Renovation: Ceiling Fans Service Centres Experience

Its been almost one year since my post on “Renovation: Ceiling Fans” and I have called the various service centres to service my fans for various reasons so I thought I pen down my experience and thoughts.

I have a total of five ceiling fans at my home, bought from three companies but all installed by my ID’s contractor. As I have false ceilings at all five locations where the fans are installed, metal rod reinforcements to the real ceiling were needed. So far there were no complaints about the installation. Not even from the fan service team whom before the service visit had warned that they would charge extra if the fan issues were due to incorrect installation not done by them.

So the issues were with the fans, or should I say the un-necessary noise the fans were producing.

The first fans to have noise issues were the Crestar fans. They have this occasional “ting ting” sound when the fan spins. I called up the service centre and they promptly took down my issue, ask me to send a picture of the remote control and fan to them and then fixed an appointment for me.

The service staff came promptly at the scheduled timing and went ahead to fix the issue once I describe to him. It seems to be a known issue and they went ahead to add rubber sleeves to the cables. The whole service experience was great. Thumbs up.

Next was the Aeratron fans. They have this occasionally knocking noise that was becoming more and more obvious and annoying. And they have this creaking sound whenever I switch the fan on or off. I tried to call the service line for Elmark (where we bought the Aeratron fans from) but there was no answer. So I decided to drop a feedback on their website but after a week there was no response. Hence I drop by one Saturday morning to their office.

Even though the fans are under warranty, they want me to pay SGD50 (transport fee blah blah blah) before they will come down and fix the issue. I was not happy with this I do not expect any reputable company to charge for servicing of products they sold me and still under warranty. But I still paid.

The servicing was delayed for almost a month as I needed a Saturday appointment and it was around the Chinese New Year period. It also seem to be they were waiting for another job near my area before they will come have a look.

When they finally came, the technicians added rubber into the blade area to stop the parts from moving when the blades are rotating. It didn’t fix the issue the first time and  I had to call them down for another round of rubber adding to reduce it. I do still get very occasional knocking sound every now and then but am just closing one eye on it. Pay for servicing leaves a sour taste.

My Haiku fan also started to have this occasional vibration sound that seem to come from the black plastic cap in the middle of the fan. A call to the service centre and the staff apologies for the issue (plus point service). They did explain that as the fan was not installed by them, they will have to charge a fee of SGD125 if the problem was due to incorrect installation by a third party. An appointment was easily arranged. The technician came, checked, re-position the black cap and the problem was solved. Good service experience.

Final thoughts? Do try to record the sound so they you can play back to the service team if it only happen occasionally. I recommend Crestar and Haiku Fans and I would probably not be shopping at Elmark for any fans going forward.