Maestro Fan & LED Dimmer with Hunter Duncan Ceiling Fan

Hi,

I recently had an electrician install the Lutron Maestro Ceiling Fan and LED light dimmer wall switch with my new Hunter Duncan Ceiling Fan & Light Kit (model #59199).
The ceiling fan specs say that the two LED lights should not exceed 14W each.

Upon turning on the fan, there is a noticeable humming sound that's centered on the fan housing. I contacted Hunter fan support and they mentioned that it was probably due to the Lutron dimmer switch I installed. They are placing all the blame on Lutron. Of course, they advised me to switch to a Hunter brand fan/light dimmer switch instead.

However, I would prefer to use the Lutron Maestro switch since it has more options and just looks better. I realized that there is a list of approved LED bulbs since I was using the stock LEDs that came with the fan.

I have since tried the Ecosmart brand of LED bulbs (60W) from Home Depot and the humming sound persists. It's very difficult to find the approved LEDs at lutron's website..many of them are out of stock or no longer manufactured. I managed to track down a batch of the approved Philips 60W bulbs on Amazon and am expecting delivery of it tonight.

My question is...how can I be certain that the humming sound is definitely a result of LED bulb incompatibility with Lutron's Maestro switch? Could it be the actual fan is defective? What causes the humming sound?

My plan, if the approved Philips LED bulbs do not get rid of the humming, is to return the entire fan and get a new one of the same model. It's annoying basically I will have to pay the electrician to come back and re-wire then install another fan. Are there any other ways to fix this issue?

I assume you are talking about the MACL-LFQ device.

Make sure you pull the chain to get the fan on high. Otherwise you are dimming a dimmer that is dimming a motor. That will cause issues.

You should isolate the noise to the fan or the light. Turn the fan on and lights off, then fan off and lights on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by randyc

I assume you are talking about the MACL-LFQ device.

Make sure you pull the chain to get the fan on high. Otherwise you are dimming a dimmer that is dimming a motor. That will cause issues.

You should isolate the noise to the fan or the light. Turn the fan on and lights off, then fan off and lights on.

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Yes, I am talking about the MACL-FFQ in White.

The pull chain is set on high..and I only use the MACL device to adjust the fan speeds.

The humming sound seems to be coming from the fan. It's strange, but if I walk around the fan while its in operation, there will be certain sides where I can't hear the sound and other sides where I can hear it distinctively. Hard to explain...it's like the humming sound is affected by the blades maybe?

The humming sound occurs when the fan is on regardless of whether the light is on or off. With the fan off and light on, there is no hum with the Home Depot Ecosmart bulbs.

I just put in the Lutron Approved Best LED bulb, the Philips 60W "Warm Glow" A19 bulb, model #9290011840. The fan takes two bulbs. One bulb seemed fine but the other bulb, there was a buzzing sound coming from the light bulb socket. This occurred when I had the light on/fan off. Very strange.

I also notice that when I remove both bulbs from their sockets, the Lutron dimmer wall switch will begin blinking with all its lights on. I figure this is a warning or error message.

At this point, I'm considering returning the fan and getting another to see if it was just a defective model..I'm not sure what's causing the humming and neither can my electrician.

Since the humming occurs with the lights off, it is not a bulb issue.

It doesn't surprise me that the sound comes and goes when you walk around the fan. It could be something inside the fan acting as insulation or the noise bouncing off something in the room (flat wall, etc.).

If the pull chain is on high and it still hums, it is the fan. You could try putting in a mechanical switch and see if the hum goes away.

Thanks Randyc.

I'll check everything again to make sure it's definitely the fan and not the Lutron dimmer switch. Then I'll grab a replacement fan that hopefully is not defective.

I am having the same issue with an MA-L3L3 (single gang, dual dimmer). I know it's not the fan, because I replaced a broken switch and the fan made no noise with the old switch. I also have dimmable LED bulbs that don't work so well. They dim to about 50% and then shut off. That's fine, but there is some cross-talk between the fan circuit and the light circuit. The light switch will be off, but when the fan switch is dimmed to the middle, the lights will light up. They don't do it when the fan is at full power or at minimal power; only in the middle.

However, the fan makes a humming noise at pretty much any dimmer setting. Anybody have any advice about that?

Hello wpaldridge,

Please see thread https://forums.lutron.com/showthread...L3L3-with-LEDs regarding the issue you are experiencing.

Thank you,

Julia K.

I have the same issue with your dimmer and a brand new hunter Douglas fan. It is not caused by the fan as the noise goes away immediately when the fan is turned off at the switch. Can you advise if there is a resolution to this?!

Valuable information, I like to have fan with LED lights.