Good wall-mounted fan?

[MedScience]

Hey I am in need of a good wall-mounted fan, everything I buy turns out to be crap. I got an Active-Air last time, it fell apart within 6 months. I see the Air King in a few stores online but it is pretty expensive ($50 for a small wall-mounted fan) and I don't want to spend the money on something that is going to fall apart/not work well. Any suggestions?

 

[LlamaSchool]

It doesn't look too professional, but you can always detach an oscillating floor fan from it's base and rig it up. It's cheap.

 

[homerjay]

I go with cheep. Replacing a $9 fan every 6 months = $250 fan every 2 1/2 years.
I do the same with shoes, maybe that's why my feet hurt all the time.

 

[BudGood]

Hanging a regular oscillating fan upside down can cause a fire, I've seen it. They're not meant to be hung upside down. Now stationary fans, they can be hung, check this out, I hung these fans to blow directly on the 600w bulbs to cool them:

 

[Dr Dog]

I have a few air kings, they work wonderfully, great air flow. They are expensive though

One thing I did at home, I had a couple of pedestal fans, I just removed stand, and half of the pedestal pole, I bent the rest and placed the rest of the pole in a mounted u clip( like utility companies hold wires and pipes onto stuff

 

[qbert]

Hanging a regular oscillating fan upside down can cause a fire, I've seen it.

I'm trying to figure how hanging an oscillating fan upside down would cause it to start on fire. Can't say I can see how.


For the OP. I just picked up some Soleus Air FTY-25 wall mountable fans. I saw them around in pics and liked how the louvered face rotated to "oscillate" the airstream, rather than physically turning the fan head back and forth. But ..... these fans are a little big .. and weak .. and the whole rotating face oscillation thing pretty much blows - the air goes straight out from the fan. I wouldn't buy one again.

 

[BudGood]

We're not sure, but I conjecture hanging it upside down caused the motor to overwork, overheat, and catch fire. My friend walked in to smoke and a puddle of melted plastic. He hollered at me, I ran in there and saw the same. He's lucky it didn't cause more of a fire than it did.

 

[Vincent Vega]

Air kings for sure. They push a lot of air and wont stop oscillating after years of constant use like cheaper fans will.

 

[cashmunny]

I'm trying to figure how hanging an oscillating fan upside down would cause it to start on fire. Can't say I can see how.

A floor standing oscillating fan might only have a radial bearing which is not good at taking thrust loads. Thrust loads on a bearing are loads in a direction along the axis of rotation. They would occur if the floor fan was operated with gravity oriented along the spin axis of the blades. Also a fan is going to produce a force on the air and the air exerts a force on it. The aerodynamic force on the fan blades produces one kind of thrust which would be directly added to if you hung the fan from the ceiling. If the fan blades don't HAVE a thrust bearing I guess the load goes to the motor shaft which is reacted by a motor shaft thrust bearing. Which if IT doesn't have one, then the load is just taken by whatever is the unintended thrust bearing. Some high friction material in the motor housing maybe which then overheats and COULD start a fire. Easy way to tell if there is a danger is just put your hand on the motor housing after a long period of operation. If it's going to burn up, it will be hot as hell and smell ummm...not good. Monitor that situation daily.

And if that didn't make sense, sorry. I'm high as hell.

 

[BudGood]

Damn man, nice explanation, it made perfect sense!

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

An oscillating fan hung upside down will also unscrew itself from the center post and hang from the wires, I had it happen with two different ones in my garage

 

[SpasticGramps]

These Holmes fans are the best IMO. Those Active Air Fans are the shits.

 

[ogatec]

These Holmes fans are the best IMO. Those Active Air Fans are the shits.

i was trying to think of the fan i was using, but you found it for me! its been going now for almost 3 yrs with no problems.. the box indicates it can be wall mounted, so no rigging necessary.. plus it puts out a lots of air for a small fan!

 

[MedScience]

When I had my Active Air on the wall angled slightly down it was obvious that it was not built to last in that position. I had to remove part of the plastic casing to stop it from rubbing and eventually the motor just stopped.

I just did a search and Office Depot has the 8" Holmes for $34 +tax but I wouldn't need to get them shipped. Or I could get the 6" Air King for about $30 shipped online.

So for a small fan its a wash cost-wise, I have an 8x8 room and it is extremely cramped, a 12" fan is overkill and will blow my plants all around. Any final opinions?

 

[BudGood]

These Holmes fans are the best IMO. Those Active Air Fans are the shits.

I'm gonna co-sign on this fan also, I have a few of them, one has a thermometer that'll shut it off if it gets too cold. Holmes makes some nice little fans.