In some respects, my prior post created more questions as well as providing some answers, but first. . . .

Disclaimers

Legal: Nothing below is intended for your repair use, but for informational purposes only. Information I learned, then logicized from, is provided as is: it is potentially flawed, and possibly highly flawed. This work has not been reviewed by any competent third party. If you make any attempt to repair or alter your fan after reading this post, and something bad or catastrophic happens, or less severely you end up wasting much time, consider yourself warned. I advised you not to repair or alter your fan.

If you decide to ignore my advice and do-it-yourself, then electrically appropriate precautions need to be followed, this includes turning off the circuit breaker so the fan’s wiring has no supplied power along with verification of this at the fan, and basic recording of wire colors and connections before disassembly, so that reassembly is not interrupted by confusion regarding what wire went where. It is also presumed you know that even with the power turned off, capacitors store electricity and can discharge this electricity at unexpected moments, so discharging them before handling any of the wiring is recommended using appropriately insulated tools.

Skip all the rigamarole with quick start to altering fan speeds.

Important: this post, the problem, the functions, the graphs, the spreadsheet, the replaced speed switch problem, the discussion, the installation, the final summary, and any other section or concept I’ve not mentioned: all apply only to one particular schematic, not reproduced on this page, but a likely candidate was found, a simplified three-capacitor ceiling-fan schematic, which uses one particular speed switch. If the fan uses another kind of speed switch from those two discussed herein, then my system of sorts won’t work as presented, at least not without some changes, possibly minor; or if the fan has two capacitors for three speeds, or is wired to any other schematic, my system of sorts also won’t work as presented.

It’s also important to understand that the chain-pull speed switch is altogether different from the reverse switch. For a short discussion of the DPDT reverse switch relative to the simplified schematic, something I overlooked when originally writing this post, please see comment #15, there are some links to generic yet detailed reverse switch schematics.

Clearly, it is easiest and fastest to replace any blown capacitors with precisely equivalent values the factory used, if they are available; the same seems true of switches. This exact or precise replacement advice is, at the time of this writing, consistent with the vast majority of webpage ceiling fan FAQs easily found using search engines.

I must listen to the beat of a different drummer.

. . .  Introduction continued

After learning or realizing speeds could be altered, I decided that two fans in rather small rooms would be preferable running at somewhat slower than factory speeds, so making an informed guess as to which possible microfarad value capacitors to purchase took some study and spreadsheet creation time — quite a bit of time if one also includes writing about it. Not only did I want two of the fans slower overall, I particularly wanted to change medium speed’s relationship to high and low, from being rather close to high, to being closer to low, or at least be solidly in the middle judging from the breeze created. It’s possible to increase or decrease the range or distance, or fan-speed RPM variance, from high to low, and I decided I wanted less variance in those smaller rooms, high speed moved the air too fast and wasn’t used, and I wanted low to be slower.

Consequently, I needed to devise my own ideas regarding how these capacitors worked in the motor’s circuit for speed control purposes, and I needed to do this with all due haste, without becoming an electronic engineer, without spending years attempting to unravel the highly-complicated theories of hundreds of thousands of highly-precise past & present academics en masse, and without spending additional money beyond capacitor-module replacement. Fortunately, I was able to assemble other great web writers’ brief ideas, even if they were only presented in bits and pieces, into a system of sorts that allowed me to alter ceiling fan speeds by altering the capacitors values without needing to buy every available capacitor value and try them out by installation, followed by removal, and replacement with another, etcetera, until by sheer luck a combination of microfarad values were found that provided satisfactory fan speeds.

It’s rather ironic to remember that in my prior post I wrote I wanted a “quick and simple” solution.

This posting is intended for my own future reference. It has been through a number of revisions, as more information and further insights were added, at the time, to the only existing section which has now become the reorganized discussion section, the original post’s overall structure became more confusing, so a final (ha ha) restructuring seemed in order, and to some degree, is presented in the reverse order that it was originally written for inclusion. While the functions and graphs were one of these items added near the end during later revisions, included after I’d had several light-bulb moments due to the actual writing process, the spreadsheet was one of the first, and it uses the same functions or formulas. Much of the information presented is potentially confusing, some math is involved, and there are no guarantees that even the concept of my system of sorts has any basis in accepted or correct electronic theory, though it did work for my purposes.

Read at your own risk.

The nitty-gritty is found in the final summary at the end of the post, and should be accurate to the best of my knowledge; the replaced speed switch drawing of the chain-pull switches’ power-routing logistics should not be skipped, since there are multiple variations of switch logistics. Tracing the capacitors’ wires to the speed switch is also a good way to label capacitors one (C1), two (C2), and three (C3).

If you are formally trained and experienced in electronics, unlike myself, and you happen to read this post, any suggestions for improvement, or even a “You’re nuts!” followed by ‘the why’ rationale, would be appreciated. The spreadsheet calculations do seem to have one issue that I cannot resolve at this time, it’s explained below, and there may be others. Terminology I’ve used may not be what is typical when used by specialists.

The Problem

It’s always nice to know what one blown capacitor module looks like. The deformation on the side is quite visible, but there’s some on the left front as well. It’s understandable why, for ceiling fans, the capacitors are encased in injection-molded plastic and pourable epoxy. Unfortunately, the only way provided by the manufacturer to remove the module was to cut the wires. After the low-speed capacitor blew, this particular module continued to work on two remaining speeds before removal for well over a year of intermittent usage. It seems there are still two good capacitors in it.

Another module with a blown capacitor showed less-obvious case damage, but the purple wire was quite scorched, it’s color significantly darkened for about the first 1/2-3/4 of an inch measuring from the black epoxy. Apparently, before blowing, it seems capacitors get quite hot.

Replacement of the factory’s chosen microfarad values should be easy enough if those precise values are available, but how does one also alter the fan’s speed?

Functions

This section discloses the functions I conceived for ceiling fan speed alteration, after reading, and thinking about, web-based research fully disclosed in my prior post. I thought I could calculate the Capacitors’ Microfarad-Values Difference supplied to the two motor coils, what I have named Coils’ Δ (Δ = Delta or difference) in the tables below, and come up with an abstraction that relates, however imperfectly, to the fan’s speed. The formulas apply only to the schematic I used, though they could easily be altered for other typical ceiling fan circuits if the schematic is known.

These formulas have not been tested for accuracy by precise RPM measurement, but only a cursory, visual one mentioned briefly in the discussion section. Additionally, there is an incompatibility of High Δ to the other Δs, this is also discussed there. There may be and probably are other issues and flaws that I haven’t specifically identified.

However, before listing my functions, Rick made a comment regarding these functions, and suggested alternatives for medium and low speeds. I wanted to advise readers of these alternatives at this sequential point in the text. Presuming Rick’s formulas are better than mine for the intended use, I can confirm that the graphs below, as well as the spreadsheet, will change. I’m leaving the rest of the text as it was originally written, and I remind everyone of the disclaimer (in red text above) that what follows is likely highly flawed.

These are the functions:

High Δ = f(C1)       =  C1
Low  Δ = f(C1,C3)    =  C3    -(1/((1/ C3    )+(1/C1)))
Med  Δ = f(C1,C2,C3) = (C2+C3)-(1/((1/(C2+C3))+(1/C1)))

Graphs

The graphs were created with Analysis 2.3 beta 3 (I don’t know why the copy I downloaded several years ago is a beta 3 and the latest version is beta 2, maybe the developer is counting down instead of up, or maybe there was a version rollback). I limited all graphs to 2D. 3D graphs just seemed to add another layer of abstraction without adding much additional understanding, and since most of us have had at least some exposure to 2D graphs, they seemed the easiest to understand.

How a 4D graph might look is a curiosity, since one should allow graphing all three capacitors as variables simultaneously, therefore (perhaps) needing only one graph for all effects upon Medium Δ. However, 4D graphs don’t seem to have been fully standardized yet, and in any case they are way beyond my nearly non-existent math skills. Would a 6D graph allow all variables and all Δs to be graphed simultaneously? Oops, back to reality. . . .

All y results are understood as microfarads, just as in the spreadsheet, and all x values are understood as the titled capacitor’s microfarad value. One of the following capacitor microfarad values is assigned as the x variable in all graphs below, and when not so assigned, they’re constants equivalent to one of the factory modules I removed:

C1 = 4
C2 = 4
C3 = 5

Increasing C1 to a greater value decreases both Low and Medium Δs.

As typical C3 values are increased, both Low and Medium Δ increases.

Considering a negative capacitor, if there is such a thing, goes well beyond my purpose of learning how to alter a ceiling fan’s speeds with typically available ceiling fan capacitors, which appear non-polarized, a type apparently expected in AC circuits.

This is the final effect I’ve graphed: as C2 increases, Medium Δ also increases.

These graphs present visually-based strategies to adjusting fan speeds that aren’t quite as apparent when looking at the spreadsheet. For instance, had I wanted low and medium speeds somewhat lower and either didn’t care if high would be somewhat faster, or specifically wanted high faster, then adjusting only C1 to a greater value, which lowers Medium and Low Δ, may have been all that was needed for the desired lower speeds.

This would perhaps have required buying fewer capacitors, but would have increased the high to low range, could have exceeded the +1 uf warning linked in my prior post which could potentially over-speed the fan, and even if not harmful to the motor itself (the medium speed circuit in one factory setup delivers 9uF total to the same coil that, if the schematic is accurate, C1 feeds when the speed switch is set to high), would likely have greater stresses on the ceiling mount and centrifugal forces on the blades, and potentially could be quite dangerous. In addition, faster speeds probably correlate to higher power consumption.

But I didn’t want high speed faster. . . .

Spreadsheet

I used Calc, which is downloadable from OpenOffice.org, to calculate the coils’ capacitor Δs: Ceiling Fan Capacitor Calculation spreadsheet. Generally, it’s better to first save Internet-sourced files to the computer’s drive, then scan for viruses, both before opening the file. I did scan it before placing it on the server and it was clean at that time, but there’s no guarantee it’s still clean. Don’t forget the disclaimer!

Be sure to note there are two tabbed sheets included, the formulas are useful only for fans that use the wiring logic of the schematic I used, though it’s easy enough to alter the spreadsheet’s formulas for other ceiling fan wiring schemes if the reference link titled “Capacitors in series and parallel”, located in my prior post, is understood, and an accurate schematic of the fan is available.

How do I use the spreadsheet to alter speeds?

The spreadsheet does not attempt to convert the capacitors’ values into rotational fan speeds. It seems mostly useful for making a best guess regarding possible replacement capacitors’ microfarad values for speed-alteration purposes.

After some spreadsheet study time I chose 3uF, 2uF, and 4uF single capacitors to replace each factory module for the two fans I wanted to slow. The first fan’s speeds were about what I expected (the formulas seemed to have worked for their intended purpose), but the second fan moved much slower on the medium-speed setting, and no matter what combination of connections or reordering were tried, one speed was always too slow.

The Replaced Speed Switch Problem

This is apparently another method to lower only medium’s speed, discovered by error. I had thought these two fans were identical, but the speed difference was found to be due to a speed switch I had replaced in that particular fan several years ago which routed power through the fan’s capacitors slightly differently, and which I had forgotten about having installed.

The replaced switch fan, when the speed switch was set on medium, routed power through only two capacitors, Med Δ = f(C1,C2), instead of the factory’s design of all three, Med Δ = f(C1,C2,C3), and my spreadsheet formulas hadn’t been intended for that logistic. I recall that after the switch’s installation some years ago, the wiring going to it had to be reordered so high was on chain pull one, medium on pull two, and low on pull three. I also recall simply being happy enough that its prior broken switch was replaced and that the fan seemed to work again with three reasonably acceptable speeds, even though I didn’t understand why medium speed had slowed down.

Here’s how the original and replacement switches work, presented in semi-schematic form that is accurate for the two fan switches we have according to continuity testing. Note the differences, especially with regard to the column under “Medium”. The innermost circle and four dots represent potential connection points, lines between those dots indicate connections or continuity. Moving outward, the next circle with numbers indicates printing on the case of the switch housing near each wire insertion point, and the area just outside any circle may indicate the color of the factory wire connected to it.

If the fan has different speed switch-to-capacitors-to-motor coils’ logistics, then the coil difference formulas won’t necessarily work without some rather minor modifications, nor would these switches necessarily work.

Ultimately, this project has also taught me that it doesn’t matter a great deal what kind of switch the fan has provided it’s all wired logically. I’ve even conceived of how to adapt our fans’ inner wiring to the two-capacitor, three-speed ceiling fan wiring scheme, but I don’t have one of those kinds of switches to play with, so I think I’ll let that conception pass, for now, but trying and testing it could shed further understanding upon the spreadsheet issue explained below. Why buy a switch if one isn’t needed? But it’s nice to know that if it was the only kind of switch available, with sufficient forethought and rewiring time, perhaps additional capacitor microfarad changes, it could probably be made to work pretty much the same.

Discussion

I used the spreadsheet by first inputting the values of the factory capacitor (which should be printed on each capacitor case), noting the calculated answers, and then comparing those answers to other possible capacitor combinations’ answers. I then used simple if-then formulas, such as testing for medium values being lower than low values, then sorting the answers and making appropriate row deletions, as well as coloring and cut & paste features quite a bit to pare down the vast number of potential choices. However, there is an even simpler way to make these decisions, but I didn’t know what it was until after writing out, then revising, what I had learned, an iterative process which seemed to provide further insights.

One issue to be aware of is the need to get each capacitor’s respective value into the appropriate C1, C2, or C3 spreadsheet cell: wire colors, where those wires go, and schematic diagrams are all useful for this, but the single best way to locate and identify them seems to be following the wires to and from the chain-pull speed-switch wire-insertion number (switch terminal).

The spreadsheet numbers claim I have reduced High’s Δ by 25%, medium’s Δ by 35%, and low’s Δ by 18%: I don’t know how well Coils’ Δ correlates to actual fan speeds, but it seems to roughly agree judging by visually observed speeds. Since high was reduced more than low, I’ve narrowed the high-to-low speed range; also, since I’ve lowered medium the most, I’ve brought it closer to low relative to high. This is about what I wanted to achieve.

Skip all the rigamarole and jump to the next table entry.

One identified spreadsheet issue is seen in the light green column, which represents high. This column’s answers cannot be directly compared to the answers in the light blue columns: a lower value in High’s Δ may result in a faster fan speed than a higher value for Med’s Δ, or the next one which represents Low’s Δ. For example, using the data for the factory module, the “4″ is faster in the high-speed circuit than “6.23″ is in the medium-speed circuit. However, it seems the two light blue columns can be compared to each other, these represent “medium” and “low”, respectively. It is not clear whether medium and low values associated with one high Δ (in the same row) can be compared to other medium and low values with a numerically different high Δ existing in their respective rows, though that is a presumption I made both at first and in the table above.

C1 entered values are included in the function or calculation of medium and low Δs of the same row, as well as simply echoed for the high circuit. Since a shorted or solid wire apparently approaches infinite capacitancesee prior post for reference link, it’s possible it’s in error, then if one coil is supplied with infinite capacitance, and the other with C1’s value, then high Δ is the difference between these two coils. I’m not sure how to mathematically deal with the infinity concept correctly, there are several possibilities that I can conceive, two of which are ∞-C1 or C1-∞, but how does one convert that into a practical number unless infinity and zero can be substituted for each other on the number line?

One potential rationale for the error is that C1 feeds one coil in the high circuit, in the other two circuits, it appears to feed the other coil, judging from the schematic. Perhaps these two coils have different angles with respect to each other and or the motor’s magnets. Anyway . . . if high’s value could be compared to the medium and low circuits, then the high to low range could easily be calculated, and a spreadsheet formula such as (med-low)/(high-low) could give an accurate abstraction of the relationship of medium to high and low, and which could also help to filter the many possible capacitor combinations down to a smaller subset of preferred values.

It seems the best way to use the spreadsheet to select capacitor values, for the particular wiring schematic under discussion and using the factory speed switch, is to choose the high value that results in an acceptable high speed either by noting the spreadsheet value’s percentage change, installing that value capacitor and testing the high speed, or a combination of both. Then, keep only those rows that include that particular high column’s capacitor value, deleting all the other rows that have different values in that same column; then select low speed values only from those remaining rows, and thirdly or lastly, select medium speed capacitor values. My reasoning for this is due to the fact that the high speed circuit uses only this one single capacitor (C1): the other two slower circuits also use this same capacitor in addition to others, therefore, all circuits are dependent upon C1 to one degree or another. Following this reasoning, the slow circuit uses two capacitors, C1 and C3, so it seems selection of C3 is the next logical choice. Finally, medium speed uses all three capacitors.

Another way of stating this is: if medium speed is unsatisfactory, changing capacitors C2, C3, and/or C1 will change medium’s speed, but changing any capacitor other than C2 will also change other speed settings; if low speed is unsatisfactory, changing C3 and/or C1 will change low’s speed, but changing C3 will also affect medium speed while changing C1 will affect all three speeds; and finally, if high speed is unsatisfactory, changing C1 will change high’s speed, but changing it also affects all other speeds. Thinking of it this way is somewhat more complicated than as-simple-as-it-can-be construed.

This is also, apparently, determined from the formula functions:

High Δ = f(C1)
Low  Δ = f(C1,C3)
Med  Δ = f(C1,C3,C2)

With one set of medium and low Δs, I found that multiplying them by “4″ resulted in a close prediction of the fan’s respective speeds over a 10-second time period, the speeds that in some cases I could count visually by timing with a stopwatch. However, that relationship did not hold with some other capacitor values I checked, so I concluded I either made an observation error or the relationship of coils’ Δ to fan’s RPM, if one exists (it certainly seems to), is not linear.

With the factory speed switch, I could change some of the fan’s RPMs simply by changing the wiring order of the existing capacitors. Whoever first designed this type of circuit was quite clever.

Observation has informed that with this circuit design, and this particular set of three capacitors, a .80 low Δ is much too slow to be practically useful: one might mistake this speed for the ‘off’ switch position if one is in a hurry. It’s still handy to know that simply by changing the wiring order of existing capacitors of differing values, fan speeds may be altered.

With the replacement speed switch, the same reordering results in a different, less useful outcome. However, from a capacitor selection standpoint, this logistic is simpler to understand.

To make the replaced-switch fan have the same Δs (which seem to correlate to speeds) as the factory-switch fan, it’s necessary to change one capacitor to a different value.

What does Coils’ Δ mean?

Installation

A removed and fully-functional module is seen next to the new and, except for the 4uF in the front, lower-value single capacitors on the right (I bought these capacitors from one of the suppliers listed in my previous post which was titled: Ceiling Fan Capacitor Woes). The reason the module is both still functional and removed is the fans I wanted to slow were not the fans with blown capacitors. It was my intent to move these good modules to the broken fans, to minimize the number of capacitors purchased. However, there was another problem, the factory module had five wires, these replacement capacitors had six wires.

When I wired the capacitors into the fans, I used male and female insulated crimp connectors. I thought this would make the process of switching their ordering, or future replacements, that much easier. The harness simulates the schematic printed on the factory’s modules. There may have been a cleaner or simpler way to do this, but this was what I happened to think of at the time.

With respect to the mini-harness, I was worried about the wire’s insulation, so I additionally wrapped it with electrical tape.

This is a photo of the factory switch fan’s control housing or case with the new capacitors installed. Some of the model numbers on the speed switch can be seen. The reverse switch is also partly visible.

Final Summary

Pulling it all together, and in spite of some initial confusion, spreadsheet issues, seemingly needless complications, and errors, this is the final installation outcome for the fan with the factory switch. Does it look familiar?

To summarize the ordered and incremental steps to alter the fan’s speeds, with respect only to the simplified three-capacitor ceiling fan schematic, using the factory switch to identify each particular capacitor (C2 and C3, C1 is the sole remainder), then:

1. Set high speed first by altering C1’s value if high speed is unsatisfactory. Changing C1’s value changes all speeds.
2. Set low speed second by altering C3’s value if low speed is unsatisfactory. Changing C3’s value also changes medium’s speed.
3. Set medium speed last by altering C2’s value if medium speed is unsatisfactory. Changing C2’s value only affects medium speed.

How much does changing the microfarad values affect other speeds?

Writing this post out sure helped me to understand how the capacitors affect different speeds. Remember, I do not advise you to repair or alter your own fan!

While on our monthly grocery shopping trip, we stopped by the store where we purchased the fans. They either no longer carried these replacement capacitors, or never carried them in the first place.

The home center, sometimes referred to as a mega-store, did have wall-mount speed controls, and had I desired to cut a hole in the wall, install an electrical box, the necessary wiring to the fan, patch the drywall and paint, as well as spend the additional time to accomplish all of that, then perhaps those types of speed controls could be retrofitted into the existing system, but I just wanted a replacement module for the burned out capacitor so the repair was quick and simple, nor involved replacing the rest of the perfectly fine ceiling fan.

At the mega-store, after looking for replacements on the shelf and not being able to locate them, I then spoke to the employee in the fan department, who said, “No, we don’t carry them,” but added that he’d been trying to get management to stock them and hadn’t had any luck.

I went to the customer service desk, and looked through their supply book for some period of time, checking multiple cross-references in its index. Nope, there were no in-the-fan-housing capacitor modules to be found.

Later that evening after we got back home and unpacked the groceries, I searched the Internet, and found several online suppliers.

1. Replacement ceiling fan capacitors supplier site 1.

2. Replacement ceiling fan capacitors supplier site 2.

In studying those two sites above, it is apparent from the latter one that even though the modules are rated by the two, three, or four capacitors they contain, the schematics and internal wiring also have several variations. This would affect installation of a replacement. Since the type we need has two wires internally connected to one side of all three capacitors according to the on-the-module schematic, some of the four-wire type that don’t appear to match should work provided I wire them into the rest of the fan’s wiring in such a way to simulate that internal connection.

It appears that a number of differently rated modules could be installed. The exact same values as the failed unit are probably best provided those values are printed on the outside of the bad module. In our case they were: 5-wire, 4uf + 4uf + 5uf; the second fan is 4uf + 5uf + 5uf; “uf” means micro farad, a value of capacitance. No module replacements seem to match those values exactly in 5-wire, and it’s cautioned that the capacitance value can only vary by +/- 1uf. The repair question morphs again, complicating matters: do we want a slightly slower fan speed, or slightly faster, and which farad value, either an increase or a decrease, achieves each?

For a slightly slower speed it appears we’ll need a lower capacitance value: for a higher speed, a higher capacitance value. Apparently, a shorted or solid wire approaches infinite capacitance (MS word doc).

This is confirmed by the schematic logic in the links below. Perhaps it would be better to just replace the single one that has blown:

1. Single ceiling fan capacitors supplier site 3.

This is an interesting repair option, and in our fan’s case of a factory three-in-one module, it would likely and initially require installation of three single capacitors due to the fan-case space limitation of keeping the old module in addition to the replacement: the bad one can’t singly be removed. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, these “single capacitors” may not have the correct rating, their catalog is using an “m” (milli) instead of a “u” (micro). This is possibly a typo related to the computer age’s typical use of ASCII, the actual, old-fashioned character for micro is “µ”.

1. Ceiling Fan Capacitor supplier site 4.
   

Another question arises: is there enough room in the fan’s case, or, what physical size are these single capacitors? One attraction of these is that once the three-in-one module is replaced with three single ones, and properly wired into the rest of the fan, should any ever blow again in the future, only the single blown ones will require replacement. One downside of this is that they are not available in fractional microfarad values, should one of those be desired for any reason. Another downside is that the supplier only has values of 1-5 “m”fd, no 6 or 7, so this will not work for one of the fans which I want to very slightly increase the hi speed, and increase the low and medium speed, unless an extra one is added in parallel: then there would be additional housing-space requirements.

For those who may need additional ceiling-fan repair instruction:

1. General ceiling fan repair with photos, repair information, and wiring schematic.

2. Schematic diagram of reversible 3-speed ceiling-fans. (editor’s note, the above link was someone’s homepage that was at some point discontinued. The link was replaced with one from The Wayback Machine, but they do not archive images, so there aren’t any schematics )

While I won’t be installing a variable speed controller, it is nice to know one could be built from scratch, if desired:

1. Variable speed ceiling fan control.

Some online sources claim the variable type of speed controller sometimes cause humming or buzzing while the fan is in operation.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but I spent several hours online learning more about ceiling fan capacitors than I ever wanted to know! I’ve actually created a spreadsheet and, assuming the generic schematic (scroll down, two different ones on page) that may match our fan, attempted to mathematically simulate the capacitance difference between the two motor inductance coils, since there are so many possible capacitance value combinations possible that feed these coils.

While it’s always nice to learn something new, if you have the time, these blown speed-control modules should have been a simple-to-replace item, but it’s become slightly more complicated than simple!

This has become a two-part topic, the next post is a continuation: Ceiling Fan Capacitor Solutions.

I’m sure there are a lot of other sources of ceiling-fan capacitors, and if I didn’t find yours: so sorry.

General electronic references:
Capacitors in series and parallel.
Schematic Symbols site 1.
Schematic Symbols site 2.
Capacitors.

Electronic Abbreviations site 1.
Electronic Abbreviations site 2.

Ceiling fan capacitor manufacturer information:
PDF – NTE ceiling fan capacitors

The photos are not a complete documentation of every step, they were simply taken by me at points in the project when I thought about taking pictures.

The house is estimated to have been built in the second quarter of the 20th century, perhaps a little later. The interior walls are plaster on button board. Therefore, the old iron and lead-coupled sewer pipes were estimated to have been about 50 or so years old, and small sections had been replaced around the outside of the house over the last 5 years because they were rusting through. We decided that the under slab pipes were likely in similar condition, and remodeling without replacing those pipes would not result in a long-lasting remodel.

When we cut the slab and dug up those pipes, we found they were disintegrating and leaking, just as those outside had been. The earth around the pipes smelled like a sewer, at least until the dirt dried.

If you click on any of the photos, you’ll be taken to a larger, higher resolution image.

1. This first photo is the main trench we dug in the room adjoining the bathroom, this is where the sewer enters or exits the home. You can see a little sunlight at the top center of the photo, under the cut slab. The door to the left is the bathroom. I will hereafter refer to this room as the “adjoining” room.
   
   
2. In this photo, we’ve stepped through the doorway seen in the previous photo, and into the bathroom. This is where the toilet was; the wall needed to be cut open to access the vertical 4″ iron vent in order to remove the old drain pipe. We didn’t remove most of the vent in the wall, it was not rusted on the outside as those that were in the ground had been. A little of this wall opening can be seen in the previous photo, as well. A rubber coupler will be used to join the iron to the new ABS, as well as a support structure to support the iron vent’s weight from being placed on the new ABS drains.
   
   
3. Stepping back, and rotating about 50 degrees to the right, we can see where the shower used to be. You can also see through the doorway a portion of the adjoining room’s trench. The back wall of the shower is shared with the closet located on the other side, where a capped clean-out terminated the under-slab drain system.
   
   
4. This closet is where the end clean-out of the inside sewer pipe was located. The wall in the upper left is the wall shared with the shower. The doorway in the lower right is to the adjoining room where the main trench was dug.
   
   
5. Stepping outside, we are looking at the new replaced pipe. On the left is where the sewer goes to the street. We rubber-coupled into the old iron pipe just a few feet to the left of the left edge of this photo, which will make replacing the rest of the remaining iron to the street relatively easy. Here we can see three Ys. The first Y runs at a 45 degree angle towards the house’s foundation, shortly before passing under it, the pipe Ys again, one leg running parallel to the foundation, the other going through the hole seen in the adjoining room photo. The other Y branching off the main and seen in the lower portion of the photo is 2″ pipe, it is the kitchen drain line which had previously been replaced with ABS. To the right of he vertical and open 4″ pipe, is an old septic tank that cannot be easily removed.
   
   
6. More of the kitchen drain line. Even though this pipe had previously been replaced, we found that it hadn’t been leveled properly, and for a distance of about one third its length, it flowed poorly “uphill”, essentially creating a stagnant and smelly “lake” within the pipe. While we didn’t expect this diversion, we re-leveled the pipe so it flowed downhill—drains seem to work best that way—the downhill slope goal was 1/4″ drop per foot of length. The small hill of moved dirt covers an old septic tank, no longer used.
   
   
7. Because the top of the 3-section septic tank had 6″ holes in the center of each section of the lid, presenting a stepping hazard to people, we hammered the lid before refilling the ditches and covering the tank with topsoil. It may settle some, but no one will step into a hole and injure themselves. We guess that this septic tank must have been for a previous structure because the tank is elevated to a higher level than the current home’s drain pipes.
   
   
8. This is another view of the kitchen drain line, the septic tank is near the top of the photo, past the tree stump, which was also removed while we were working outside.
   
   
9. Relative to the previous photo, our perspective is now looking down and rotated 90-degrees to the right; this is the corner of the house where the drain line turns before passing through the outside wall to the kitchen sink. The old septic tank is to the left of this photo.
   
   
10. Returning back inside, this is a photo of the new toilet drain in position. The “closet flange” hasn’t yet been installed, it’s what the toilet bolts attach to.
    
    
11. This is a view of the bathroom sink drain line, the old, leaking valves on the water supply haven’t yet been swapped out. You can also see some no-longer-used galvanized iron water supply lines that originally ran under the slab. Someone had already replaced these with a copper water-piping system than circumnavigates the foundation outside.
    
    
12. We used a plumb line to center the shower drain. Placing the fiberglass shower pan into position, we then centered the plumb line to the center of the pan’s drain hole. Then I carefully lifted the line out of the way, removed the pan, re-placed the plumb line, then placed the shower drain using this old-fashioned method. The plumb line was simply a string with a nut tied to its end. By the time this photo was taken, we’d already begun filling the inside trenches with sand.
    
    
13. Here the shower area is filled as high with sand as we intended; you can also see #4 rebar dowels (4/8″ = 1/2″), about 8″ long each, that have been anchored into the old slab to pin the new concrete to the old.
    
    
14. We did the same with the toilet, and all other slab cuts, carefully packing the sand by tamping, wetting, then tamping some more. Tunnels from room to room were horizontally tamped. We opted to place the toilet flange on the pipe at this point of the project, typically, this is done after concrete and any flooring is installed.
    
    However, had we done it in that order, we could have only placed a male, instead of female, flange. By using the female closet flange, there is the added opportunity at some time in the future, if someone decides to place another floor over this one, essentially adding height, to add a male flange for additional flange height without needing to break out any concrete and/or perform any pipe work. This probably isn’t likely, and doing it this way is more tedious from a measuring standpoint, as the final height of the floor must be estimated.
    
    
15. The adjoining room’s trench filled with sand, dowel pinned, and ready for concrete.
    
    
16. Here the concrete has been poured and leveled. The green wood was a new wall we built to fit the smaller 32″ shower chosen. The old tile shower had been 36″ in width. The reason the wood is green is that it’s been painted with several coats of a product called Termin (or something similar to Termin). This coating was applied to the wood after cutting, but before assembly.
    
    
17. Closet Flange installed and concrete poured. You can also see that we’ve removed the plaster and underlying button board from the lower 6″ of the walls. It’s our intent to place porcelain tile cove basing on this lower section of the plaster walls. You can’t see that we placed a notched angel iron, painted with tar, at the top edge of each of the vertical wall studs, to stabilize the top edge of the tile’s underlying mud coat, covered the 6″ strip to the floor with thick roofing felt then galvanized hardware cloth. By removing the button board underlayment, we can inset this tile so its surface is level to the wall surface. You can also see that we’ve added an approximation of what used to be called button board over the holes cut in the wall to access the vents, prepping them to accept plaster using the same method as the original walls. Button board doesn’t seem to be available anymore, and blue board, its replacement, apparently isn’t available locally in the thinness required, 3/8″. We felt it was better to try to reproduce the original plaster walls as closely as possible to help prevent cracking over time, so we perforated 3/8″ drywall ourselves.
    
    
18. Here’s where the sink cabinet will be placed, the new 1/4-turn water supply ball valves have now been installed.
    
    
19. The shower has been installed and masked. While I didn’t take a picture of the old shower, it’s ceiling dropped very low, about to the level of the top of the room’s doorjambs. Because of the bend in the shower head pipe and the additional height lost due to the shower head itself, only a short person could shower without stooping forward to lower their head. So we removed that box over the shower, raising the shower-stall height to the same as the rest of the bathroom. It should let a little more light and air in. In this photo, we’ve already placed tar-felt and hardware cloth on the studs with corner reinforcements: the stall is ready to be plastered. We thought this substrate would be more water resistant than plaster over button board for the shower stall itself.
    
    
20. The corner bead reinforcement on the shower’s right side.
    
    
21. The left side of the shower before plaster.
    
    
22. Apparently, I missed taking some photos! Here we jump ahead past the plastering and topcoats, stripping of all the old paint, sanding, and many other painstaking details. We stripped the concrete floor of paint and residues, then chemically etched it. We installed floor tile into polymer-modified thinset, then grouted the 1/4″ tile spacing. Next, we masked the tile and anything else we didn’t want paint drippings on, then painted the walls with an oil-based substrate paint (primer-surfacer) that would stick well to the old marble-dust plaster topcoat. After that primer dried we applied two coats of a good quality latex paint with mildewcide added. The painting took several days because we wanted each thin coat to dry properly before the next.
    
    
23. We’ve stepped back for a wider view including the toilet’s closet flange.
    
    
24. Here we’ve turned our perspective about 35 degrees to the left, facing east.
    
    
25. Here’s a close-up view of the step into the shower. We decided to put a little of the porcelain tile on the floor here, as a visual clue to “step” into the shower.
    
    
26. Stepping back for a wider view.
    
    
27. Here I stood where the sink cabinet was to be placed, and had turned the camera 45 degrees to the left for this shot. A small section of the closet flange is visible.
    
    
28. This is a close-up view of the doorway transition to the next room. Just as we placed a little of the dark gray tile on the floor in front of the shower as a visual clue, we also placed more of the same tile used on the cove base in the two doorways. The shower is to the right.
    
    
29. We’re ready to install the toilet. Instead of a new one, the old was cleaned up of any water scale, deposits, stains, and any paint on it with appropriate cleaners, and the plumbing inside the tank was replaced. It was already a 1.6 gallon toilet, likely replaced within the last 15 years. A new plastic seat was installed.
    
    
30. A view of the shower with its fixtures installed.
    
    
31. A view of the sink cabinet, now installed, showing the medicine cabinet and light fixture above it. You can also see we’ve now installed the refurbished toilet. We used plaster of paris to adhere it to the tile, and a wax ring on the flange. Any uncured gypsum that had oozed into the outer groove and floor surface mating the toilet to the floor, was scraped and sponged. Leveling wedges were used to support the toilet’s weight until the gypsum was cured, The following day this groove was grouted with the same color grout used with the floor tiles, a dark, bluish gray. Using the plaster of paris should allow the toilet to be more easily removed than had we set it solely in grout.
    
    
32. Here we’ve stepped back, through the doorway, for a different view.
    
    
33. A close-up view of the sink cabinet, showing the cove-base tile installed around its base. Epoxy was used to adhere the tiles to the front and side of the cabinet’s base. Before installing the cabinet, we reinforced the backside of these boards specifically for this purpose, so they were rigid. After the epoxy cured, we used the same color grout as elsewhere on the floor.
    
    
34. A photo view from the opposite doorway, showing the tile on the front of the cabinet.
    
    
35. Here we’ve turned the camera’s perspective about 25 degrees to the right.
    
    
36. The last photo. It shows an installed towel bar and separate ring.
    
    

This project took about 3 months to complete. I’ve often found that, by going slowly, it’s much easier paying attention to painstaking details that otherwise would get skipped because of “the hurry” for completion that is so common in today’s age. Believe me when I say I’m glad to be done with it(!), but I also enjoyed the work involved in this remodel immensely.

[begin 3.19.2009 edit] The 3-month figure above is actual calendar days from start to finish, not labor hours. Because of a comment left below, I thought additional time-to-completion information would be a good idea. This job took about 262 of my labor hours to complete. Presuming an 8 hour day, that is about 30 consecutive days. The owner also helped some. [end 3.19.2009 edit]

10/11/2006: Trackback to Chris Pirillo’s Home Improvement Tools.