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02 Jul 19 - 12:59 PM (#3998881) Subject: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: punkfolkrocker Just sorting out which fans are still working this summer.. One is a table fan, the sort that rotates.. It was cutting out intermittently last summer, and now wouldn't switch on at all. So I gave it a good dusting, then started dismantling the base to inspect the internal wiring. That's when loosening the screws released a light brown fluid which flowed out the joins... So I immediately stopped trying to take the base apart. What's that then, motor lubricant ?. what else could be a source of liquid...??? I decided to cut the cable off and put it out for recycling. But I'm still curious what that goo was... I'm used to sweaty batteries buggering up devices, but this is a new one for me... |
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02 Jul 19 - 01:16 PM (#3998885) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Jim Carroll Be careful that the internal resistance coils that these fans are someris fitter with are not heating up nd causing the insulating covering to melt - that could cause a fire Your nose should give you a clue - it usually smells like fish glue It's worth taking the covering off the base to see what's happening ut be sure to cover your desk - it can be a pig to get off Lubricants on desk fans are minimal Jim Carroll |
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02 Jul 19 - 01:18 PM (#3998887) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Jim Carroll It isn't spilled Guinness, is it !!! Jim |
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02 Jul 19 - 01:24 PM (#3998888) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: peteglasgow fish glue?! WTF? |
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02 Jul 19 - 04:52 PM (#3998908) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler I've had a pair of table lamps about 10 years ago that started to smell of fish when they were about 3 years old. Only ponged when they were hot. Robin |
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02 Jul 19 - 06:05 PM (#3998923) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Big Al Whittle Your lamp has got diarrhoea. Its your own fault. your support for the EEC has led you to feed it gooey French cheese, spicey German sausages and , and low quality warm water fish from seas which foreigners have been crapping in. Dirty buggers the lot of them! A diet of British farm eggs will set it right. Eggs are very binding. I doubt your lamp will be capable of squeezing more than one decent sized turd a week, but it will be a turd of a satisying firmness - the kind of turds that built the empire. |
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02 Jul 19 - 06:28 PM (#3998928) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Jack Campin The ancient theory of the elements and humours explains this. The point of a fan is counteract an excess of choler (heat and dryness) in the room, and the antithetical humour is the cold and damp one, black bile, the humour of melancholy. Clearly some of it has got stuck inside, and the dark slime your fan is leaking is concentrated depression. |
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04 Jul 19 - 12:02 PM (#3999159) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Mr Red fish glue?! WTF? Bakelite is made from fish bones and when it starts over-heating it smells vaguely fishy. Overheating is usually from contacts/joints that are going high resistance. A bit of heat causes copper to expand, and the deformation from screws in the joint, which contract when cold. This then causes a bit more resistance which causes more heating. A vicious cycle then takes place which may take years but if the fuse or junction box is Bakelite ... it starts to cook. And smell. Not many of those installations left but I have experienced 4 fish smells in the last 25 years and they were all Bakelite, solved by replacing with modern hard plastic. As to the liquid, it is most likely something that got inside sometime in the past. And a brew is implicated. Could be tea, how likely is that? |
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04 Jul 19 - 12:08 PM (#3999163) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Little Hawk The Russians did it! :) |
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04 Jul 19 - 12:18 PM (#3999169) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: punkfolkrocker Mr Red - that explains the mysterious fishy smell of old light bulb fittings... I'd say 100% certain no liquids got in. Unless it's a by-product of manufacture...??? |
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04 Jul 19 - 12:19 PM (#3999170) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: punkfolkrocker btw.. brand new from Argos a few years ago... |
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05 Jul 19 - 11:23 AM (#3999380) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: keberoxu I know lots of things that are made of bakelite -- like the old plugged in telephone receivers -- but I never knew that bakelite was made of fish bones. Thanks, you taught me something new today. |
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05 Jul 19 - 11:34 AM (#3999383) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Big Al Whittle if you were a fish, you would know that instinctively... |
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05 Jul 19 - 01:34 PM (#3999407) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Tattie Bogle Fishy smell = amines: vaguely remember that from chemistry days! |
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05 Jul 19 - 04:26 PM (#3999448) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Big Al Whittle yes you get it with fish, as well. |
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05 Jul 19 - 04:45 PM (#3999452) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: punkfolkrocker what about the fish that got very confused when unkind shoal mates told her she smelled like an old pussy... |
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05 Jul 19 - 05:43 PM (#3999462) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: robomatic Bakelite hasn't been in use for (lots and lots of) years, so if this thing was purchased recently, that's right out. If it's recent, it might've been made in China. Maybe they found a way to incorporate fish gizzards in the insulation. |
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08 Jul 19 - 04:12 PM (#3999880) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Nigel Parsons Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan Probably old stock from June 2016. People keep telling me that that was when the brown stuff hit the fan. |
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08 Jul 19 - 04:25 PM (#3999882) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: punkfolkrocker Well either it was taken from outside our gate last Friday morning by the recycle team , or some fool nicked it before the lorry arrived... |
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09 Jul 19 - 12:03 AM (#3999929) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Bee-dubya-ell Today, I plugged in a table fan that hadn't been used for a year or so. No brown fluid seeped out! It's good to know that the problem punkfolkrocker encountered doesn't seem to have spread to the US. I suppose the fact that US and UK appliances use different plugs provides a measure of protection. Until some jackass flies in with an adapter secreted in his luggage.... |
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09 Jul 19 - 12:13 AM (#3999930) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: punkfolkrocker Well.. as far as I can guess, if it wasn't lubricant seeped out of the motor, then maybe something inside melted and remained in liquid form for a year since the fan was last used...??? Is that even possible...????? |
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09 Jul 19 - 02:44 AM (#3999934) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Mr Red A lot of old cheap electrical products use wax to insulate and glue the windings of motors & transformers together. If the motor overheated it would melt. Maybe the heat would change the nature of the substance so it remained liquid. It would be a design feature to prevent the wax gumming up the motor and waggle mechanism. Which if that didn't happen would cause a much more catastrophic failure. Just guessing but with experience of electricals & design. |
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09 Jul 19 - 05:03 AM (#3999950) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Jon Freeman Another component you might find in the base is a motor run capacitor. There are even oil filled versions of these but I‘m not sure that would be the case with your desk fan. |
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09 Jul 19 - 06:13 AM (#3999953) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: punkfolkrocker It was a budget priced fan purchased from Argos within the last 3 to 5 years... |
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09 Jul 19 - 06:50 AM (#3999959) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Jon Freeman Our pair probably match that (or Amazon) description. I've not taken either of those apart but would guess they are similar to this in the base. Clip is in "foreign" but there should be enough to follow. |
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09 Jul 19 - 07:17 AM (#3999961) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: punkfolkrocker As I said, last year the fan started cutting out intermittently. Jiggling the cable at the point it entered the base seemed to fix it. I just presumed a loose connection, but didn't bother having a look inside. This year the fan wouldn't switch on at all. So I unscrewed the plastic bottom of the fan, then found an inner base secured tightly with triangular socket screws. As soon as I found the right tool and loosened them, the light brown oily substance started seeping out. I'd hope it wasn't toxic, but didn't want to find out. So I stopped immediately and screwed the outer base back on. The oil filled capacitor sounds plausible. Are they used in new Chinese manufactured household electrical products...? If so, could it have started leaking last year, causing the intermittent failure of the fan to spin...??? |
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09 Jul 19 - 07:34 AM (#3999966) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Jon Freeman It's all guess work on my part, pfr and I'm no electrical engineer, etc. The oil filled versions I found on a search have looked to me to be for bigger equipment than a desk fan. I'd guess the use of a single phase induction motor with a capacitor is common for AC fans. It seems to be one of there uses... |
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10 Jul 19 - 02:44 PM (#4000196) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Mr Red An oil filled capacitor would be a plausible answer. If the oil leaked out and the with reduced capacity the fan would stop or fail to work properly. And you would have oil or some fairly mucky glutinous mess. The capacitor just alters the phase on one of the two motor windings. To give it a little bit of a rotating magnetic field. Single phase motors have to have tricks like that to get started, but don't need them to run. Oil filled capacitors were not that common in my days as an apprentice. But are reserved for relative heavy duty or for cheapness. And the oil would be brown. |
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10 Jul 19 - 04:53 PM (#4000222) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Big Al Whittle brown liquid ... when you get old, it starts seeping out. if you're lucky enough to still have fans, it seeps out of them too. I have found. |
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11 Jul 19 - 03:00 AM (#4000284) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: BobL An oscillating fan will have a load of gears to drop the motor speed down to he speed of the oscillations. Gears need lubrication. Oil-filled gearbox? |
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11 Jul 19 - 03:18 AM (#4000289) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: Mr Red if you're lucky enough to still have fans, it seeps out of them too. I have found I have heard it called leaky gut. MS sufferers do talk about it amongst themselves - I am told. |
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11 Jul 19 - 10:25 AM (#4000313) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: punkfolkrocker .. or the never ending arse wipe... Bowels are a primary topic of conversation with my old mum... |
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11 Jul 19 - 10:53 AM (#4000319) Subject: RE: Tech: Brown fluid seeps out base of table fan From: punkfolkrocker Btw.. what's the temperature in the UK we could expect fans to no longer be effective, when all they will do is circulate hot air. Even at risk of the fan motor over heating and further warming up the air it pushes out...??? |