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First time poster. I feel like I have researched everywhere and not found the answer I am looking for. I've called a few manufactures of ceiling fans who didn't have any answers either. I began searching the web and came across this website. I don't see any existing articles on this topic yet however.

My problem. I'm in a old rental unit that had a broken ceiling fan. The landlord is lazy but approved me replacing the ceiling fan myself. I've done about 6 before in a new house environment. However, what I ran into was I removed the existing ceiling fan and went to install the new one. I found that the existing junction box mounting screw holes are 2 and 3/4s(2.75) inches apart and the bracket from the new ceiling fan(Hunter) is about 3 and 1/4(3.25) inch apart and can adjust wider but not narrower. I did a lot of research and this does not seem to be a measurable characteristic on the data sheets. Hunter ceiling fans say all their fans are that way these days. The old ceiling fan does not have a make or model visible on it that i can tell. Seeing as how this is a rental and an old one at that, I do not want to replace the junction box.

My question is does anyone know if there are brands of ceiling fans out there that have a mounting bracket that can accommodate 2 and 3/4s(2.75) inches or an adapter kit that would help? I have attached a picture of the old bracket that fits(top) and the new bracket(bottom) that does not. Unfortunately, the new ceiling fan does not fit in that bracket either though. As you can see in the old one, it has a more accommodating screw sliding space for smaller junction boxes.enter image description here

Thanks in advance!

Jloco

DrewJordan
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jloco
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4 Answers4

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If your box is that small it is almost certain that it is not a fan rated box. If it is not, then the box MUST be replaced with a fan rated box.

Sorry, but even with approval, someone unlicensed, uninsured, and unqualified SHOULD NOT be doing electrical work in a place that they rent. This is a perfect example; something as "simple" as changing a ceiling fan turns into a project since the box has to be replaced, and in an older house this can be met with issues.

Speedy Petey
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    This is one of those great situations where parts are made incompatible on purpose to prevent people from installing a fan in an unsafe box. I'm sure there's not any adapters because of this too. – JPhi1618 Nov 04 '15 at 13:40
  • Is this a case of the code having changed over the intervening years; or was the old undersized bracket something a previous idiot hacked up to mount a fan somewhere that originally only had a light? – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Nov 04 '15 at 15:54
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    This simply isn't always true. The size of the fan rated box has no bearing on how well it holds up a fan - that would be on the bracket outside the box. If you have installed a lot of older fans you often have to buy a special bracket to mount them to new boxes - because they have narrower bindings. I have seen and used a similar bracket to what OP needs to hang sconce on a smaller box. Also every city I have lived in allows you to change out your own fans and lights so I would cool off on the CAPS unless your advice is correct. Remember this is DIY not hire an electrician. – DMoore Nov 04 '15 at 16:17
  • Yeah here is what I found today. In California we have Home Depot and Lowes. Competing large scale hardware stores. Home Depot carries Hunter brand Ceiling Fans and Lowes carries Harbor Breeze. The Hunter brand has 3" and larger brackets, Harbor Breeze carriers 2.5" and larger. All I needed to do was purchase the Harbor Breeze fan and the bracket fits right in there. – jloco Nov 05 '15 at 01:33
  • Thanks @DMoore, but I'll CAPS whatever I want to. Sure, a homeowner can do pretty much whatever they want in a house they own and occupy, but if you read the question the poster is the RENTER, not the owner, so tell me how my advice is incorrect? Also, my point about the box size is that every fan rated box I have ever seen has been the size of a 4" octagon box at the smallest. – Speedy Petey Nov 05 '15 at 01:42
  • If your landlord allows you to change a ceiling fan you can - I would trust my wife with changing out a ceiling fan before baking a pie. It is chimp work and you shouldn't act like someone needs a license to perform this. And you are not right about ceiling box sizes. I have seen plenty of smaller ones when rehabbing old homes - luckily I just throw up old fan with new motor. Where in the NEC does it give the dimensions you are talking about? – DMoore Nov 05 '15 at 02:37
  • @DMoore, in most places you are wrong about doing electrical work. Also, your allusion to this work being chimp work is both insulting and detrimental to the trade. Installing a ceiling fan in an old setting is absolutely NOT "chimp work" in that a ceiling fan must now be mounted to an approved fan box or be supported directly to the structure. Why do you think this is? Could it be that some fans have fallen and injured folks? No, couldn't be that, could it? .... – Speedy Petey Nov 05 '15 at 02:46
  • ...........And I never said anything about being licensed. Being qualified and knowing what you are doing is what is important. And in a rental setting having proper liability insurance is most important. I do this every day, and the hack work I see from situations like this is staggering. ..... – Speedy Petey Nov 05 '15 at 02:46
  • ........ Secondly, please read what I wrote before replying. I never said anything about old boxes. It was specifically and clearly about fan rated boxes, which are only around a few years in the scope of things. I also never said anything about dimensions from the NEC. Not that an NEC reference would mean anything to you. – Speedy Petey Nov 05 '15 at 02:47
  • Being a master chef takes immense practice and expertise as does being a good electrician. Changing out a ceiling fan is more on par with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Can a master chef do it? Sure. Needed? No. Also you answer implies that the box isn't rated. If it doesn't imply that then you don't have an answer. I am saying that you are probably wrong and your assumption on the size is probably wrong. The old fan worked for years. I would also assume (after dealing with these old fans) that this bracket is probably 10X more sturdy that the cheap rated crap from HD. – DMoore Nov 05 '15 at 03:20
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    Changing out a fan is easy labor, and this is not codeenforcement.stackexchange.com, nor hireapro.stackexchange.com. You may be able to fashion some sort of support bracket that you could lagbolt to an adjacent stud, or you could modify the bracket or box that does not fit, so that it does. Or drive screws at an angle into the sidewalls of the box. (Especially if you don't own or care about the place.) The most proper way would be to make the landlord demolish and rebuild the building for your new fan. But DIY if you like, and especially if the owner said it was ok! – Billy left SE for Codidact Jan 12 '16 at 23:54
  • What @BillyC. said. Tear the place down and have the owner re-build with fan boxes installed. I'm glad this comment was made as it is the most intelligent thing I have read here in a long time. – Speedy Petey Jan 12 '16 at 23:59
  • I agree with speedy petey if you do not own the home or are a close relative all the jurisdictions I have lived required a qualified installer. – Ed Beal Nov 22 '17 at 16:01
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In most cases it isn't that the box is too narrow, it's that a cover was installed to narrow it on original installation. In other words the 4 inch box is covered by something like a TP331 narrowing it to 2.5 inches. If it is, just drill access holes perpendicular to the existing mounting holes, and mount to those newly exposed screw terminals. You will be screwing directly into the octagonal box and forgoing the TP331, but the cover is generally not needed and difficult to remove completely. You may need longer screws though.

TP331

enter image description here

ArchonOSX
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Robert Blair
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  • Thanks for this answer! Took me so long to find and I found these in all the bedrooms of my house. So much easier to just bypass than remove. – Mike Catanzaro May 31 '20 at 14:38
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Just ran into this problem installing a new fan in an older house. Read the posts above and decided to find the ceiling stud. I bypassed the junction box and went right into the ceiling stud with four long wood screws - two on each side. Worked perfectly!! No wobbling, no noise no nothing. Its as sturdy as can be. I could hang 100lbs on that bracket. The fan is only 20 pounds - so its definitely doable without having to change out a smaller older fan junction box to install a newer Hunter fan. Also it was a sloped ceiling so I couldn't use the new fan triangle bracket and ball. So I used another bigger bracket and round ball but the cover plate didn't match up to the screw holes on the other bracket so I placed paint stick sized shimmies between the ceiling and the bracket till the holes matched up. Again perfect!! :)

Lilia Scites
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First check to see if the new bracket actually fits in the hole for the electrical box, not including the fact that the screws don't line up. Second, it would be better to replace the box with one that is fan rated, but assuming that you don't care about this:

You can either attack the old bracket with a hack saw or buy 2 pieces of 1" x 1/2" x 1/16th metal and drill 2 holes in it. Screw the pieces of metal into the old screw holes. Now attach the bracket to outer screw holes. Assuming your metal pieces are thick enough, they won't bend, and if you use a thread locker, hopefully your ceiling fan won't fall, or at least not until you move out.

gbronner
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    Assuming you don't care if a fan pulls out of the ceiling onto your head/kids/pets, then this is a good solution. – JPhi1618 Nov 04 '15 at 16:53
  • The previous fan seems to have worked fine. Assuming that the new fan is similar, this is a reasonable low-cost solution. – gbronner Nov 04 '15 at 17:11