New Place...Baaaad Fans (videos)

[ransom]

(I had to record this on my gf's Iphone 4s so I apologize for the horrible lighting/frame rate/video quality)


I just got keys to my new place yesterday, and let me say I cannot believe they gave me the keys with the fans in the condition that they were. Obviously I will be replacing all of them, currently 5 of the 9 fans I plan on installing are already up. The Minka Aire in the living room is on a wall switch and set to high; I flipped the switch and the fan barely moved, you could hear a clearly audible straining sound. After a few flicks it broke loose but barely would spin, and upon attempting a spindown the fan stops almost as soon as the switch is flipped. Also, when running the fan sounds like the birdhouse at your local zoo... just close your eyes and you're there (minus the smell). You may have to crank your volume up to hear the chirping and whatnot. In the bedroom there was some sort of white builder fan (it got replaced earlier yesterday) none of the upper canopy screws were attached and only the screw that allows you to twist the canopy was lightly threaded. Lastly there is (was) a HB Gazebo in the loft, one of the blade arm screws is not attached and it grinds on the motor housing and the fan flys all over the ceiling.
When I went to remove that fan, tiny silver screws had been shoved in the screw holes to hold the canopy up but they were not the correct size. The rubber pads that go between the blade arms are all melted and goopy and the blades are yellowed. I am assuming the fan had been stored/previously used in the Arizona heat.

Once I get another mini SD card I will take better quality videos of all of the "new" fans. 

I'm hoping I can bug the maintanence crew about the Minka Aire and have it replaced with a fan I already have ready to put in place of it. That would save me from having to pay someone to come out with scaffolding to hang the replacement.

I have top and bottom side videos of the Minka and just a bottom side of the Gazebo.

(I tried to embed the videos but I kept running into problems)
vid51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/malibumann/IMG_2997_1.mp4
vid51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/malibumann/IMG952999_1.mp4
vid51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/malibumann/IMG_3001.mp4

Minka/Dining light 
Dining light has been replaced, and Minka is being replaced with the dining twin on a longer coupled downrod. 

[Deleted]

I see some potential for some really cool installs here!

[ransom]

Nov 13, 2014 14:16:56 GMT -5 @spiffy said:

I see some potential for some really cool installs here!

Thanks, yea I'm excited. My issue right now is trying to decide how low to bring the fan down. The ceiling is 18ish feet. I don't know whether to do two 4ft downrods or two 4ft plus a 2 ft. The matching fan in the dining area right now is on a 1ft downrod (9foot ceiling). I kind of feel like having 10 ft of extension will make both fans clash being too close in mounting height while still not being even. For some reason when I do my measurements I'm a few inches off between the two fans. I'm open to suggestions. I am leaning towards just leaving it higher which would bring the bottom of the pullchain about 2 inches above the wall cutoff for the dining area; the top of the motor would be about 2 inches above the wall cutoff.

[Deleted]

I'd have to see it. Typically I err on the side of shorter downrods unless the fans will be over a table.

[ransom]

Yea I decided to install it higher, it looks more balanced with the rest of the area that way.

[Jordan U]

I don’t know why the videos are such bad quality, I record all my videos with an iPhone 4S and they come out great, in 1080P HD. Anyways, looks like an awesome place you have! Can’t wait to see more of it.

[Jordan U]

Nov 13, 2014 14:16:56 GMT -5 @spiffy said:

I see some potential for some really cool installs here!

Me too! Even if it’s a junky fan, its still a cool install as it is now.

[Jordan U]

Nov 14, 2014 0:27:21 GMT -5 @spiffy said:

I'd have to see it. Typically I err on the side of shorter downrods unless the fans will be over a table.

I generally like the longest downrod possible to be closer to the fan, but that’s for purposes of better performance. In terms of appearance, the higher downrods often do look better.

[ransom]

Nov 15, 2014 12:33:33 GMT -5 Jordan U said:

I don’t know why the videos are such bad quality, I record all my videos with an iPhone 4S and they come out great, in 1080P HD. Anyways, looks like an awesome place you have! Can’t wait to see more of it.

Yea I have no idea why it came out so bad...

Thanks, I'm really excited about the new place! Every time I move "fan potential" is at the top of the list next to location. I will be making a new vid soon of the new installs; I have 4 more to do and one that needs to be centered in the kitchen. For some reason when they put the florescent like in they just tossed it up almost over the stove and fridge. Once I pick up the control I plan on using from my parents house I plan on moving it. Functionality wise, the place is somewhat strange, only 2 large windows and one patio door open. On top of that hey are all on the same wall/side of the condo. The loft has a 10 to 15 degree diff from the main floor (to be expected), esp during the daytime hours when the sun is shining. I'm excited to share the installs with you guys, but I want to wait until everything or almost everything is up and all my boxes and crap are put away. I plan on having more picture updates by Saturday or Sunday. 

[Adam D.]

The only thing I can think of that looks great on long downrods are Hunter Originals... I remember my mother cleaning this house back in the 80s and early 90s that had some Originals on long down rods like this, and the upper floor hallway came out to a balcony and there were two Originals installed on long downrods that you were able to look down at and see the top parts.. That was a Hunter Original house as every room had them installed..

My mother being a cleaning woman, back in the 1980s and early 90s when I was off from school would go with her to work... cleaning two houses a day. I would see some neat fans..

[ransom]

Nice! late 80s/ early to mid 90s traditional, transitional and esp. pseudo-modern fans are my favorite. I partially agree with you on only certain fans only looking good on long downrods. I will say I have seen some graphite Casablanca Tridents at Dave & Buster's on some extremely long extensions over the dining area that looked great. I think the Stealth looks good installed that way as well, and they look even better when more than one are installed.

[Jordan U]

Nov 18, 2014 21:08:47 GMT -5 ransom said:

Nov 15, 2014 12:33:33 GMT -5 Jordan U said:

I don’t know why the videos are such bad quality, I record all my videos with an iPhone 4S and they come out great, in 1080P HD. Anyways, looks like an awesome place you have! Can’t wait to see more of it.

Yea I have no idea why it came out so bad...

Thanks, I'm really excited about the new place! Every time I move "fan potential" is at the top of the list next to location. I will be making a new vid soon of the new installs; I have 4 more to do and one that needs to be centered in the kitchen. For some reason when they put the florescent like in they just tossed it up almost over the stove and fridge. Once I pick up the control I plan on using from my parents house I plan on moving it. Functionality wise, the place is somewhat strange, only 2 large windows and one patio door open. On top of that hey are all on the same wall/side of the condo. The loft has a 10 to 15 degree diff from the main floor (to be expected), esp during the daytime hours when the sun is shining. I'm excited to share the installs with you guys, but I want to wait until everything or almost everything is up and all my boxes and crap are put away. I plan on having more picture updates by Saturday or Sunday. 

My guess for the videos is probably either the site you are hosting the videos on compressed them too much, or the way you transferred them to the computer, e.g. if you emailed them to yourself, could have done that.

The lighting doesn't surprise me, builders tend to throw up whatever's cheapest sometimes in whatever location is most convenient.

It sounds like you're going to need some fans for practical reasons in your house with the temperature difference being that high. I actually have the same problem at my house. With the way the sun is, in the summer the front of the house can get up to 80 degrees, and the back (no sun whatsoever in the back) can get to 65 degrees or so because the air conditioner is running so much. I usually set up Vornado fans to blow the hot air from the front bedrooms into the back bedrooms to help even it out a little.

[ransom]

Yea after thinking about it, I'm sure photo bucket had something to do with the quality. I generally tend to blame my girlfriends Iphone for most of the evils in the world lol.

*mini update*
Maintenance just came and said they could only replace the Minka with one of their fans for liability reasons (if it falls because of weight/stops working/causes a fire). While I get it, I was kind of annoyed, they offered to let me use their tall a** A frame ladder once they get back from lunch. Maintenance said as long as I do the install and there is no problem, but anything that goes wrong is on me.

Now I have about 35 mins to get in the zone and shake my nerves about being 20 ft up in the air on a couple steps lol.


The fan is prepped and ready to go, it isn't that heavy so I'm not worried about it "falling" as they said... if anything it is probably lighter than the Minka currently hanging.




Here is a kitchen preview from the other night, it still needs to be centered once I get the wall control.  (Ignore the mess/ still unpacking) 


I cooked for the first time the other night and I have no idea why a fan was not standard. The kitchen becomes an instant sauna as soon as the stove/oven is turned on. The lowered wall that comes down from the ceiling traps everything in the cove style kitchen; it has been left on low 24/7 since it was installed (unless cooking, then the speed goes up).

[ransom]

The living room fan is finally done. Once I got the power back on, I pulled the chain and it came right out ... ha! I swapped it with another switch housing and we were good to go! 










More updates of the other fans over the next few days. 

[Deleted]

Really does look great there. Where did you get the long downrod?