I have a ceiling fan I installed about 3 years ago and lately it's been making this squealing noise when it runs. It's definitely got a lot of dust on it by now, but I'm not sure if I can clean the blades without taking it down or if I need to remove the whole thing. Is it normal for them to make noise after all this time?
Accumulated dust is almost always what causes squeaking in ceiling fans, so you're in luck because it's the easiest thing to fix. You can clean the blades without taking it down: turn off the fan, get up on a ladder, and carefully wipe a damp cloth over each blade, then dry it well. If the noise persists after cleaning, then you'll probably need to take the whole thing down to check the motor bearings, but most of the time cleaning takes care of it.
Three years isn't that long for a ceiling fan to start failing just from getting old, so there's almost definitely something more than dust behind that squealing. That high-pitched noise typically comes from the bearings that are drying out, and while accumulated dust definitely doesn't help, cleaning just the blades often doesn't fix the actual problem.
Here's what others might not mention: if the squealing is coming from the motor itself (and not from friction between the blades and the housing), cleaning the blades on the outside won't do anything. What you need is to lubricate the internal bearings, and that does require taking the fan down. Most models have an access point (usually a small cap or hole in the center of the motor), but some are sealed from the factory and then there's no clean solution. Another risk: if you try to clean it thoroughly without taking it down, the dust falls right on you and can also get deeper into the motor if you're not careful.
My recommendation is to take it down. Reinstalling it is quick if you did the first installation right - takes about twenty minutes. Once it's down, you empty out the dust, check that the blade screws are tight (they often come loose and cause vibrations), and if it's still making noise, apply a little light oil to the bearings. If it keeps squealing after that, then it probably needs new bearings, but at least you'll have ruled out what's most likely.
What nobody's mentioned is that if the noise is a pretty high-pitched constant squeal, it might be the motor bearings crying out for oil. Before you start cleaning the blades, try turning the fan off, wait for it to stop completely, and then put a couple of drops of light oil - like sewing machine oil - on the spots where the blades connect to the center motor, if there's a little access cap or slot. That fixes a lot of cases without having to take the thing down.
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