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Post by Jordan U on Sept 24, 2014 10:27:13 GMT -5
I have yet to find a window fan that has an 18" blade, that is more powerful than this Vornado. This thing even puts most 20" window fans to shame. Very powerful motor and a very deeply pitched 5 wing blade. What Sears do you have? I am guessing it's a Lasko/Air King kind? I imagine its pretty powerful, I have a 1945 Vornado floor fan, its 12 inches but its blows stronger than 20" industrial fans. Anyway, here is my Sears fan, its a legit Sears unit built by Emerson. Thanks to my uncle for passing it on to me. Its a serious fan, may even offer some competition to your Vornado ada19851985.proboards.com/thread/8884/vintage-sears-house-window-fan
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Dob
Full Member
Vornado Collector
Posts: 336
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Post by Dob on Sept 24, 2014 10:30:11 GMT -5
Early 80's, made by Vernco just before Air King obtained that blade style. Those slow turning motors they used are fairly decent. I have never seen one fail, only lock up. And after a bit of oiling, they'll start working again. I wouldn't use that fan in a sunny window. That blade is very prone to cracking and warping and since most of the fan is plastic, it could end up being a serious problem down the road, and sun light/UV radiation will only speed up this process. If the blade were to crack at the hub (Right where the metal meets the plastic) where they usually do, the blade could potentially fly off and shatter. If the blade warps, the fan could shake itself to pieces as the plastic ages and becomes more brittle. Unfortunately, this is a design flaw with this fan, the hub is the weakest part. That's the bad news. The good news is that they are indeed fairly powerful, one of the few window fans that compares to Vornado's 18" line of fans from the 50's. You also have a thermostat and an extra speed. Worst case scenario, if your blade shows cracking, you could always put a deep pitched metal blade on that fan. That slow turning motor should be able to handle most 20" condenser style fan blades. Can't remember if they used a high slip 6 pole motor or an 8 pole motor....
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Post by Jordan U on Sept 24, 2014 14:09:55 GMT -5
Early 80's, made by Vernco just before Air King obtained that blade style. Those slow turning motors they used are fairly decent. I have never seen one fail, only lock up. And after a bit of oiling, they'll start working again. I wouldn't use that fan in a sunny window. That blade is very prone to cracking and warping and since most of the fan is plastic, it could end up being a serious problem down the road, and sun light/UV radiation will only speed up this process. If the blade were to crack at the hub (Right where the metal meets the plastic) where they usually do, the blade could potentially fly off and shatter. If the blade warps, the fan could shake itself to pieces as the plastic ages and becomes more brittle. Unfortunately, this is a design flaw with this fan, the hub is the weakest part. That's the bad news. The good news is that they are indeed fairly powerful, one of the few window fans that compares to Vornado's 18" line of fans from the 50's. You also have a thermostat and an extra speed. Worst case scenario, if your blade shows cracking, you could always put a deep pitched metal blade on that fan. That slow turning motor should be able to handle most 20" condenser style fan blades. Can't remember if they used a high slip 6 pole motor or an 8 pole motor.... Thanks for the information! Unfortunately, its spent the past 30 years of its life in a sunny window, however between the screen in the window and the rear grill, I don't think a whole lot of the sun has gotten to the blades themselves. The grill is severely yellowed, and you may have noticed the broken slats. The blade flew off it once already, but that was fault of it not being screwed on tight enough. I kept all the slats, I'll have to get around to gluing them back into place eventually. I think I will consider moving it into the back of the house, or just taking it off the window when its not in use so its not constantly sitting in the sun. I always thought that the blade design seemed like there was awfully little support for such a huge blade. It is thick, heavy plastic though. I know the more recent Air King versions of this fan do have problems with the plastic blades breaking. Do you keep the screen in the window with your Vornado? I have found it works much better without the screen, but bugs are a problem at certain times of year where I am. The motors in these fans are very good, as with most Emerson motors. My grandfather has a whole house fan that sits in the attic from about the same age, it has a very similar style Emerson motor. Just went up this year and oiled it for him. I oil my window fan yearly as well, with the proper non-detergent oil. I'm not sure about the motor either, but I would guess 8, I think it tops out around 800-900 RPM. Can probably be determined somewhere on the Internet by searching the model number.
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Dob
Full Member
Vornado Collector
Posts: 336
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Post by Dob on Sept 24, 2014 14:59:08 GMT -5
Early 80's, made by Vernco just before Air King obtained that blade style. Those slow turning motors they used are fairly decent. I have never seen one fail, only lock up. And after a bit of oiling, they'll start working again. I wouldn't use that fan in a sunny window. That blade is very prone to cracking and warping and since most of the fan is plastic, it could end up being a serious problem down the road, and sun light/UV radiation will only speed up this process. If the blade were to crack at the hub (Right where the metal meets the plastic) where they usually do, the blade could potentially fly off and shatter. If the blade warps, the fan could shake itself to pieces as the plastic ages and becomes more brittle. Unfortunately, this is a design flaw with this fan, the hub is the weakest part. That's the bad news. The good news is that they are indeed fairly powerful, one of the few window fans that compares to Vornado's 18" line of fans from the 50's. You also have a thermostat and an extra speed. Worst case scenario, if your blade shows cracking, you could always put a deep pitched metal blade on that fan. That slow turning motor should be able to handle most 20" condenser style fan blades. Can't remember if they used a high slip 6 pole motor or an 8 pole motor.... Thanks for the information! Unfortunately, its spent the past 30 years of its life in a sunny window, however between the screen in the window and the rear grill, I don't think a whole lot of the sun has gotten to the blades themselves. The grill is severely yellowed, and you may have noticed the broken slats. The blade flew off it once already, but that was fault of it not being screwed on tight enough. I kept all the slats, I'll have to get around to gluing them back into place eventually. I think I will consider moving it into the back of the house, or just taking it off the window when its not in use so its not constantly sitting in the sun. I always thought that the blade design seemed like there was awfully little support for such a huge blade. It is thick, heavy plastic though. I know the more recent Air King versions of this fan do have problems with the plastic blades breaking. Do you keep the screen in the window with your Vornado? I have found it works much better without the screen, but bugs are a problem at certain times of year where I am. The motors in these fans are very good, as with most Emerson motors. My grandfather has a whole house fan that sits in the attic from about the same age, it has a very similar style Emerson motor. Just went up this year and oiled it for him. I oil my window fan yearly as well, with the proper non-detergent oil. I'm not sure about the motor either, but I would guess 8, I think it tops out around 800-900 RPM. Can probably be determined somewhere on the Internet by searching the model number. I leave the screen in place for my fan. Being a deep pitched 5 wing metal blade, it's got fairly high static pressure with very little blade flex. The blade also sits right at the edge of the venturi for best performance. The screen doesn't affect the performance of the fan all that much, at least not that I know of. I have sliding windows, unfortunately, so taking the screen out would also be a problem with bugs crawling in above the fan. I use a piece of plywood painted white to block the air from flowing over the fan in the window. It's a very well designed fan, a lot of thought went into it at O.A. Sutton headquarters back in the 50's. Of course, they had to compete with big brands such as Hunter/R&M, Chelsea and Emerson. They took the cake on this one in 1954. Ironically, it uses a Robbins & Myers PSC motor, which I find quite funny, being that it was competition for Hunter/R&M. The biggest problem with this particular fan is the weight, and how complicated it is. Lifting it in and out of the window right now isn't a problem for me at my young age, but as I get older, I am sure I will feel it. It will likely end up permanently installed in a window when I move into another place. As for how complicated it is, there is so many parts to this fan. You have the motor, the blade, the grille, the motor struts, each nut and washer for the motor struts, the clamp that holds the motor to the struts, the frame and then all the excess wiring. The motor is a single speed PSC motor. The speeds are done through a speed coil in the switch box. The switch reverses the capacitor to reverse the motor. The motor cannot be reversed on the fly, it will simply spin in the same direction, roughly, while buzzing loudly. Other than that, it definitely does the job. They made a 22" version of this little monster. I am lucky to own one of these... The 22" is the one leaning against the box fan tower. I can't use it. Simply too powerful. I ran it in my window for a few minutes and I could hear the windows creaking and flexing.
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Post by Jordan U on Sept 25, 2014 6:53:57 GMT -5
How many of those things do you have, 4? And all those box fans!?!?!?! That's insane! Interesting way of storing the box fans, never thought to do that. I have about 7 box fans, and they take up a lot of space. I'd be hesitant to stack the ones with plastic grills though...
I only noticed a difference with the screen out when using the fan on exhaust. It seems to be able to pull air through the screen better than push it out, I think its just too much air to go through it. If you go outside, you can feel a night and day difference between the air flow having the screen there or not. The windows at my house have a terrible design in which the screen is also difficult to remove, essentially they really need to be removed from the outside, which is why I generally just keep it in. If it were the type of screen that slides up and down inside the frame, then I'd always open it up.
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Dob
Full Member
Vornado Collector
Posts: 336
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Post by Dob on Sept 25, 2014 8:12:55 GMT -5
How many of those things do you have, 4? And all those box fans!?!?!?! That's insane! Interesting way of storing the box fans, never thought to do that. I have about 7 box fans, and they take up a lot of space. I'd be hesitant to stack the ones with plastic grills though... I only noticed a difference with the screen out when using the fan on exhaust. It seems to be able to pull air through the screen better than push it out, I think its just too much air to go through it. If you go outside, you can feel a night and day difference between the air flow having the screen there or not. The windows at my house have a terrible design in which the screen is also difficult to remove, essentially they really need to be removed from the outside, which is why I generally just keep it in. If it were the type of screen that slides up and down inside the frame, then I'd always open it up. I have 5 of the smaller ones and 3 of the larger ones. They're relatively hard to come by so if I can get them, I usually pick them up. The ones on the wall are in working condition. The two top ones are the same as the one I have here at home except not as clean. The bottom one is a very different model with a totally different motor. Of the two small models not seen in this picture, one is at my home where it is used daily, this one is practically mint, just a couple of scratches here and there. Has 99.9% of it's original paint. The other that is not pictured is a junker for parts. Complete but very rusty, and someone stuck a blunt object in the blade while running, so it's a bit twisted. The larger 22" model is extremely difficult to find. The one pictured has a broken switch. My nicest one (not pictured) needs to be rewired and the completely functional one (also not pictured) is a little on the rusty side. Most of my box fans don't have plastic grilles or blades, with the exception of a few very rare gems. I just don't care for plastic all that much. I don't have nearly as many as I used to, that stack you see there is about 70% sold. I kept the nicest/rarest ones and sold off the most common ones. Can't find the picture of my Arctic Aire 200.
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Post by Jordan U on Sept 25, 2014 8:22:55 GMT -5
That's an awesome Galaxy!
I think I see one of those Homart Cooler window fans in your collection, how does it compare to the Vornado? I've heard very good things about those.
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Dob
Full Member
Vornado Collector
Posts: 336
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Post by Dob on Sept 25, 2014 11:09:28 GMT -5
That's an awesome Galaxy! I think I see one of those Homart Cooler window fans in your collection, how does it compare to the Vornado? I've heard very good things about those. That is indeed a Homart, one of the very few fans that is actually more powerful than the 18" Vornado. The Homart has a very very steep pitched 20" blade, belt driven using a 1/4HP 1725 RPM motor. The Homart has a very choppy blade sound when running, much like a whole house fan. This can get annoying if you're fairly close to the fan. It's performance is also only effective in one direction due to the curvature of the blade. My Homart is exhaust only, but the reversible ones don't do as well on intake as they do on exhaust because the blade wasn't designed to be multi-directional. For a blade to be multi-directional, it needs to be designed so that it has equal performance in both directions. This can be achieved by a completely flat wing design for the blades, or you can do what Vornado and Frigid did and put multiple trailing edge curves on either side of the blade.
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Post by Jordan U on Sept 26, 2014 6:39:26 GMT -5
That's an awesome Galaxy! I think I see one of those Homart Cooler window fans in your collection, how does it compare to the Vornado? I've heard very good things about those. That is indeed a Homart, one of the very few fans that is actually more powerful than the 18" Vornado. The Homart has a very very steep pitched 20" blade, belt driven using a 1/4HP 1725 RPM motor. The Homart has a very choppy blade sound when running, much like a whole house fan. This can get annoying if you're fairly close to the fan. It's performance is also only effective in one direction due to the curvature of the blade. My Homart is exhaust only, but the reversible ones don't do as well on intake as they do on exhaust because the blade wasn't designed to be multi-directional. For a blade to be multi-directional, it needs to be designed so that it has equal performance in both directions. This can be achieved by a completely flat wing design for the blades, or you can do what Vornado and Frigid did and put multiple trailing edge curves on either side of the blade. Talk about choppy, you can hear my Sears unit cutting the air all throughout the house, especially outside! I imagine the Homart, being belt-driven, is somewhat quieter. I always wondered why they bothered to put the reverse on those fans, given the blade didn't look like it was built for reversing.
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Dob
Full Member
Vornado Collector
Posts: 336
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Post by Dob on Sept 26, 2014 7:24:23 GMT -5
Talk about choppy, you can hear my Sears unit cutting the air all throughout the house, especially outside! I imagine the Homart, being belt-driven, is somewhat quieter. I always wondered why they bothered to put the reverse on those fans, given the blade didn't look like it was built for reversing. One word. Marketing. Most conventional window fans of that era were reversible and this was likely a major selling point, so the makers of the Homart figured they would jump on the band wagon to increase sales. Hunter is guilty of the same thing with their Zephair line of window fans. The blades are curved for one direction only.
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Post by Jordan U on Sept 26, 2014 8:32:00 GMT -5
One word. Marketing. Most conventional window fans of that era were reversible and this was likely a major selling point, so the makers of the Homart figured they would jump on the band wagon to increase sales. Hunter is guilty of the same thing with their Zephair line of window fans. The blades are curved for one direction only. That's a good point, I suppose even back then they were already making marketing gimmicks.
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Post by Jordan U on Oct 16, 2014 7:52:33 GMT -5
Using my Galaxy oscillator in my office on medium, and my Sears whole house fan on medium intake.
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Post by Noah C on Mar 20, 2015 22:36:07 GMT -5
Massey 4" desk fan.
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Dob
Full Member
Vornado Collector
Posts: 336
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Post by Dob on Aug 28, 2017 17:22:20 GMT -5
This is a new addition to my collection, but it is BY FAR the most powerful window fan I own, even defeating the legendary Homart belt drivers. The Belco (appropriately named) Hurricane is a 20" 4 bladed belt driven monster of a window shaker, with a 12 speed selector and a reversing motor, this fan will clear out a house filled with nasties in a New York minute. CFM rating? No !@!#ing clue. Certainly more than I can measure and certainly enough to clear out the bathroom in half a second during burrito night. Start up sound? None. Start up is so fast, you'll miss it happen if you blink. (Picture credits do not go to me, but the fan is mine. Bought it off the previous owner who took this photo) This fan is so powerful, it has enough air flow to 'windmill' a 30" belt drive attic fan, with the belt attached. It sits on bricks on my window sill because it's way too powerful to be directly mounted in the window. I've been enjoying this beast on a regular basis since I hauled it home.
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Post by teltras on Aug 28, 2017 18:04:07 GMT -5
Wow never seen one of those, beautiful fan.
Thanks for posting that beauty.
Can you please upload that to youtube? I would love to see it working
Thanks
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