Fun things to do with cheap fans

[Deleted]

Has anyone ever had any fun when bored one day and decided to throw random objects into crappy ceiling fans while they are on full speed? i sure have, its actually pretty fun. me and a few friends have thrown many things into fans such as, boogie boards, a video camera (that no longer worked), and one of those small orange road cones. dont worry though, i would never do it to a nice older fan.

[organist89]

Last year, the director of the music department at my school had me over to her house (which wasn't unusual, as we're close friends), and I replaced the fan in her husband's gun room. It was a Windmere (gawd, haven't heard that one in years) p-o-s 42" spinner. It was one of those ones that made the original Hampton Bay Graytons look like high-quality fans. It had those paper-thin stamped metal blade irons, warped particle-board blades, peeling/pitted brass finish...the damn thing was only from the early 90's. Anyhow--and my teacher has a hi-resolution video of this, with sound, saved on her computer--I took the fan down [replaced it with a 42" Original], and she and I went outside on the deck (2nd story), and I hammer-chucked the fan way out and up into the air, and her hubby shot it with a sniper rifle and blew the thing to crap. It was awesome.

Other than that, I can't remember doing anything exciting with crappy fans. REALLY crappy fans (a/k/a huggers, Craftmades, Harbor Breezes, newer Hampton Bays, almost anything with 5 blades, etc.), I won't go anywhere near, so I never have to deal with them. If I have a borderline-crappy fan, I usually disassemble it and save all the parts.

[Deleted]

haha thats pretty cool, oh i also remember throwing a football into a fan before too. industrials are good for doing that stuff though.

[Adam D.]

I remember thowing stuffed animals into a four wood blade Encon Crompton Greeves. After doing that a few times, believe it or not, the whole blade and bracket came apart from the motor while on the fastest speed, stripping the holes, I remember the father having to put a bigger size screw, to mount back on to the motor...

[Deleted]

wow lol those cromtons go fast when on the highest speed too. i think i remember throwing stuffed animals into the original in my living room once too when i was way younger.

[Fanman]

I've never messed with the crappy fans, if I have any I don't want, I sell them. BTW, Windmere is still in business making portable fans. I don't know about ceiling fans, the only ones I ever saw were Windmere 42" huggers.

[Deleted]

fanman said:

I've never messed with the crappy fans, if I have any I don't want, I sell them.

Smart.

[organist89]

fanman said:

I've never messed with the crappy fans, if I have any I don't want, I sell them. BTW, Windmere is still in business making portable fans. I don't know about ceiling fans, the only ones I ever saw were Windmere 42" huggers.

When I was very young and growing up in New Jersey, I would always look at the mid-week drugstore-type flyers and cut out the fan pictures.

Back then, if memory serves me right, the stores in question were Genovese (now Eckerd), Caldor (now extinct), Woolwoorth's (now operating only in Australia), Bradlees (now extinct), Ames (now extinct), Channel (only NJ, and now extinct), Rickel (only NJ, and now extinct), and K-Mart (in limbo as to whether or not it actually exists).

I remember looking for box fans, like the regular old 20" 5-blade 3-speed white deal-i-o's. In the mid-to-late 1990's, many of the companies (first Lasko, then Lakewood, then Holmes, then on and on) started phasing out the old boxy designs and went with more rounded, streamlined looks. Instead of the old moose-antler blades, they went with "more aerodynamic" styles. I liked the older look, so I cut out all those pictures.

I also looked at the oscillating desk fans, and I remember seeing a lot of Galaxy and Windmere models.

Now, by my recollection, the ceiling fans consisted almost exclusively of three specific and distinct styles:

1) 42" and 52" UGLY ASS 4-blade huggers with the 3-light fixture, similar to the Hampton Bay "Chatham"

2) 42" spinners, looking identical in motor vent style to the original Hampton Bay "Grayton"--and like a Grayton, the blades mounted to the bottom of the motor, as opposed to the top which is the standard with spinners

and

3) 52" 5-blade GE-vent fans, most of them with exceedingly cheap stamped-metal paper-thin irons that you typically see only a top-mounting 4-blade spinner. This fan, cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300078939938, most closely shows what I'm talking about--although the irons are much nicer



If I remember right, Windmere made all three of those fan styles. The ones I remember most strongly, though, are 2 and 3...and 2 the stronger of those.

As I recall, nearly all of these fans were offered in bright brass and antique brass, and that was it. Sometimes, not so often, you could get one in white. Cane blades, on styles 1 and 3, were also very popular, particularly on style 1--but, as it was getting towards the end of the cane-blade era, the size of the area of caneage shrunk to be quite small within the blade.


I haven't seen a Windmere ceiling fan for sale since the late 1990's. The only fans that I see now and instantly think "WINDMERE!" are the #2's, and then only with the very ugly single-light kit they ubiquitously had.

[organist89]

organist89 said:

The only fans that I see now and instantly think "WINDMERE!" are the #2's, and then only with the very ugly single-light kit they ubiquitously had.

For some reason--and this may be totally wrong, or it may be creepily right since it came to me in an unrelated dream last night--I have the idea in my mind that I've seen Windmere industrial-style spinners with chokes that said "Windmere" on them--somewhat similar to a Caribbean Breeze, but saying Windmere instead, and having some different stylings.

[Fanman]

That's funny because the only ones I ever saw were the white 42" hugger with stencil blades and a schoolhouse kit.

I don't remember any with chokes.

[Deleted]

Speaking of throwing things in fans, my friend got a hotel room with a Hunter Summer Breeze Plus in it. little to say there was beer involved, someone threw paper plates and a pillow into it and one of the blades snapped off. then a matress got thrown down the stairs, and that was my sat night in a nutshell LOL

[Jean Lemieux]

Ah OK Beer yeah that changes everything. I would never really trow anything into a fan especially a wood blade fan. Maybe a Industrial tough. The only thing I ever trow into my Encon Princess was socks and boxers when it was at medium speed. ONLY light weight things is OK just for fun, but never anything harder like we see in those stupid TouTube videos.

In general I HATE to destroying anything.

A Hunter Summer Breeze Plus is a Good fan!
Same for Craftmades.

Mike did you ever trow anything into your Crompton Greaves High Breeze? I believe it have metal blades, right?

[JW]

I don't care if the fan is cheap or not, I have a problem with destroying anyone's property that isn't mine. I don't care how much Johnny Knoxville and his "friends" glorify it... that, my friend, is called vandalism.

[jeremy]

jw said:

I don't care if the fan is cheap or not, I have a problem with destroying anyone's property that isn't mine. I don't care how much Johnny Knoxville and his "friends" glorify it... that, my friend, is called vandalism.

i strongly agree with you there,i wouldn't do such a thing...

speaking of destroy a ceiling fan,a 5 bladed ceiling fan this idiot who use to live in same apartment complex i live in destroy a ceiling fan in his apartment by breaking the blade arms in 2(for no reason)...
all you see are 5 broken blade arms still attach to motor and 1 fan blade on the floor with part of broken blade arm still attach on the blade,he broke this ceiling fan front of his young kids(like the oldest one is younger than 10 years) to show his kids how tough he is which it's a stupist thing he ever done!!!!
i have no pics of it,that's what the mantience guy told me..
i don't care if it's a heritage,hampton bay,aloha breeze fan,it's NOT his property(he does NOT own it).

[Ben C.]

I've gotten one of those sticky hand things wound up in my fan's motor. The sticky stretchy part you hold on to got caught on the blades and it took the rest with it. I've got random stuff thrown at my fan. I remember throwing a crapload of random balls up, with the help of my brother. I re-aligned the blades this summer though.