Broken fan?

[Sdfuk]

Hi

I've just replaced a non timer fan with a timer fan and the timer fan will not come on.

Original set up.

Wall switch to isolator to fan.

The non timer fan only used the brown cable and grey (w/blue sleeve) cable. Earth and black (w/black sleeve) cables present but left redundant - I assumed this was left as a switched live for later use.

New set up.

Live: brown to Red
Neutral: grey (w/blue sleeve) to blue
Switched live: black (w/black sleeve) to black

Results when testing

Live - signal
Neutral - hard to test as its so close to live
Black - no signal.

I've removed the black wire to see if that was causing the problem but fan still doesn't work. However, when removing this wire and then testing it produces a signal.

I also changed over live and switched live but that produced no results.

Not sure if the following information is useful but when i tested the isolator switch only the the brown wires produced a signal on my tester. The black wire was dead.

Any ideas whats going wrong? I guess I could test the fan with a corded plug and wire up just the live and neutral to see if the fan is working or not.

Thanks for any help.
Cheers
S

 

[danechip]

I am a bit concerned as to why you are calling this a signal. What setting are you using on your meter?
You will be needing a link in the isolator. It looks to me a Link between Bottom L1 and L2 in the isolator.

Fan wont work without permanent live on red and power to start the timer of the fan on the black wire. If you test, connect both brown and black together.

What wiring is in the switch?

 

[terryplumb]

No idea what " signal" means. You need to measure voltages present .at the fan. Do you have a multimeter ,and more importantly the knowledge to use it safely to measure mains voltages ?

 

[AndyPRK]

check the fan instructions.
Are you sure blue is N ?

 

[SFK]

Not sure if the following information is useful but when i tested the isolator switch only the the brown wires produced a signal on my tester. The black wire was dead.

Did you switch on the light?
The switched live should go live when bathroom light switch (or somtimes a dedicated switch) is switched on.

SFK

 

[SFK]

black (w/black sleeve) cables present but left redundant

This should be connected to output of light switch or to light itself so that it goes life when switched on.
Can you see if this is the case?
SFK

 

[chivers67]

Are you just using a Non Contact volt stick?

 

[EFLImpudence]

How did the old fan work?

When the light and switch were switched on or just when the switch was switched on.

 

[Sdfuk]

Hi
thanks for replies. Sorry signal was probably the wrong word to use as I'm just using a volt stick to indicate if a current is present.

The fan works independently from the light switch and whilst I was doing all the wiring/testing the bathroom light was on (it's on a separate switch).

I've put old fan back on for now, which is working at least and called my electrician (coming in 2 weeks) to sort it out. Adding an appliance is one thing but fault finding and messing about with wires is not something I want to be doing tbh.


Cheers for your help
S

 

[danechip]

Please throw the stick in the bin, up stick it on a rocket for bonfire night?

 

[sparkwright]

Is the black wire getting power?

Is the black connected at the source?

This may be at the light or the light switch or a junction box.

 

[Taylortwocities]

as I'm just using a volt stick to indicate if a current is present.

These magic wands are pretty hopeless. To carry out any sort of electrical analysis you need a two probe voltage tester, or even a cheap multimeter.
An AC electrical circuit needs a live and a neutral connection, magic wands will not tell you if the neutral is missing and this is half of the circuit and (often) the reason things don’t work.
Also note that they can - sometimes - detect voltage, not current.