Faber Appliance Repair In Vancouver

A single-phase blower motor needs a run capacitor to start turning. When the capacitor loses capacitance the motor sits there energised and humming, drawing current and getting hot without ever starting. It is the most common Faber fault we see and it is one of the cheapest to fix.

We test the capacitor against its rated microfarads rather than swapping parts on a guess. Leave a humming motor running for weeks and the windings cook, which turns a small repair into a blower assembly, so it is worth acting on quickly.

The higher-capacity Faber installs put the blower in the attic, the roof or partway along the duct instead of in the canopy. The canopy then has controls, lights and filters but no fan, and when airflow drops the hood itself is often blameless.

We trace the low-voltage control run from the canopy to the blower, check the blower is actually receiving its speed signal, and inspect the duct between them. A disconnected control wire at the blower end presents exactly like a dead hood, and it is a common outcome after roofing or attic work.

Downdraft Fabers lift on a motorised rack and are controlled by limit switches that tell the board where the carriage is. Grease and time stiffen the rack, the motor draws more current, and the board stops the travel as a protection. A unit that goes up but not down, or stops half way, is usually the rack or a limit switch rather than the lift motor.

We clean and lubricate the mechanism and test the switches before considering the motor, because the lift motor is the expensive part and it is rarely the one that failed.

Faber fits baffle filters on the professional-style canopies and aluminium mesh on the rest, and they need different care. Baffles are dishwasher-safe and want doing monthly under heavy cooking. Mesh loads invisibly - it looks clean while the weave is packed - and a loaded mesh can cut airflow by half without any change in fan noise.

If filters are clean and extraction is still poor, we look at the duct run and the exterior cap. A damper flap that has seized shut is a surprisingly common cause and nothing to do with the hood.

On the electronically controlled models the panel and the main PCB are separate, and the panel is the one exposed to heat and grease. Partial response - some buttons work, others do not - almost always means the panel rather than the board. Nothing at all, with the lights also dead, points at the board or its supply.

We check for power at the board before ordering either. It is not unusual for the actual fault to be a connector that has worked loose in the heat above a cooktop.

Not a hood fault, but we get called for it often enough that it is worth naming. A high-capacity hood in a tight modern condo will depressurise the room, and with no make-up air the path of least resistance is back down the duct or another vent. Cold air coming in when the hood is off means the exterior damper is not closing.

We check the damper and the termination and tell you honestly when the answer is make-up air rather than a repair. More on range hood repair.