Stopped by a buddy's new place in Tempe and saw his fix for a wobbly ceiling fan

Honestly, I was over there helping him move a couch last weekend and I noticed his fan wasn't shaking at all. I asked him about it because mine has had a little dance for years. He showed me the whole thing. He didn't tighten any blade screws or balance them with those little kits. He just took off the fan's canopy, the cover over the mounting bracket, and found the metal box it hangs from was only attached to one joist. The other side was just screwed into drywall. He cut a simple piece of 3/4 inch plywood, about a foot long, to bridge between two solid joists, screwed the box into that, and put it all back together. Took him maybe 30 minutes and a scrap of wood. Ngl, I felt pretty dumb for never checking that first. Has anyone else fixed a wobbly fan this way, or did you go straight for the blade balancer?

2 comments

2 Comments

joel51821d ago

Reminds me how many problems come from skipping the basic step. We'll try to balance a wobbly table with coasters instead of tightening a loose leg. We'll mess with all the settings on a flickering light before checking if the bulb is screwed in all the way. Your buddy just went straight to the source, the thing actually holding the fan up. Most of the time the simple, boring fix is the right one.

dixon.felix20d ago

My wife still laughs about the time I spent an hour trying to fix our squeaky dryer. Took the whole thing apart looking for a bad belt or bearing. Turns out a pen had rolled under it and was just rubbing against the drum. The answer was literally on the floor the whole time. I'm the king of making a five second job into a weekend project.