk of their business seems to be winding new motors for various appliances, probably under contract for the appliance makers- or maybe as spare parts.  But I've also watched them rewind motors, including fan motors)

 

I'd suggest taking ohm readings to see if you can identify a short or an open circuit.  Compare those readings to a fan that works.

 

[Crossy]

Thermal fuse near/in the windings perhaps?

 

As noted by @impulse compare with a serviceable unit.

 

[Gumballl]

In the US we would throw the fan away, and simply buy a new one.

 

Yes, this is environmentally unfriendly, but I'm cool [yes, that is a pun] about it.

[Fruit Trader]

Some common problems

Clogged bronze bearings from dry contaminated lube. Many bearings are self lubricating and only require cleaning of the shaft and running surface.

 

Elongated bronze bearing caused by the shaft making continuous contact on the lower running surface.

 

Bronze bearings tight in their cage and unable to self align.

 

Dirty switch contacts. Common where switch is in the base.

 

Start/Run capacitor faulty causing slow speed or failed start.

 

----------------------------------------------------------

 

Multimeter with facility to measure capacitance is advantageous.

 

Hatari common circuit use as rough guide. 

 

[Daffy D]

5 hours ago, Crossy said:

Thermal fuse near/in the windings perhaps?

That was my thought also, but I thought (hoped) those thermal fuses reset themselves 

[Crossy]

1 minute ago, Daffy D said:

That was my thought also, but I thought (hoped) those thermal fuses reset themselves 

 

Nah, the little fan ones are one-shot. Replace if it triggers ????

 

If you have one and it's open you can temporarily short it out to see if the fan runs.

 

Do NOT leave it shorted, you must replace it with a similar one to protect against fire! 

[Daffy D]

Have got 2 fans that need fixing on the bench at the moment  

 

Let's see what I can do with them, if I can find and fix the problem I got another 4 or so lying around somewhere.

 

I can feel it's going to be a long day  

 

 

[Daffy D]

Well that was a waste of most of a day 

 

Took both fans totally apart checked the continuity from plug through all control settings right up to where the wires attach to those little copper ones in the windings.

 

Could not obviously see any thermal fuses and did not want to mess about too much with the windings as the insulation on them was brittle and flakey with age, so left well alone.

 

Took the motors apart and cleaned up the shafts on the rotor and lightly lubricated the bearings and bushes. 

 

Replaced capacitor on both units with new ones before putting it all back together again. 

 

And after all that neither of them would still not work 

 

I'm getting to old for this, so that's me done for ever trying to fix any fans in the future. If a clean up of the blades and a squirt of oil on the bearings does not fix it they are out.

 

[petermik]

On 4/20/2020 at 4:11 PM, Daffy D said:

Yes, have dismantled and reassembled and oiled many fans over the years

 

Yes! and Yes!  Have a box full of new and used capacitors and tried them all but that does not seem to be the problem.  

Daffy.....could you point me in the right direction as to what type of capacitator I will need for my 16" Hatari fan.....been looking on Lazada but a bit confused as to which one.....cheers

[ravip]

25 minutes ago, petermik said:

Daffy.....could you point me in the right direction as to what type of capacitator I will need for my 16" Hatari fan.....been looking on Lazada but a bit confused as to which one.....cheers

Mine was something like this. Just take off the back cover (1 screw + Oscillator switch) you can see it with all the specs)

[Daffy D]

19 minutes ago, ravip said:

Mine was something like this. Just take off the back cover (1 screw + Oscillator switch) you can see it with all the specs)

Yes exactly. Check the specs, should be 1.5uf.

 

Plenty here:- 

https://www.lazada.co.th/catalog/?q=Fan+Capacitor+1.5uf&_keyori=ss&from=input&spm=a2o4m.home.search.go.4ccd719cVIP20L

 

[Glock3am]

1 hour ago, petermik said:

Daffy.....could you point me in the right direction as to what type of capacitator I will need for my 16" Hatari fan.....been looking on Lazada but a bit confused as to which one.....cheers

 

Hatari sell genuine spare parts through their official website. They're definitely cheaper than buying a new fan, the capacitor you need is 20 baht by the looks of it (you can find which one you need by matching the fan size listed to yours) and that is cheaper even than those listed on Lazada. In the Bangkok metro area, it's usually fast same/next day delivery too. I've broken plastic fittings and so on cleaning mine before and get the replacements here. Even my 10+ year old fan still used the same parts which was handy!

 

https://www.hatari.co.th/en/parts

[petermik]

10 hours ago, Glock3am said:

 

Hatari sell genuine spare parts through their official website. They're definitely cheaper than buying a new fan, the capacitor you need is 20 baht by the looks of it (you can find which one you need by matching the fan size listed to yours) and that is cheaper even than those listed on Lazada. In the Bangkok metro area, it's usually fast same/next day delivery too. I've broken plastic fittings and so on cleaning mine before and get the replacements here. Even my 10+ year old fan still used the same parts which was handy!

 

https://www.hatari.co.th/en/parts

Thanks but it says out of stock....

[sometimewoodworker]

7 hours ago, Daffy D said:

And after all that neither of them would still not work 

Did you really mean the double negative? So they both work? ???? 

[Daffy D]

2 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Did you really mean the double negative? So they both work?

Erm!   No 

[Glock3am]

17 hours ago, petermik said:

Thanks but it says out of stock....

 

Oh, that's no good! I have noticed this being a bit of a trend lately in these times though, lots of supply issues with various things. Especially electronic components like these that are generally manufactured in China.

[steven100]

Junk .... woke up at 5.00am to the smell of electrical wire burning ... anyway Airy fan was spinning ever so slow and smelt of elect burning. Turned it off ... took it apart this morning, oiled the front bearing.

Still won't work ....  garbage bin for it ...  Purchased it 4 months ago .... 

everything you buy here is Junk .... will last 3-6 months if your lucky.

[bankruatsteve]

6 minutes ago, steven100 said:

everything you buy here is Junk

Where does buying the cheapest brand give you a long lasting value?

[steven100]

2 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

Where does buying the cheapest brand give you a long lasting value?

who said Airy was the cheapest brand ?  and shouldn't it last more than 4 months  ?

I forget the price ... I think it was around 699 baht ... 

[bankruatsteve]

41 minutes ago, steven100 said:

who said Airy was the cheapest brand ?  and shouldn't it last more than 4 months  ?

I forget the price ... I think it was around 699 baht ... 

I don't see any other brand cheaper in Lazada.  (?)  B699 looks like it would be the top of their line.  No warranty could be an indicator of relative life expectancy. 

[steven100]

5 hours ago, bankruatsteve said:

I don't see any other brand cheaper in Lazada.  (?)  B699 looks like it would be the top of their line.  No warranty could be an indicator of relative life expectancy. 

hey ... I fixed it , it was the back bearing which cause it to seize up, I poured a few drops of cooking oil down and she's working ... all back together and going now.  In the mean time a ordered one of those air cooler / humidifiers, it'll turn up next week ... I could have cancelled it, but it's only 1000 baht and that with the fan should be good .... use the aircon less.

 

[ravip]

6 hours ago, steven100 said:

Junk .... woke up at 5.00am to the smell of electrical wire burning ... anyway Airy fan was spinning ever so slow and smelt of elect burning. Turned it off ... took it apart this morning, oiled the front bearing.

Still won't work ....  garbage bin for it ...  Purchased it 4 months ago .... 

everything you buy here is Junk .... will last 3-6 months if your lucky.

Actually, the 7 junk Hatari's (4 Wall + 3 Stand) we bought about 10 years ago are still working perfectly. 1 of the wall fans had an issue with the oscillation (about 2 years back). Purchased the gearbox from Lazada (80 or 100 THB) and it is on the go!

[ravip]

On 4/22/2020 at 8:40 PM, Daffy D said:

Erm!   No 

By the way, finally what happened to the fan? Did you manage to fix it?

[Daffy D]

4 minutes ago, ravip said:

By the way, finally what happened to the fan? Did you manage to fix it?

No  as in did not fix. 

 

Now have a pile of several unfixable fans waiting for the dustbin diver recycle man to come round and take away. Hope he can make some money out of them. 

[bankruatsteve]

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

I poured a few drops of cooking oil down

Not recommended.  Get some "sewing machine oil" or the like.  Cooking oil will make things worse after a short while.

[steven100]

Just now, bankruatsteve said:

Not recommended.  Get some "sewing machine oil" or the like.  Cooking oil will make things worse after a short while.

i know what you mean ...  but it was all i had available ...  but yes, i'll get some sewing m/o or fine motor oil if i have to. Cooking oil goes dry after time and becomes sticky somewhat.