Fan speed switch

[Thunderman]

Hello,
Recently installed the Hunter digital thermostat in the 5er, worked great. Yesterday I put a small 2 terminal slide switch in for fan speed control, it did not work and probably blew a fuse. I put the orange wire on 1 terminal and the blue wire on the other terminal. Checked Search and found "fulltimedreamers" instructions for same. It seems he used a single pole switch. I would appreciate some info on this problem. Correct wiring? Can one use the 2 terminal switch?
Thanks in advance!

Weldon

[sreigle]

Did a quick search on my system as I thought I had saved some info on this. Here's what I found. I'm not sure if this differs from what you already have --

[Thunderman]

Steve,
Thanks for your response...looks like I need to replace the switch I have for a single pole. I am almost certain there was another post where someone successfully used the 2 terminal slide switch.
In any case, I appreciate the help!
Weldon

[sreigle]

Let us know when you get it working, Weldon. I replaced the thermostat a couple of years ago but did not add the fan switch. So ours always runs on high. Since, as you noted, the AC is noisy on high I'm thinking of adding the switch. But, if you don't mind, I'll wait and let you blow all the fuses and I'll learn from your mistakes!

[OntMont]

quote:Originally posted by Thunderman

Hello,
Recently installed the Hunter digital thermostat in the 5er, worked great. Yesterday I put a small 2 terminal slide switch in for fan speed control, it did not work and probably blew a fuse. I put the orange wire on 1 terminal and the blue wire on the other terminal. Checked Search and found "fulltimedreamers" instructions for same. It seems he used a single pole switch. I would appreciate some info on this problem. Correct wiring? Can one use the 2 terminal switch?
Weldon

Weldon,
There are more electrically competent people than me on this forum, but if the switch you have has only two terminals, I would think that it is a single pole switch, and it should work.
(For what its worth, when I did mine, I used a double throw switch, but only connected to two of the three terminals). Also, I think you find it easier to work with the toggle type switch that mounts in a 1/4 inch hole, rather than the slide switches that are fastened on with two very tiny nuts and bolts. Both are available at Radio Shack.

We are having a rainy day here in the valley, so I may take the time to try to get our furnace to work from a digital thermostat, rather than the #$%^@ remote (which turned itself to air conditioning in the middle night, even though we went to bed with it set for heat only).

[Thunderman]

quote:Originally posted by OntMont

Weldon,
OntMont,
When you connected to the 2 terminals, what color were the wires? I know orange and blue control the fan speed.
On another post it states" I soldered 3 wires to the switch contacts to extend them to existing wire and the new thermostat."
What would the third wire be?
There are more electrically competent people than me on this forum, but if the switch you have has only two terminals, I would think that it is a single pole switch, and it should work.
(For what its worth, when I did mine, I used a double throw switch, but only connected to two of the three terminals). Also, I think you find it easier to work with the toggle type switch that mounts in a 1/4 inch hole, rather than the slide switches that are fastened on with two very tiny nuts and bolts. Both are available at Radio Shack.

We are having a rainy day here in the valley, so I may take the time to try to get our furnace to work from a digital thermostat, rather than the #$%^@ remote (which turned itself to air conditioning in the middle night, even though we went to bed with it set for heat only).

[OntMont]

quote:Originally posted by Thunderman
OntMont,
When you connected to the 2 terminals, what color were the wires? I know orange and blue control the fan speed.
On another post it states" I soldered 3 wires to the switch contacts to extend them to existing wire and the new thermostat."
What would the third wire be?

It is a while since I did it, but I think this is the way it works:

The default condition is that the orange wire is connected to the G terminal. This gives you low fan speed only.
To add high speed, you have to connect the blue wire to the G terminal as well, if you just do this, you will get high speed only.
To make it speed selectable, you just have to put a SPST (two terminal) switch on the blue wire so you can turn the blue wire on and off.

Some people may wire the orange wire through the other side of SPDT (three terminal) switch, instead of hooking them both directly to the G terminal. You would then have orange going to one side of the switch, blue going to the other side of the switch and a third wire going from the common middle terminal to the G terminal on the thermostat. This is perhaps the more "proper" way to do it, but the first way worked for me, and is simpler to wire.

Hope I'm not leading you astray.

[Thunderman]

Steve,
Thanks for the help....fortunately no breakers or fuse tripped.

OntMont had the answer. Have a good day!

[Thunderman]

OntMont,
Thanks so much for the help! I believe I can do it now.
You are right the toggle switch would be much easier to work with. I was able to put the small slide switch in the lower right corner but it is a tight fit.
Hope that this rain will go away so you guys can enjoy the valley more so. I hate to speak badly about the rain because it gets pretty hot and dry around here in the Summer. A little sunshine for a while would be nice though.
Have a good day and thanks again!

[Russ and Sandy]

I concur with the "blue" wiring method OntMont posted.

Info for others considering replacing their original thermostat: I used a Hunter model 44110 (Lowes) which is programmable. It fit perfectly.

I also installed a small slider switch in the upper right side of the thermostat, and hooked the blue wire to a small SPST slider switch (and back to the "G" terminal)

Here's a site containing pictures which may be helpful to some: http://www.rverscorner.com/articles/hunterstat.htm

Russ

[sreigle]

Good series of posts, guys. I'm still thinking I'll hook up this switch so this thread and the pictures from Russ's link are getting saved.