I currently have three Hampton Bay fans and one Harbor breeze fan. One Hampton Bay fan is on a 20 ft vaulted ceiling and came with a remote control. Over the years the Hampton Bay remote light button was wearing out but was still working. The Harbor Breeze fan came with a remote kit (receiver and remote) that I didn't install. I saved it thinking I could put it in the master bedroom Hampton Bay fan. Well, I never got around to installing the new remote kit so instead I thought why wouldn't this new remote replace the old Hampton Bay remote. I opened up both remotes' battery compartments and set the new remote's dip switches the same way as the Hampton's and the new remote worked. Then some months later while walking down the ceiling fan aisle at Walmart, I saw a "universal" remote kit. The kit's remote looked exactly like the Harbor Breeze remote except it didn't have any branding logos on it. On a hunch that it was exactly the same remote I bought it. Comparing the "universal" remote and the Harbor remote I found that they had the same FCC ID, which is KUJCE9103; that meant that they were the same frequency. Looking at the old Hampton Bay remote revealed that it was L3HMAY97FANHD. Also looking at a new Harbor breeze in-wall transmitter I installed most recently was CHQ9051T.
Summary of different remotes I have used:
1. Hampton Bay Remote (1997) FCC ID: L3HMAY97FANHD, 303.95 MHz Four dip switches
2. Harbor Breeze remote (2002) FCC ID: KUJCE9103, 304 MHz Four dip switches
3. Generic Remote (2002) FCC ID: KUJCE9103, 304 MHz Four dip switches
4. Harbor Breeze in-wall remote (2008) FCC ID: CHQ9051T, 303.875 MHz Five dip switches
I've gotten all of these "different" remotes to operate the fans without changing out the receivers in the fans. The receivers must have a wide enough tolerance or bandwidth to accept the slight frequency differences from the transmitters. I'm guessing it is 0.200 MHz and could go up as much a 1Mhz. I've gotten a 304 MHz remote to work with a 303.95 MHz receiver and a 303.875 MHz remote to work with a 304 MHz receiver. The only issue with a remote that is one the edge of the bandwidth would be decreased range; so if the remote was designed to work at 40ft, it might only work at 20ft.
Steps for finding a replacement remote:
1. If you have a different remote (different FCC ID) go to google and do a search for "FCC ID lookup" and go to the FCC website to do a lookup. The first three characters of the ID are the grantee code and the rest of the ID is the product code. The main point of this step is find out the frequency.
2. Once you have the frequency compare it other remotes available. If you find one that is within plus or minus 0.2 MHz it will probably work.
3. There's one more very important thing to check on you old remote. Find out how many dip switches it has.
4. Places to buy the remote: Walmart, Lowes, Amazon, Ebay
Another thing I've seen on other DIY or handyman websites is that they say changing the dip switches will change the frequency. That is not what it is doing. Changing the dip switches changes the address lines of the HT-12E RF encoder. Multiple remotes of the same model in your house all operate on the same frequency but it is the unique encoding set by the address bits of each transmitter/receiver pair that pairs them up to control only one fan. A button push on one remote will be received by all the fans but will be ignored by the fans that are not paired up.
The latest models of remote are "Learning" or "Smart". One, I read about was Honeywell Smart Sync in-wall remote (2011) FCC ID：KUJCE10005, 304 MHz No dip switches.
The FCC's website shows that it operates at 304Mhz. That matches up with Harbor Breezes remotes. Unfortunately Honeywell and others are moving toward a Smart Sync or Learning process. That process removes flexibility from the home owner and forces you to replace the fan receiver if the receiver is not Learning. If the Honeywell remote had the traditional/older style dip switches you match up the Honeywell remote with your older Harbor Breeze receiver by matching the dip switch setting. If the Honeywell remote has the HT12E encoder, you could open up the remote and find the address lines on the HT12E and set them high, connect to Vcc, or low, connect them to GND, to match the dip switches. Thats all the dip switches do is set the address lines on the encoder. The receivers get matched up when their address lines are the same. I was able to install a Harbor Breeze in-wall remote that had similar Learning instructions but the learning was all at the receiver side and the remote had dip switches making it backwards compatible with older receivers.
FAQ:
Q: Is a five dip switch transmitter compatible with an already installed four dip switch receiver?
A: It depends. Follow the steps above to verify frequency. If the frequency looks good then on the five dip switch transmitter set the fifth switch to "off "or "low". In my case the fifth dip switch was labeled "D" (on) and "X" (off). I set mine to "X". Ignore whatever the instruction says about it being used to turn on dimming for incandescent/florescent lights.
Q: Can a transmitter/receiver pair that's labeled learning or has instructions claiming "learning mode" work with already installed receiver?
A: It depends. Follow the steps above to verify frequency. If the frequency looks good then check to see if the transmitter has dip switches. In my case, my transmitter had dip switches and the learning was all in the new receiver. I didn't use the new receiver and was able to use the already installed receiver by matching up the dip switches.
Q: Can two or more remotes be used to control one fan?
A: Yes! That's what is nice about having remotes and in-wall remotes that have dip switches. Just set the dip switches on all the remotes (hand-held or in-wall) to match the fan receiver. I am successfully using an in-wall remote near the door that is installed in a switch gang box and a hand-held remote on the night stand to control one fan in the master bedroom. If you have "learning" or "smart-sync" transmitter/receiver setup it might not work.