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Post by shanespangler on Oct 11, 2007 11:07:33 GMT -5
When I was 5 years old in 1980, I wanted a ceiling fan. Wal-Mart had just opened, and they were selling fans, and my grandfather gave me $75.00 for my birthday. So I went to Wal-Mart and bought my first ceiling fan - I can't remember what the brand name was, but I would love to find it again. IT was a 36" fan, (the 52" fan used the same motor), with four plastic wood-grain blades, a rheostat-type switch on the side of the switch housing that had two strings that came down to a small plastic tube, so you adjusted the speed by "rocking" the little plastic tube and moving the rheostat. It had a brown, shiny plastic motor housing, very thick - and the blade arms were also brown - half-moon shaped. The fan had a flywheel system. It was heavy and expensive, ($70 in 1980!) and was also fairly noisy. But I loved it. I can't remember what the brand name was. Does anyone have any idea what this fan might have been? Thanks in advance! --Shane
p.s. sorry, I have no pictures of it either!
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Post by jeremy on Oct 11, 2007 13:11:39 GMT -5
shane does your fan look like this one pictured that you got at wal mart?  if so,the brand is emerson "friction drive" ,i use to have those in my bedroom way back in 1989,my great aunt/uncle use to have them as well way back in the 80s,and he gave me the blades/blade arms from his emerson.. right now i only have the blade arms from that emerson fan(same blade arms that came from my great aunt/uncle's emerson friction drive fan.. p.s. that fan in that picture is NOT mine,i found it in yahoo vintage ceiling fan group sense i forgot to take a picture of the one i had here is a "u" shaped blade arm that came off to my great aunt/uncle's emerson "friction drive" fan...  that one pictured is not the only one i got,i got more of it |
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Post by shanespangler on Oct 11, 2007 13:36:53 GMT -5
Yes! That's it! Mine was dark brown and didn't have a light kit, but that's definitely the one. Thank you so much!
I remember the 'friction drive' was noisy, and if you stopped the blades with your hand (bad boy!) you could still hear the motor running inside, and the little rubber wheel rubbing against the friction plate.
Thank you so much! --Shane
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Post by jeremy on Oct 11, 2007 13:55:33 GMT -5
you are very welcome,i think dan have some spare parts to that fan(at least still has it).. i will keep my eyes out for one for you and one for me(sense they are my favorite too) here is what you can do is go to garage sales,estate sales,flea markets..etc to hunt for one,i been going to those places to and love to help out hunt one for you  yes those fans do squeek,pretty annoying,the emerson "friction drive" fan in my brother's bedroom way back in 1989,his squeeks worse than one in my room and one time i turn his fan on,the whole motor/light kit spin it self off the ceiling(the downrod unscrew it self)as i turn it on,it didn't fall,it just hung by wires,but almost did fall.. my great aunt/uncle's friction drive fans also did NOT had light kits on their fans,me and my brother's friction drive fans did. |
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Post by Ben C. on Oct 11, 2007 14:47:32 GMT -5
They sold friction-drives at walmart? Welcome back Jeremy.
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Post by Adam D. on Oct 11, 2007 18:54:00 GMT -5
When I was around 4, My mother knew that I was fasinated with ceiling fans. Someone gave us or sold us, (can't remember) this ceiling fan, white 52, version. It was the very first fan that was ours that was installed in the living room of the apartment my mother was renting when I was a child, and before she got married. I want to say the year was 1984....
Adam
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Post by jeremy on Oct 11, 2007 18:59:30 GMT -5
When I was around 4, My mother knew that I was fasinated with ceiling fans. Someone gave us or sold us, (can't remember) this ceiling fan, white 52, version. It was the very first fan that was ours that was installed in the living room of the apartment my mother was renting when I was a child, and before she got married. I want to say the year was 1984.... Adam was it like the one pictured(the friction drive)? also did you take that fan with yall when your mom move out of that apartment? |
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Post by Adam D. on Oct 11, 2007 19:55:26 GMT -5
Yes we did and installed it in the back room (Den) of the house we moved into next. It was replaced shortly after we moved inwith a Hunter Original which I still have a picture of...I believe it got thrown out, My mother believes in thowing things away when not using them anymore. The Hunter also got thrown out when we moved out of that house due to one of the speeds not working (would just hum)...
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Post by Jean Lemieux on Oct 14, 2007 2:11:04 GMT -5
Jeremy since you know a lot about Emerson Friction Drive ceiling fans and you use to have these fans in your bedroom, and I reread your first post telling about your story with these fans and I think Andrew and/or JW explain you a lot about these type of fans: he said that these fans start only at high speed and after spin not really fast, do you remember if your Friction Drive operated like that?? Jeremy you also said that they had ONLY ONE speed, what was that speed and how fast did they spins(RPM)?? (sorry about all these questions but its just that i want to know more about these type of fans ;D) Yeah me too I did not toughed that they were sold at Wal-Mart   |
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Post by jeremy on Oct 14, 2007 2:41:55 GMT -5
Jeremy since you know a lot about Emerson Friction Drive ceiling fans and you use to have these fans in your bedroom, and I reread your first post telling about your story with these fans and I think Andrew and/or JW explain you a lot about these type of fans: he said that these fans start only at high speed and after spin not really fast, do you remember if your Friction Drive operated like that?? Jeremy you also said that they had ONLY ONE speed, what was that speed and how fast did they spins(RPM)?? (sorry about all these questions but its just that i want to know more about these type of fans ;D) Yeah me too I did not toughed that they were sold at Wal-Mart well jean it's not from andrew,jw,ben,adam..etc,it's from my bedroom in 1989 year(i had that emerson friction drive squeeky ceiling fan in my bedroom way back then) i beg dad to get rid of it sense fan's sqeeeeeks drive me insane and noisy while it's running and it was 36" size and i wanted a 52" fan in there and dad got it for me like 2 or more years later after that,but as soon as he pitch out the emerson,he gave me a 48" spinner CEC ceiling fan(temporary) till he got around to buy a 52" ge vent ceiling fan at sam's club like 1991 or 1992 years,and like summer of 1997,i got a 52" white hunter(fasco style motor housing/5 bladed/similar to infiniti)ceiling fan from wal mart out of my money and still have it now in there.. speaking of which,jean i saw your post that you got your craftmade fan with pretzel blade arms in your bedroom,so glad that you got it |
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Post by Jean Lemieux on Oct 14, 2007 13:29:11 GMT -5
Yes my Craftmade Decorative 42'' PB spins wonderfully. So you just don't remember how fast did they spins and in what way do they start? But do you at least remember what kind of control did they use? Everybody says that they have a particular control, probably at wall since they don't use pull chains. I believe that when you got your CEC 48'' spinner antique brass you found it SOOOOOOOOO quiet compare to you previous Emerson Friction Drive that squeek? That what happened to me when I switched from a Encon Princess to a Craftmade Decorative. ;D ( its especially because my princess has been use with a lighting dimmer in the past that why it make a annoying humming noise and also was just very cheap) |
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Post by jeremy on Oct 14, 2007 14:43:45 GMT -5
Yes my Craftmade Decorative 42'' PB spins wonderfully. So you just don't remember how fast did they spins and in what way do they start? But do you at least remember what kind of control did they use? Everybody says that they have a particular control, probably at wall since they don't use pull chains. I believe that when you got your CEC 48'' spinner antique brass you found it SOOOOOOOOO quiet compare to you previous Emerson Friction Drive that squeek? That what happened to me when I switched from a Encon Princess to a Craftmade Decorative. ;D ( its especially because my princess has been use with a lighting dimmer in the past that why it make a annoying humming noise and also was just very cheap) yep i also had princess ceiling fan like you have,here is a pic of it...  acually it's westinghouse "princess" ceiling fan due to match the look and brand from pic here to the pic of it on westinghouse link on furrey's web site.. the one pictured use to be in my kitchen and i replace it with my emerson "blender" fan and YES it did hummm like yours did,it humm loud on medium and low speeds,but not on high speed.. i DO still have my princess fan,but it's in storge. |
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Post by Jean Lemieux on Oct 14, 2007 16:06:06 GMT -5
Yes me two I kept it in the box of my Craftmade Decorative in my closet, even if tis cheap I will kept it. So your Princess is a Westinghouse that mean its a 2002-today, when I bought mine in August 2000 it was Still label as Encon because it was Before 2002.
Are you sure you don't remember anything else about your Emerson Friction Drive?
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Post by jeremy on Oct 14, 2007 16:15:31 GMT -5
Yes me two I kept it in the box of my Craftmade Decorative in my closet, even if tis cheap I will kept it. So your Princess is a Westinghouse that mean its a 2002-today, when I bought mine in August 2000 it was Still label as Encon because it was Before 2002. Are you sure you don't remember anything else about your Emerson Friction Drive? here is a link to furrey's site on westinghouse "princess" page.. www.farreys.com/ceiling_fans/westinghouse/princess_ambiance_fan.htmlit does have same globe for light kit,but i'm NOT a big fan of plain boring white fan light kit globes,i perfer decorative ones,but the pic was taken after i got rid of the white one before i put up the decorative one..... it matches the one i got,it was after 2002 when the fan was givin to me from mantience guy at my apartments i live... nope,that's all i can think of on my emerson "friction drive" fan,if i still have the complete fan(not just blade arms) i will tell you more. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 23:20:27 GMT -5
I didnt know they sold Friction Drives at WalMart.
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