Relite Fans (made in England)

[ceilingfansmalta]

I was wondering, could you please give me an idea of what labels and any other identification the British Relite fans you know about have?

I am asking because a particular comment on You Tube struck me. I always said that my 2nd ceiling fan was a Relite Rapide MKII, but a particular You Tube user from India suggested that it could be unrelated to Relite! If you remember, I had said that it had no name label anywhere on it, but two identical technical data ones, and one saying "HLG". Apparently there were cottage industries in India who made something similar to the Relite Rapide MKII but which used to be brand-less. 

If I had to make a simple list of the fans created in India and England, which have identical features it would be:

pre 1990s Relites: the ones which I heard had "Simplex" and "Trader" on them - Made in England
1990: my 2nd ceiling fan - Relite Rapide MKII or a lookalike? - Unknown origin
1994: My 1st ceiling fan - Relite Rapide MKII for sure - identical to my 2nd. - made in England
2000: My 5th and 6th ceiling fans - Relite Rapide MKII for sure, however 1400mm with a 2.25 Mfd - capacitor made in England
up to 2020: Crompton Riviera, Crompton Energion, Crompton Whirlwind/Zapar and Singaporean Relites have the same blades as Relite Rapide MKII - Crompton made in India and Singaporean Relites made in Singapore 

[Tais]

Relite (formerly known as revo) started somewhere in the 1920s or 1930s if im not mistaken, and were known for various electric products including fans

I dont know much about the revo era fans, ive seen some antiques on yt and managed to encounter 1 seriously damaged and own another one from the 60s


Revo changed to relite in 1967 and was known as relite electric limited until 1975

The earliest relite i own is dated april 29 1974, 2nd earliest is april 3 1975

The earliest of the pancake relite fans (the ones also known as airmasters) its unknown when they were started, but they had a bigger motor than all that came after

Those fans were manufactured by tipton staffs

1976-june 1980:

Since relite closed down in 1975, their fans were still in production but by simplex circulume under relite license

All models from 1976 onwards came in the same size

I found some 1979 models labeled simplex, vortice as well, with no mention of relite anywhere.. they had thick steel blades instead of aluminum

In july 1 1980, relite re established as relite fans limited and continued the productions of the ceiling fans with improvements in operation, such as the loose shaft hum issue, plastic degradation issues, extreme yellowing of all parts, and old oil going through the motor plastic cover and staining the other side

In 1985? Relite with white top motor covers were introduced, and were still sold along with the blue top cover

In 1986 until its end of production, the stator quality dropped drastically, being much thinner and having 8 poles, unlike the previous ones with 10 poles

Since 1986, those relite fans had a possible model name "trader" as it was mentioned in the label

In 1989? Steel blades were reintroduced with lighter weight compared to 1979 version, but with the weaker stators the fans had, many fans had issues reaching their supposedly designed top speed, most ending up slower, and airflow is much less than the older versions

In 1989, relite fan logo was placed on the canopies for the first time

After that model, latest model ive seen is february 1990, i have no idea until when that model was produced or what models came after which belonged to the british relite, but one thing i know is that in october 2013, the company shut down and dissolved

Other than their classic model, i havent seen any other model they produced in person, relite rapide could very likely be one of their other models, and relite could have outsourced their fans in the later years.. vent axia outsourced most if not all ceiling fans and relabeled them, one of them was relite and it had different canopies


Ive tried researching through the singaporean relite as soon as i came to know about it, it has been around from a long time but is completely unrelated to the british relite

[ceilingfansmalta]

Thank you very much for your response and for all the detail! 

In Malta, I only saw a Relite with a blue cover once. I also found one at the same scrapper I mentioned previously, but it was covered in bird droppings, and the blades were bent. They were surely not aluminium, because they were rusty. Even the bottom cover was rusty. It was very light, although the stator was much larger than most fans. It had a capacitor exactly like the one on my second ceiling fan, the only thing which relates the two fans together. The date on the capacitor, which I took seems to be 10/50 which I am sure does not mean 1950 as I am seeing now, which means that the 10/90 on my second ceiling fan does not mean 1990?

Something else which is strange is that the Relite were sometimes called Vortice. Moreover the capacitors on my 1st and 2nd ceiling fans and the one of the scrapped old Relite are all Italian made. Maybe were Relite related to O.Erre too? The Oasis R-series fans have the same shaped motor and the same blades as on Relite Rapide MKII. 

[Tais]

I took a screenshot from tge relite rapide to compare with the 1989 british relite fan logo, and yeah, the relite text on both fans perfectly match




This concludes that relite rapide mk was sold by relite fans ltd, but is outsourced to crompton greaves for manufacturing

[ceilingfansmalta]

OK, very interesting and thank you very much for posting.

I noticed the same Relite in the screenshot, and the other I got with it has a label with 3 letters (in this case ZCG) and a stamped number with 4 digits. On top and bottom there is OK Tested. This is seen also on Crompton ceiling fans of the same dates, if I am not mistaken. 

Also, I am wondering, who had the design of the Relite Rapide MKII, Relite themselves, or Crompton Greaves? The blades are still the same on some Crompton fans today, such as the Riviera and Whirlwind models. Could they be the newer counterparts of Relite Rapide MKII?

Thanks

[Tais]

I bet the design is by crompton greaves, supervised by relite