Electric an is designed to blow air to chill up the room. Commonly used in a tropical country such as Indonesia.
Aside that function also used for other things such as as a warmer, dryer, particles separator, and many others in industrial world. Electric fan can be found as a part of other electronic devices to prevent overheating.
Many types of electric fan can easily be bought in the workshop store. Need to take further checking to reassure it is working well before you decided to buy any.
Like any other devices, electric fan could also fail to operate for some reasons. Pay attention more to one particular of fan’s component inside whether it is still in a good condition or not. And that component called a capacitor.
Capacitor’s Function in an Electric Fan
In general, capacitor has a function to supply electricity for the motor to stir the propellers.
Every electronic device using a dynamo motor requires a capacitor integrated inside. A motor is one f the components of an electric fan, therefore also requires a capacitor installed. What is a capacitor?
As explained earlier, capacitor needed to supply electricity for motor to be able stirring the propellers. By the time the motor initiate the first round, a certain amount of power is needed. Capacitor is dedicated to supply the power necessity. Based on the work flow, capacitor is also known as starting winding.
Motor could start out the first rotation through enforcing the electricity stored inside the capacitor. That is why when a capacitor is already weakening shall resulting the electric fan not working.
Indication of a damaged capacitor
Have you ever find an electric fan is not working properly and needed to hand-stirred manually as a start? If the answer is yes, that indicates your electric fan’s capacitor has already damaged. One of the causes of electric fan is not working is not enough electricity provided for the motor to initiate the first round rotation. This problem caused by a damaged capacitor.
Adding up to the trouble to initiate the first round rotation, other things as signals of a damaged electric fan capacitor are:
- A buzzing sound when the electric fan is turned on. This is where the energy insufficient for the motor to start and forcing it work even more, then resulting the buzzing sound.
- Propellers began to rotate at a slow rate.
How to Repair a Damaged Electric Fan?
By any chance that the above signals had occured to your electric fan, to have it repaired by replacing the capacitor with a new one. Take consideration of the capacitor’s capacity before buying. For electric fan, commonly use a capacitor with capacity ranging from 1,5 μF until 4 μF.
If your capacitor’s capacity is a little bit difficult to be found in some local workshops, pick another one with capacity size not too far different than the actual needed. For example, when you need to replace a 2 μF, you could still use a capacitor with the capacity in 2,5 μF, or it could be otherwise. Use a capacitor with a lower capacity but not too far different than the original needed.
For you to know, replacing a capacitor using a smaller capacity than needed to be installed, the result is the propellers will rotate slower than supposed to be. But if you replaced it with the one which too far bigger than the capacity needed, resulting the propellers rotating too fast.
When you had a capacitor with capacity far too big than needed by your electric fan, it may cause the motor runs in a very fast speed than normal condition and eventually will over-heat, ended up burnt. So it is wiser to have it replaced in the nearest capacity which your electric fan needs.
Related to the over-heating motor, another component inside the electric fan is a thermostat. This component is dedicated to cut off excessive heat in the motor. It works as a safety precaution to prevent the motor from experiencing over-heating. Therefore such an electric fan installed with these components is more durable than other types.
Step-by-step in replacing capacitor for your electric fan:
- Open the fan front cover by opening the safety lock on each side.
- Take off the motor using screwdriver or any other wrench that fits in.
- Uninstall the capacitor (see the above picture to know what capacitor looks like). Make sure you know where the wire line as it supposed to be before take off the capacitor. To make it easier for you to reinstall the capacitor later on.
- Reassembled the new capacitor with the right cable line inside the motor block. Don’t forget to wrap the end tip of the wire using electrical tape for safety precaution of short circuit.
- Put back the motor, tightened up using screwdriver or any other wrench.
- Do a running test to see if the propellers are rotating well with the new capacitor. If all runs well, then you have successfully repaired your electric fan.
- Don’t forget to put back the fan front cover and lock on the sides.
Now you know much more about electric fan’s capacitor along with step-by-step to repair if any chance that your fan suddenly not working. Need to keep in mind to have your electric fan periodically cleaned up.
Small dirt that stuck inside can also jammed and damaging the motor. Clean it up using a cloth not by spraying water directly to the motor. Have it totally dry first before installing back the motor into the electric fan. Then you can have your electric fan more durable.