Pascal Milland Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Hi, Newbie here. I need help from experts in Marelli power supply! We own 2 Marelli ceiling fans (4 blades). According to the plates on both the fans and their rheostats, they were originally rated for 120V. However, we bought these fans 20 years ago in 240v region and have been using them continuously under 240v without any issue (using a modern variator for fan though). We are now back in Canada and want to use those fans on 120v. I am not confident that I can use those fans with 120v as I suspect they were rewired for 240v and they would probably burn (drawing too much current). Or am I too cautious and the original wiring could actually take both 120 and/or 240v? Is there a way I can check if the original wiring is still there and it is safe to use on 120v? Rewiring these 2 fans to 120v is probably going to cost me a fortune. I suspect the rheostat have not been rewired. Can I use them with 120V? I am bit lost as to what I can do or not without damaging these machines. Thanks for your help/advices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Koh Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 3 hours ago, Pascal Milland said: Hi, Newbie here. I need help from experts in Marelli power supply! We own 2 Marelli ceiling fans (4 blades). According to the plates on both the fans and their rheostats, they were originally rated for 120V. However, we bought these fans 20 years ago in 240v region and have been using them continuously under 240v without any issue (using a modern variator for fan though). We are now back in Canada and want to use those fans on 120v. I am not confident that I can use those fans with 120v as I suspect they were rewired for 240v and they would probably burn (drawing too much current). Or am I too cautious and the original wiring could actually take both 120 and/or 240v? Is there a way I can check if the original wiring is still there and it is safe to use on 120v? Rewiring these 2 fans to 120v is probably going to cost me a fortune. I suspect the rheostat have not been rewired. Can I use them with 120V? I am bit lost as to what I can do or not without damaging these machines. Thanks for your help/advices. Hello Pascal, you're making a good call by playing this cautiously. If you don't mind could you clarify what you meant by "variator". It sounds to me you needed that to be inline with both fans when you had them previously working. Pictures of the variator would be helpful. Otherwise here is what I would do. The best course of action is to check the motor termenals using an ohm meater and see what value you get. Otherwise I would first try suppling it with 120v and see what happends. Assuming it is a 240v appliance giving it 120v won't hurt it. It will run the motor underload and shouldn't kill it instantly compared to if you applied 240v to a 120v appliance. Wish you luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lane Shirey Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 11 hours ago, Alex Koh said: Hello Pascal, you're making a good call by playing this cautiously. If you don't mind could you clarify what you meant by "variator". It sounds to me you needed that to be inline with both fans when you had them previously working. Pictures of the variator would be helpful. Otherwise here is what I would do. The best course of action is to check the motor termenals using an ohm meater and see what value you get. Otherwise I would first try suppling it with 120v and see what happends. Assuming it is a 240v appliance giving it 120v won't hurt it. It will run the motor underload and shouldn't kill it instantly compared to if you applied 240v to a 120v appliance. Wish you luck. I believe what he’s calling the variator is in the last pic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lane Shirey Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 If you don’t get your answer, you might want to ask the moderators to move this post to the ceiling fan category. It might get more attention by those who specialize in ceiling fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal Milland Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 On 1/30/2024 at 7:47 PM, Alex Koh said: Hello Pascal, you're making a good call by playing this cautiously. If you don't mind could you clarify what you meant by "variator". It sounds to me you needed that to be inline with both fans when you had them previously working. Pictures of the variator would be helpful. Otherwise here is what I would do. The best course of action is to check the motor termenals using an ohm meater and see what value you get. Otherwise I would first try suppling it with 120v and see what happends. Assuming it is a 240v appliance giving it 120v won't hurt it. It will run the motor underload and shouldn't kill it instantly compared to if you applied 240v to a 120v appliance. Wish you luck. Hi. Thanks so much for coming back so quickly. the rheostats / variators / speed control / dimmer (i am not sure what is the appropriate wording) we had when used in 240V, were very standard modern fans control such as the picture below. it worked fine. We never used the original vintage rheostats from the photo above as they are rated 120v. But now we are back in 120v environment i was hoping i could use both the original Marelli fans with their original Marelli rheostats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Koh Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 5 hours ago, Pascal Milland said: Hi. Thanks so much for coming back so quickly. the rheostats / variators / speed control / dimmer (i am not sure what is the appropriate wording) we had when used in 240V, were very standard modern fans control such as the picture below. it worked fine. We never used the original vintage rheostats from the photo above as they are rated 120v. But now we are back in 120v environment i was hoping i could use both the original Marelli fans with their original Marelli rheostats It sounds to me that the fan motor was rewound for 240v. I don't know if the original reostats had the same treatment. If you want to use the fan for 120v you'll need a step up transofmer or get the fan motor rewound for 120v. Thats my best guess as to what to do. Hopefully another member who have done this can chime in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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