"Naked" spinner ceiling fans

[JW]

I've searched long and hard for "naked" fans, i.e. spinner fans consisting of the motor core of a standard import that has been painted instead of given a motor housing, with gold pinstriping around the center band where all the rotor pieces join together. I saw them all the time as a child, but most of them have been removed... however, I found one today at a local music shop in Waco. Note it has variable speed, like several of the others I've come across.

I filled in the light fixtures with a color eyedropped from the ceiling tiles in order to help you see the details of the fan (since I didn't have my flash turned on).





I also saw some smaller ones at a barber shop in downtown Wylie, but I only went in there a couple of times and this is before I started taking pictures of the fans. These were white and either 36" or 42", and I don't think they were variable speed.

Does anyone have any more info on who could have possibly made these "naked fans"? Moss? Ritz? Tyeb? Codep?

[Deleted]

I have never seen spinner fans like that before. If I had I would assume someone removed the housing.

I've seen plenty of newer fans along those lines, i.e. bottom-mount spinners, but nothing bell canopy or variable speed.

[Jean Lemieux]

I tough when you say ''naked'' and have been paint over that would means it use to have a housing around it but peoples decided to remove them? But you seems to think that they are MADE by the manufacture like that.

Wow! that's make so skinny and the switch housing is big
That make less weight on the fan so they could wobble more easily if not well balanced/installed.

I have never seen that before.
Apparently in the USA you have every kind of ceiling fans.

[Ben C.]

Huh, that's cool. I like that look. I'm going to try that with my Crest...

That make less weight on the fan so they could wobble more easily if not well balanced/installed.

No it won't. The motor housing doesn't spin. It's just a decorative cover. Removing it won't affect anything, since it's the motor itself that spins. The weight won't affect the wobbling at all, since wobbling is caused by unbalanced blades. If Pierce was here, he'd throw a fit...

[JW]

Actually the motor weight does affect wobble somewhat... how many Hunter Originals do you know that wobble like a drunk person, no matter how out of alignment the brackets are?

But unless the motor housing itself is made of cast iron (unlikely, except for three very ornate imports that I currently have), its absence wouldn't be enough to make a difference, whether it would have spun with the fan (like a Moss) or not.

Two things lead me to believe that the "naked" fans are manufactured like this: First, the motor is painted the color of the rest of the fan - usually, it's either black or some funky color (olive green, "spray paint gold", yellow, etc.); second, I've already pointed out the gold band around the groove which I've seen on EVERY one of these fans I've come across.

Of course, some people do remove the motor housings - there are some Broans in someone's flea market booth that someone's taken the motor housings off of to get them to fit between the beams holding the structure together (basically making the fan flush-mount without making it flush-mount, if you get my drift).

[Jean Lemieux]

I have seen in the movie: Deja Vu 2006(with Denzel Washington in New Orleans) a black cast iron Hunter Archives Original 52'' with 5 walnut blades. One of the blades brackets was very bent, all the others blades were straight, the fan was ON at low speed and NOT even the slight wobble or misalignment.

[JW]

Right. Like I said, it's hard to get an Original to wobble no matter what you do to it.

On a related note, they gave away one of those very ornate CasaBlancas on The Price is Right the other day, and ALL FIVE brackets were bent horrendously out of alignment. Makes me wonder if it was damaged backstage or they bent them to show off the texture of the hand-carved blades. Whatever it was, it made the fan look ridiculously cheap.

[jeremy]

jw said:

Right. Like I said, it's hard to get an Original to wobble no matter what you do to it.

On a related note, they gave away one of those very ornate CasaBlancas on The Price is Right the other day, and ALL FIVE brackets were bent horrendously out of alignment. Makes me wonder if it was damaged backstage or they bent them to show off the texture of the hand-carved blades. Whatever it was, it made the fan look ridiculously cheap.

yup hunter originals are heavy enough it won't wobble on 1 bent blade arm fan,that's what i like about hunter originals(diffent story when you turn the fan up on high)

[Jean Lemieux]

Yeah Jeremy that's what I tought too when I saw the movie.
(does anyone have seen this movie?)

JW do you know the size of the Naked fan you took the pic?
It looks like 52'' or maby 48''

[JW]

jean2291 said:

JW do you know the size of the Naked fan you took the pic?
It looks like 52'' or maybe 48''.

Your guess is as good as mine. It's definitely no smaller than 48", but I couldn't tell you definitely one way or the other. I personally have blades of this type in both 48" and 52" sizes, so you can't tell by blade type. It was also too high to measure, and a shelf was in the center of the room so I couldn't look straight up at it and compare its width to the ceiling tiles (which are 48" long by standard).

[Ben C.]

Well, if you run an Original with 3 blades it will... So the weight of the motor keeps the fan pointing straight down?

[Deleted]

What Casablanca, JW?

[JW]

I don't remember the exact model, but it's one of the newer ones with the hand-carved blades.

[JW]

Bumping now that Dan has posted a video of one:

[Max C.]

Seeing one of these with polished brass blades brackets is indeed unusual.