We recently installed some new ceiling fans in our house which really help to keep things cool in the summer time. I installed a white Hampton Bay Windward in our old house and we never had problems with it for 6 years. So, I decided to install the Hampton Bay Windward IV in our new place. These fans are good quality and pretty easy to install. I did the close to ceiling install which is a little trickier, but if you take your time and make sure you hide the wires properly, the close to ceiling install turns out quite nice. Once we were done, the remote had about a 1-2 foot range only! Talk about frustrating. So, as with most similar issues I went online to see if we could find a solution for a Hampton Bay Windward remote repair, plus we also contacted Hampton Bay.
All put back together with the antenna wire neatly hidden in the plastic collar. Adding the antenna extension and running it outside the ceiling cover really helped with reception and remote problems
A known issue Hampton Bay doesn’t know how to fix
Hampton Bay said this was a known issue and sent us out a new receiver and remote once we sent them our Home Depot receipt. The problem is, the new receiver and remote also had a paltry 1-2 foot range. Sometimes it would work from 5-8 feet away, but it was highly inconstant at best. A search online wasn’t especially helpful, there was nothing specific to the Windward IV and poor remote reception. I decided to do some experimenting which turned out to be a good idea.
First, I removed the 4 screws in the cover that attaches to the ceiling mount, and removed the fan from the ceiling. Fortunately I had a tall enough ladder I could set the fan on and still have it wired in to power in the ceiling. I tried the light function on the remote, it worked fine. Four feet away, fine. Ten feet away, still fine. Down the hall several feet, still fine! I figured the problem must be in the receiver antenna since it was now exposed and properly receiving signal.
