Why are my ceiling fan blades turning yellow?

What you will need to effectively remove the yellow tar & nicotine stains yourself:

• Oven Cleaner
• De-greasing agent
• Bucket
• Screwdriver to take apart the fan & blades
• Ladder to climb up to the fan and remove
• Rubber gloves to protect against the oven cleaner and other chemicals

Are you a smoker? The most common reason why a ceiling fan’s blades will change to yellow is from cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke has a chemical in it called nicotine. Nicotine actually will change a smoker’s fingers from white to yellow at the tips. Smokers also wind up with yellow teeth – this is stains from the nicotine. In some people, they can use whitening or other to get rid of the yellow teeth – if they are able to cut down on the smoking, or quit.

Unfortunately, removing the yellow nicotine stains from your ceiling fan will not be as easy as using whitening toothpaste. To remove yellow ceiling fan stains, use an over cleaner. We know, right? An over cleaner? But it does actually do the job. Just keep in mind, breathing the stuff in can be bad for you. So it’s best to work in an open area with lots of ventilation when you are doing this.

Ok, so you’ve got an area with open ventilation – check. Next, you’ll want to take the blades off the fan (disassemble). Once you do that, saturate each of the fan blades in the oven cleaner fluid. You can do this by using a bucket or other. Saturate the blades in the oven cleaner for some time – 10 to 20 minutes at least. Rinse the blades off. After that, saturate the blades in a degreasing solution, and again rinse after that. Rinse, and lightly wipe with cloth/sponge (very lightly). This should help to remove tar and nicotine stains from your fan.