LED Bulb flashes on/off 1 second interval in ceiling fan fixture

[LoneRanger]

Thought I'd swap out the 60W incandescents in the ceiling fan for FEIT brand 60W non-dimmable 2700K household LED bulbs. They won't work right, each one out of the box of four flashes on and off at about a 1 second interval, like a vehicle turn signal. Checked the wall switch for loose wires because I read where this can be related to a problem with the common wire being loose. All connections tight. I haven't taken the ceiling fan fixture apart yet. The ceiling fan was installed when the previous owners lived here.

One thing of interest, since we moved in last year there there has always been a slight delay of the ceiling fan lights turning on when you flip the wall switch. Very short, like maybe 1/4 of a second but it's there and I've always noticed it.

What is causing these LED's I bought the other day to blink like turn signals?

Or did someone buy a new set and put four defectives in the box and refund them and I picked that box up at Menard's?

 

[Rand]

is there some sort of dimmer in the ceiling fan? try the bulbs in another fixture?

 

[Fitter30]

Ceiling fan dimmers unless specified for leds will not work only incandescent bulbs the reason they dim by cycling the voltage on and off not by changing resistance. Even on full brite there cycling power.

 

[Nick1994]

It's probably a dimming ceiling fan. I'm guessing it's a remote you're using? Put the incandescent bulbs in and hold the button down for the light and see if it dims.

 

[LazyDog]

You must also check the type of ceiling fan you have some can not used LED bulbs or any type of high efficiency bulb.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted by LoneRanger
Thought I'd swap out the 60W incandescents in the ceiling fan for FEIT brand 60W non-dimmable 2700K household LED bulbs. They won't work right, each one out of the box of four flashes on and off at about a 1 second interval, like a vehicle turn signal. Checked the wall switch for loose wires because I read where this can be related to a problem with the common wire being loose. All connections tight. I haven't taken the ceiling fan fixture apart yet. The ceiling fan was installed when the previous owners lived here.

One thing of interest, since we moved in last year there there has always been a slight delay of the ceiling fan lights turning on when you flip the wall switch. Very short, like maybe 1/4 of a second but it's there and I've always noticed it.

What is causing these LED's I bought the other day to blink like turn signals?

Or did someone buy a new set and put four defectives in the box and refund them and I picked that box up at Menard's?


That's been the norm with me also Lone Ranger, when I use LED bulbs in conjunction with a dimmer switch.
I hardly notice a flicker when I have the dimmer switch turned up / turned brightest. The three bulbs flicker heavily when I turn the dimmer switch to low power.

Thanks for this thread. I sometimes wondered if I had an electrical problem in the box, or in the fan light assembly. Glad to read others have the same result.

 

[Lou_Boyle]

In addition to the comments above regarding LED incompatible dimmers, you may be having a conflict with the watt limiter device built into the ceiling fan light circuit. The watt limiter is responsible for the split second time delay you mention in the lights coming on.

The watt limiter idea goes back to the W Bush administration when energy efficiency rules were implemented requiring ceiling fans to be certified to use less than 180 watts of power for the lights. Install too many watts of light in your fan and the watt limiter would make the lights flash off and on.

The watt limiters were known to fail sometimes and cause the lights to flash off and on even if the wattage was well within limits. This happened to one of my fans. I went digging into the wiring to see what was controlling the lights and found a little black box about the size of a box of matches wired into the power wire to the lights. After taking the black box out of the circuit the lights worked fine and they now come on instantly.

 

[LoneRanger]

Originally Posted by Lou_Boyle
In addition to the comments above regarding LED incompatible dimmers, you may be having a conflict with the watt limiter device built into the ceiling fan light circuit. The watt limiter is responsible for the split second time delay you mention in the lights coming on.

The watt limiter idea goes back to the W Bush administration when energy efficiency rules were implemented requiring ceiling fans to be certified to use less than 180 watts of power for the lights. Install too many watts of light in your fan and the watt limiter would make the lights flash off and on.

The watt limiters were known to fail sometimes and cause the lights to flash off and on even if the wattage was well within limits. This happened to one of my fans. I went digging into the wiring to see what was controlling the lights and found a little black box about the size of a box of matches wired into the power wire to the lights. After taking the black box out of the circuit the lights worked fine and they now come on instantly.


I'm betting on a watt limiter being the culprit, based on your description. I will have to inspect and see. All along since moving in I suspected there might be some sort of relay or capacitor in it causing the power-on delay.

 

[Rmay635703]

Use a dimmable led and the issue should go away, many ceiling fans have [censored] poor wiring and components that become intermittent after 5-10 years.

Unless your replacing it not worth trying to fix most aren't made to pull apart non destructively

 

[dave180]

I bought and installed a Hunter fan. Didn't even know until a week later, the light was dimmable. Pull down on the chain and hold it and it dims. Pull again and it goes bright.

 

[Vikas]

My ceiling fan bulb never completely turn off if I put LED or fluorescent bulb in it. That tells me that the electronics inside the fan housing never really cuts off the voltage to the light bulb. Obviously, I am talking about a unit which has hand-held remote control which controls the light dimmer and the fan speed and direction.

 

[javacontour]

Many dimmer circuits don't totally cut the voltage to a bulb. Ran into this with my new over the range microwave. Instead of having off, dim and bright, as it has with an incandescent bulb, I have dim, medium and high with the dimmable LED I installed in place of the original bulb.

Since we use that lamp as a sort of night light in the kitchen, it's no big deal. But it makes you wonder if there is something wrong with your new microwave when the previous unit did not do this. (I pulled the bulb from the old one and put it in the new one.)