Misconceptions when I was a kid

[Cole D]

When I was little, I used to think brown spinner ceiling fans like Tats, etc were from the 1960s for some reason. Also I used to think that fans with motor housings (like GE vents or builder vent fans) that the motor housing was the actual motor, like a cast iron ceiling fan would have. So I thought that spinner ceiling fans were "cheap fans" but fans with decorative housings were "expensive" and more powerful fans.

Plus, I used to always see industrials (Tats, Caribbean Breeze, etc) had wall controls, instead of switch housings. So when I started seeing industrial 3 bladed fans with switch housings and pull chains it really confused me.

Did you have any misconceptions about ceiling fans?

[Adin Panthers]

Mine was I used to think fans are just fans and made equally to move air when I was younger.

[Tais]

I had many!

I remember my childhood fan, 70s relites in my primary school all had broken canopies and i could clearly see the capacitor, i thought at first they were the D size batteries.. that misconception later evolved into thinking that those capacitors were the motors and they were gear driven to the fan

I always thought the fan motor was inside the lower canopy and the motor was just the support of the blades when i was a kid


There was a time i had a concept of running fans through motors from above the ceiling with the shaft passing through the downrod all the way to the "blade support"

At the earliest days of fan collecting, i thought all fans had the same peak speed

I used to think all fan downrods "pipes" were plastic

One fan had a big scratch on the downrod, i thought that scratch was a crack on a plastic pipe

If i saw the upper canopy a little down and lots of wires, i always thought the fan would fall if it operated, and i avoided entering anywhere with that kind of fan


The first time i ever saw GE vent fans were in malaysia and blades were top mounted, i used to call every GE vent fans "the malaysian fan"

Later on in malaysia i saw GE vents with blades installed at the bottom (bottom mount blades), i always saw these as a "fake" version of the original malaysian fan as they were usually slower

I had confusions between SMC and MSN back in windows 95 and 98 days

I never knew SMC did anything other than industrials until i found vcf

I never knew the 3 bladed spinners known as industrials were actually called industrials until i joined the forums

[Jean Lemieux]

Similarly to you Cole, when I was very young, I thought that fans with stationary housings were more powerful and better quality and that the motor housing was the actual motor.

I was also confused whether or not the housing on bottom mounted spinners revolved or not with the blades hence why I still sometimes call them semi-spinners as they are kind of a transition between a top mount spinners and a stationary housing fan to me. Many of them have a motor shaped like a mini stationary housing with an actual bottom plate with vents. I sometimes even thought that on bottom mounted spinners of this style, only the ''bottom plate'' revolves with the blades. It turns out this is not completely a misconception as they are rare occasions where this is true such as with some KDK and Century ceiling fans.

[Parkman]

I used to think that fans with a tall motor housing (Hampton Bay Antigua for example) met the motor was thicker. I guess thinking something similar to an XLP was in there size wise. LOL.

[redkiosk]

I had no idea that there were so many different models and manufacturers of industrial ceiling fans, as my knowledge of them was pretty much zilch! It wasn't until I joined the forum that I realized that they weren't all from the same company! I also thought that they were cheaply made and only available in white. I've grown to appreciate them more now.

[Cole D]

Yeah, I used to not know what fans were called until I found this site. I didn't know what GE or builder vents were and I didn't know metal bladed fans were called industrials. I just called them "3 metal blade fans". Also I didn't know the term spinner, I just called them spinning disc fans. Or in the Sears catalog there was a spinner and it said "housing revolves with blades".

And yeah, the fans with the tall motor housings (usually palm blade style fans) I always think of as having a K55 type motor too, even if they are spinner motor.

[andy]

Many of us probably thought in some point in our lives that fans actually cool rooms. Therefore, I would think that it was cooling when running on downdraft, and heating in reverse. So it seemed like the absolute worst thing to see a fan running in reverse in the summer. But of course now, I realize that fans only circulate air, and the different directions are recommended for the two different seasons.

Before looking at blades carefully, I used to think that they were flat and didn't realize the pitch. However, I did realize how strange fans look in a mirror. I can see why most fans have their blades pitched to the left rather than the right.

With my parents both being born in the 1950s and growing up in the northern US, they didn't encounter many ceiling fans if any for the first few decades of their lives. I believe the first time they had one in a home was when they stayed in a rental townhouse for their first 6 months in Cincinnati from mid 1993-early 1994. After that, they bought a house, but it didn't have any ceiling fans until 1999. I was born in 1995, and the way they described things to me, I used to think that ceiling fans were very uncommon until the mid-late 1990s. Obviously not the case, as there is a lot of evidence out there to prove how common ceiling fans were before 1995.

[Jonathan A.]

I used to think that fan could have gears or something. And the first time I watched a YouTube video of what was inside a motor housing, it was on Emerson Friction Drive. And before I learned about alternating current, I assumed that fans could reverse by switching polarity of wires, because that's the case of brushed DC motor, and that's what solid state speed control with reverse switch would do. But it turned out that it's either run windings switching polarity compared to start windings (which is the case of most ceiling fans including Canarm and Leading Edge reversible industrial), or when run windings and start windings switch between capacitor and direct power (which is the case of Emerson K55 motor and early SMC and Banvil industrial). I even converted 1979 SMC Laguna from downdraft only to reversible by adding extra wire that connects to another capacitor wire since existing hot wire already connects to one capacitor wire (it has no switch housing so it's just like reversible Banvil industrial) and it spins faster on updraft than downdraft like most 52" reversible SMC in early 1980s.

[Cole D]

Another thing I remember is the wall control spinners that have those brass finials on the bottom. There used to be this gas station/general store type place near our house that had fans like that. I thought the finial was some kind of knob to reverse the fan.

[Parkman]

Jul 6, 2021 22:46:17 GMT -5 Cole D said:

Another thing I remember is the wall control spinners that have those brass finials on the bottom. There used to be this gas station/general store type place near our house that had fans like that. I thought the finial was some kind of knob to reverse the fan.

That’s a pretty good misconception. I could see how you could think that.

[Jean Lemieux]

Jun 26, 2021 15:01:36 GMT -5 Cole D said:

Yeah, I used to not know what fans were called until I found this site. I didn't know what GE or builder vents were and I didn't know metal bladed fans were called industrials. I just called them "3 metal blade fans". Also I didn't know the term spinner, I just called them spinning disc fans. Or in the Sears catalog there was a spinner and it said "housing revolves with blades".

And yeah, the fans with the tall motor housings (usually palm blade style fans) I always think of as having a K55 type motor too, even if they are spinner motor.

It's normal that you didin't know names like GE vents and Builders vents as these names were mostly created by fan enthusiasts, especially GE vent. Some companies have models with the name Builder in the title but they do not necessarily required to have long and narrow vents to have that name. Regarding GE vents a lot of campanies named ceiling fans with GE vents with a name often relating to the Victorian style even though fans with this vent pattern are usually plain and not ornate. You see names like Victoria, Mini Victorian, Grand Victorian or even Château.

[ceilingfansmalta]

When I was 5 years old I thought that ceiling fans are just hung by the wires

I also used to think that the motor on spinners was in the canopy, but once my father told me how it actually worked.

I also used to think that the motor covers were made of plastic until I managed to hit one with my hand at the department store where I got my first Relite Rapide MKII.