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How to Install a Hampton Bay Fan Without a Downrod

Cecilia Harsch

The ideal height for your ceiling fan blades to sit off the floor is 7 feet. Installing your fan blades any higher reduces the effects of the fan; any lower and the fan blades become a safety hazard. With some Hampton Bay ceiling fan designs, an 8-foot ceiling often does not allow for the installation of the fan with a downrod. If you have a higher ceiling, however, Installing a fan designed to hang on a downrod is possible and allows you more flexibility when choosing a fan.

  1. Assemble your Hampton Bay fan according to the manufacturer's directions until you reach the downrod installation portion of the instructions.

  2. Pop the beauty ring from the canopy to expose the screw holes punched in the metal. The canopy is a cone-shaped piece of metal designed to cover the hanging bracket attached to the ceiling electrical box. The plastic beauty ring snaps into the screw holes at the bottom of the canopy.

  3. Remove the screws at the top of the ceiling fan motor that install around the downrod throat. The downrod throat is a circle of metal about 1-inch high that the downrod normally installs into. Line up the screw holes punched into the canopy with the screw holes in the top of the motor. Insert the screws you removed from the top of the motor, through the holes in the canopy and back into the motor.

  4. Turn the breaker off to the ceiling fan circuit inside the main breaker panel. Use a two-prong electrical tester to test for electrical current inside the ceiling electrical box. Touch one prong from the tester to the black wire inside the electrical box and the other prong to the metal on the box. The tester will not light if you turned off the correct breaker.

  5. Attach the ceiling fan hanging bracket, provided with the ceiling fan mounting hardware, to the ceiling electrical box. Have a helper hold the ceiling fan while you connect the ceiling fan wires to the house wiring inside the electrical box.

  6. Twist a wire connector from the mounting hardware onto the white wire from the ceiling fan and the white wire from the house wiring, connecting them together. Connect the green wire from the ceiling fan to the bare copper house wire using another wire connector. Connect the black wire from the house wiring to the black and blue wires from the ceiling fan using a final wire connector. The black wire powers the ceiling fan motor and the blue wire powers the ceiling fan light.

  7. Lift the ceiling fan up so the canopy covers the hanging bracket. Attach the canopy to the hanging bracket with the four screws provided with the mounting hardware.

  8. Turn the breaker on to the ceiling fan circuit inside the main breaker panel.