My attic fan died on the hottest day of July and I found out the hard way

I was up in my attic in Decatur trying to swap out an old light fixture around 2pm when I realized the fan wasn't spinning. It was like 140 degrees up there and I was drenched in sweat within 5 minutes. I checked the breaker first, then pulled the cover and saw the capacitor was bulging out like a busted can of biscuits. Had to run to Home Depot and spent $12 on a new one, but getting it swapped in that heat was miserable. Anyone else had a capacitor blow at the worst possible time?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaret2341mo ago

Did you try checking the thermal overload switch on the motor itself before you replaced the capacitor? I had the exact same issue last August and found out that little reset button saved me from buying a new fan. My capacitor looked fine but the motor had tripped from the heat. Pushing that button with a pencil shoved the fan back to life in seconds. Saved me a trip to Home Depot and a whole lot of frustration in that oven of an attic.

jamie7941mo ago

Ran into the same thing last summer but what really sucked was finding out my attic fan's thermal switch had melted inside the housing. Nobody talks about those failing too, it just turned the whole thing into a useless brick. Had to wait a week for a replacement switch because no local stores carried them. Check yours if you can still get up there without passing out lol.