fan speed control not working! What gives?

[kentrob11]

I picked up a fan speed control switch from Lowes and hook it up to one of my fans and it's not doing much to control the speed. It's like I've got 2 settings for 75% speed, 1 for 100% speed and then off. Did I wire this thing wrong? Does anyone have a wiring diagram for this or even a recommendation for a better fan speed control? I even heard of people wiring the fans inline to run them half speed...Fill me in folks!

[alligator]

You'll have to give us more detail. Is it an AC fan or DC fan? I tried to run my AC 120 volt fan on less than 120 volts and found out I only got about two speeds too (75% and 100%). It could be that the design of the fan doesn't support a lower voltage.

For perfect speed control, pick up a DC fan from any electronic surplus store. I can run my 12 volt DC fan on anything down to about 3 volts, and at that speed it's perfectly quiet (but not very efficient at moving air).

[kentrob11]

Thanks! It's an AC fan that I wired directly into the fan speed control for a ceiling fan.....

[Bryan]

Are you sure you picked up a motor/fan speed control and not a light dimmer instead. There is a difference in the way they operate. The light dimmer will operate the fane the way you describe. They look identical.

[kentrob11]

Good idea but I'm fairly certain it's a speed control. I'm just gonna take it back and get a better one and see if that does the trick...thanks!

[easttn]

Ken,

Look here:
Fan Speed Controller (http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=182987)
Works well.