Ceiling fans, good and bad

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22nd February 2004, 04:46 PM
Nic0

Ceiling fans, good and bad

With all of the hot weather lately I am thinking about installing some ceiling fans to compliment the two wall mounted aircons that I have at opposite ends of the house.

Which are the better ceiling fans, metal or wood, four blades or three blades. I can get three bladed metal ones very cheaply from a wholesaler. I am thinking about installing the fans myself and getting an electrician mate to run the wiring, does anyone have any tips for installing other than follow the manufactures directions.

Are the four bladed fans from Kmart or BigW any good?

This is a great forum guys, keep up the good work.:D
22nd February 2004, 04:57 PM
ozwinner

I'm a great FAN of this forum too..............:D :D
Sorry couldnt resist. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Booo hiss..........

Cheers, Allan
22nd February 2004, 05:34 PM
Sturdee

Re: Ceiling fans, good and bad

Quote:

..... does anyone have any tips for installing other than follow the manufactures directions.

In addition to the instructions make sure that your ceiling height is adequate, I have seen one fan installed where the bottom of the fan came down to the same height as the top of the door and any tall person had to duck when in the room or get decapitated.

Peter.
22nd February 2004, 07:11 PM
bitingmidge

Ceiling fan heights

Don't panic over heights.

I am 190cm (5'15" in the old measurements!) which makes me a tad taller than the average bear.

Standard doors are 2040 or roughly 6'8".

In a new house with minimum 2400 ceiling height (8'0" nominal) a standard fan will hang with about door head height above it.

In our house, fans are more or less over the beds, and unless you wave your arms around a lot, you won't hit 'em.

The el-cheapo three blades are fine, mostly you'll only use the lowest speed anyway. Make sure you get a reversible "winter" setting, which works a treat in dragging warm air through the house.

Cheers,

P
22nd February 2004, 10:33 PM
macca2

Metal blades are quieter than wood or rattan blades and 3 blades are more efficient than 4 blades.

As hot air rises to the ceiling a the normal cycle pushes it back down , I dont see the and avantage of the reverse winter cycle, even though I have it on my fans.

Cheers
Macca
22nd February 2004, 10:40 PM
Barry_White

One point that should be considered is that timber fans actually run quieter than metal ones. I can atest to that because I have a metal fan and it is noisy especially on high, but my daughter has timber ones and they actually run quieter.
23rd February 2004, 01:29 AM
RETIRED

One tip.

Install them away from lights. The shadows thrown at night will annoy hell out of you.

DAMHIKT. :)
23rd February 2004, 11:06 PM
Nic0

Thanks for the replys, from what i have seen most of the metal three bladed fans seem to be balance better than the four bladed wood ones. All fans seem to make a fair bit of noise at high speed. The fan and light combinations seem to make the most amount of noise and I havent seen a good design yet.

What would you guys recommend for lighting in a bedroom, to install a fan in the middle of the room i have to remove the light. I leaning towards instaling two lights on one of the walls but my partner likes those 12V halogen lamp things.
24th February 2004, 07:26 AM
dale

Quote:

Originally posted by Nic0
The fan and light combinations seem to make the most amount of noise and I havent seen a good design yet.

We had the fan/light combo in the house when we bought it. The main problem with it was the very limited wattage globes you could put into them.
Also the light was signifcantly lower, and affected the way the light was distributed around the room.
24th February 2004, 07:50 AM
bitingmidge

Winter switch

Quote:

I dont see the and avantage of the reverse winter cycle, even though I have it on my fans.

Neither did I for the first 20 years.

Last year, new house, new fans, looked at the switch on the side and thought "wonder what that does really...".

Living in a rather temperate climate, we have no need for central heating, but do have a stove type fire place for the odd occasion when it gets chilly.

Reversing the fans in the bedrooms (at low speed) was amazingly effective in drawing warm air through the house.

We are convinced!

P
24th February 2004, 08:12 AM
Jigsaw

We have ceiling fans in the lounge, family room and 3 bedrooms. I agree with not having the light under the path of the blade because of the flickering effect. It is not as important in the bedroom (for us) as if we are in bed reading we use the table lamps for light.
The problem we have in the bedroom is that we have different temperature settings. Some nights I have to sleep under the doona (rather than sleep with nothing on) whilst SWMBO has the fan going.
We have smaller diameter fans (3 feet I think) in the bedroom and larger ones (4 feet) in the lounge & family room. The larger ones go slower to move the same amount of air. One fan has the reversible switch but we don't really use it as we have ducted heating. On one occasion the fan would not turn on and I thought it was stuffed only to discover the switch was not in the clockwise or anticlockwise position, it was half way in no mans land.
24th February 2004, 11:27 AM
macca2

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Nic0
The fan and light combinations seem to make the most amount of noise and I havent seen a good design yet.

We have had Mistral fan/light combos in two houses now and am very happy. A bit more expensive but good looking and quiet.

Cheers
Macca
24th February 2004, 07:44 PM
soundman

I hate ceiling fans they are a dangerous & hudeous blight on any room, also bad fung swi (or whtaever).

that said we have a couple & have been arround many for extended periods of time.

yess metal fans tend to make more noise ARRRGGGH anoying little tick tik & squeek noises as the blades flex on their mountings.
fourbladed wooden fans most certainly are quieter at low speed.

It is much easier to correct out of balance in a four bladed fan.

better quality fans are worth the money.

Be very particular when mounting them and dressing the cables & shrouds. this may eliminate many small ARRRGGH anoying noises.

Observation.
Go into any church or public hall with a lot of cieling fans, there will be at least one that makes AAAARRRGGH anoying little tick,tak, squeek noises.

are you sure you don't want one more aircon unit.

oh if you decide to paint a cieling fan, make sure you gat exactly the same amount of paint on each blade. It is so easy to put them out of balance.

stay cool
28th February 2006, 11:50 AM
ceilingfanrepai

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nic0

With all of the hot weather lately I am thinking about installing some ceiling fans to compliment the two wall mounted aircons that I have at opposite ends of the house.

Which are the better ceiling fans, metal or wood, four blades or three blades. I can get three bladed metal ones very cheaply from a wholesaler. I am thinking about installing the fans myself and getting an electrician mate to run the wiring, does anyone have any tips for installing other than follow the manufactures directions.

Are the four bladed fans from Kmart or BigW any good?

This is a great forum guys, keep up the good work.:D

The metal bladed fans move more air more efficiently. The trade off is that you get more "wind noise" than a fan with more (wood) blades, and they're less "pretty". I would go with the metal bladed fans for larger areas and the wood ones for areas like bedrooms.

Especially with the wood fans, there are drastic quality differences. You get what you pay for. More information is available here:

http://www.ceiling-fans-n-more.com/ceiling-fan-faq.php

And specifically on the metal bladed fans here:

http://www.ceiling-fans-n-more.com/i...iling-fans.php
28th February 2006, 08:38 PM
scooter

If you look around you can get 140cm 3 blade metal fans which move a bit more air (if that's what you're after) than the usual 120cm jobbies.

Use coins or small washers and trial & error to balance the blades so it runs as smoothly (and quietly) as possible on higher speeds. Note that despite balancing the fan to run as smoothly as possible in the usual direction of rotation, it will likely not be as smooth in reverse.

Tape the balancing weights on securely... ;) :D

Cheers................Sean
28th February 2006, 10:20 PM
macca2

Scooter.....how do know which blade to attach the weights to.

Macca
1st March 2006, 04:32 AM
ceilingfanrepai

Balancing a fan is not always an issue of weight discrepancies. It could also be one blade out of alignment, or in the case of wood bladed fans, warped. Here are detailed instructions on balancing a fan from the same site I mentioned before:

http://www.ceiling-fans-n-more.com/b...ing-issues.php

I dont see how the metal bladed fans would be any more or less likely to wobble than the wood bladed fans, assuming properly balanced and installed. It is harder for the metal blades to come out of alignment, and they are less likely to have a weight discrepancy, so I suppose out of the box they may be less likely to wobble. If you have one that is shaking or making noise it most likely needs to be balanced.
1st March 2006, 10:03 AM
Landseka

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitingmidge

I am 190cm (5'15" in the old measurements!) which makes me a tad taller than the average bear.

P

I would have thought this makes you only a tad taller than the average dwarf....:)
1st March 2006, 11:08 AM
Knurl

One very important consideration is where the ceiling joists are located. A friend has her bedroom fan fitted centrally with some awful wood work her hubby did in the ceiling to support the spindle of the fan and ...still it wobbles and makes those whoom-whoom noises. If it had been fitted sucurely to a joist all wood (sic) have been well and quiet.

Their fan is an old four-blade rattan style with a light in the hub. Do they still make those awful things?
1st March 2006, 11:09 AM
Cliff Rogers

' means feet " means inches so 5'15" is 6 feet 3 inches. :cool:
1st March 2006, 01:57 PM
Ashore

Put two fans in the MIL's unit , remote controlled and the quietest I have, or in this case haven't heard, with a halogen lamp with 5 step dimmer
They are from Hunter Pacific ... Model Concept 52 con (L)
Very pricey though at around $400 each :eek:

I Also have fans in all the bedrooms lounge and study all with lights , with 12' celings we were able to drop them 3' so they are very effective at low speed, and the 3 blade mistral's are a lot noiser than the four blade unit .

Rgds
2nd March 2006, 05:47 AM
ceilingfanrepai

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knurl

One very important consideration is where the ceiling joists are located. A friend has her bedroom fan fitted centrally with some awful wood work her hubby did in the ceiling to support the spindle of the fan and ...still it wobbles and makes those whoom-whoom noises. If it had been fitted sucurely to a joist all wood (sic) have been well and quiet.

A properly balanced ceiling fan should not wobble or make noise regardless of how it is mounted. In some older ceiling fan designs the fan is mounted by a rubber grommit and hung from a single j-jook. If you move the fan by hand it will swing back and forth, but it is mounted stably.

That having been said, for safety's safe, make sure the fan is securely fastened to a ceiling joist or appropriate bracket.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knurl

Their fan is an old four-blade rattan style with a light in the hub. Do they still make those awful things?

With the light in the center? Yes. Rattan? Not much in the US, they are still popular in the UK and I see them occasionally on Australian fans.

I happen to like the rattan ceiling fan designs from the 70s and 80s!
2nd March 2006, 09:50 AM
Dean

Another consideration...

Those rattan blade type fans are a PITA to clean! They catch a lot of dust.
Nice smooth metal blades much easier to clean :p
2nd March 2006, 10:17 AM
Knurl

As you say ...the only solution was to move it from the centre of the room to a joist and repair the (fortunately small) hole in the gyprock ceiling. I did that and all seemed well and quiet. They sold the house some years later - so I don't know how it lasted.

On a lighter note - I do a lot of speaking and on one hot day I was standing on a dais in a hall, just under a rotating ceiling fan that I hadn't seen. I was waving my hands around in my usual annoying manner, and very pleasantly surpised at the positive response and laughs I was getting from the audience. Then someone had the heart to call out "watch that fan, mate!". Those metal blades were very close and really moving!
3rd March 2006, 12:25 PM
floppinab

Just replaced a fan we had in the bedroom. Old metal fan with rattan inserts had it's light fitting wiggle out of the screw and after a few times trying to get it back it in it eventually stripped the thread and was hanging on by the power cord!!!!!!

Bought a bottom of the range Hunter Pacific as someone mentioned earlier (was about $250) knowing that the majority of compentry would be the same as the higher priced models. Nicely finished wooden blades, required no balancing and quiet as a mouse. Needed to replace the old inductive speed switches with a capacititave one but that wasn't too hard.