I have purchased a harbor breeze saratoga ceiling fan for my kitchen & wanted to hook up a ge smart fan switch & ge smart light switch. I was reading about the ceiling fan & discovered that it can’t be done. In plain terms the rep said only ceiling fans without a remote & with a chain can be hooked up to a switch. My wife does not like any of the other models I showed her. So my question would be is there any way I can hook it up to a switch without causing a hazard.
hmmm, i don’t see why it would be an issue. That fan doesn’t have a remote module. Do you already have separate switches for the light and fan?
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The fan does come with a remote control. I read the question section & it said it can’t be hooked up to a smart fan switch.
That’s because some fans don’t have a reversing switch located on the fan itself, and it can only be reversed from the remote. Smart fan switches can’t reverse fan direction yet.
BTW, I installed one anyway cause we rarely reverse fan directions. Still works fine.
So the mfr. may have a valid reason for not recommending fan speed controllers ahead of thier fixtures. Primarily because it may interfere with the circuits related to the onboard radio / remote controls and reversing and cause them to behave unexpectedly and the mfr doesn’t want to say it’s OK and later have to answer a support question as to why the onboard remote no longer works correctly. It’s not a measure of starting a fire (like if you use a standard dimmer on a fan) just controls not working as imtended/expected.
That said most people I’ve seen in this situation set the fan to high in one direction, and take the batteries out of the remote ND toss it in a drawer and just use the GE fan switch with no issue.
So can u tell me how to do it. I’m redoing my kitchen & I can show my contractor the instructions. My wife is willing to return the fan but I do like this style, just dont like how it does not play nice with a ge switch.
Thanks
Dom
My fan was wired up with a smart dimmer for the lights and separate smart switch for the fan, so you’ll need a 2 gang switchbox on the wall where you plan on controlling the fan. In my case, I did not install any radio components at all. Nothing in the fan cowling at all, which would typically be the receiver. All wiring was directly back to the switch and dimmer.
I have the 2 boxes & wiring setup.formot but the saratoga said there was no hook up for a fan switch.
There almost always is. The instructions always say to wire to one switch, but the Load wiring is usually a blue and black with one labeled as light kit which means the other is the fan. I just installed a harbor breeze about a month ago that worked this way.
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So what I’m going to.do is have my contractor open the box & check for the hook ups.
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Open it and take a picture of the wires coming out of the motor unit.
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Yes but you will have to cut the wires
Here is the install guide where you will see the wires
You will find there is a canopy module you slide into the canopy. Unlike most fans I have dealt with where you use wire nuts to connect the wires, this fan has a male/female connector to connect the module to the fan. There are three wires, one for fan, other for light, and neutral. You can always cut the connector off and just wire those wires directly to the Romex in the ceiling box and control with smart switches like you want. if it doesn’t end up working use wire nuts to reconnect the connector and use the module.
Pardon my finger chicken scratch 
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