Does your home have ceiling fans?  They can be a great, cost-effective way to cool your house, but as I’ve discovered, getting the wrong brand of ceiling fans (in this case, the Hampton Bay brand offered at Home Depot) can make your ceiling fan into a time-sucking nightmare when the light-bulb goes out.  In fact, based on my experiences with Hampton Bay today, I would strongly recommend you buy almost ANY other brand other than Hampton Bay.  And if you look at these reviews on Home Depot’s own site for another Hampton Bay fan, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

The back story:

My wife and I had lived in our house about two years when we decided to get ceiling fans in two of our bedrooms. We purchased two Hampton Bay fans (the Sovana 44 inch model, it’s item #184-595, Model 14412), and had them installed in our house.  So far, so good.

However, the first time the light bulb went out, I discovered why some customers (including me now) hate Hampton Bay fans.  The glass over that goes over the light bulb is incredibly difficult — if not impossible — to remove.

In theory, it twists off.

In reality, getting it to twist off can be incredibly hard to do.  And, you’re not alone.  Try googling “Hampton Bay Fan remove light” and you will see the stories of hundreds (probably thousands) of other customers who have also make the mistake of purchasing a Hampton Bay fan.

There are tips on YouTube (and in the YouTube comments), such as using duct tape and making loops on the glass so you have something hard to pull on, or using a toilet plunger.  I think these might have worked for me previously, but as of right now, my kids don’t have an overhead light in their room because I can’t get the Hampton Bay fan light cover to come off.

So, after trying looking at the owner’s manual (not helpful) and looking online, I thought perhaps I’d try the customer service line at Home Depot/Hampton Bay (can’t tell if they’re the same company or not).

That was a colossal waste of my time.

After waiting on hold for 9 minutes, I was given helpful advice such as “try turning it counter-clock wise, and hard.”

People ask why I’m skeptical of corporate America, and I will now point to Hampton Bay ceiling fans as exhibit 1.  Home Depot clearly knows that its customers are having problems with this product, yet it continues selling it, probably because the profit margins are high.  In other words, sorry customer, we know you’re going to lose hours and hours trying to replace a simple light bulb, but we at Home Depot just don’t care enough to fix the problem.

So, save yourself hours of pain, and get a fan from a company other than Hampton Bay!