A Shocking Confession

[danemodsandy]

One of the great things about AW is that you can talk about things that you wouldn't talk about with most people. You know how it goes - if you start going on about your refrigerator or dryer with most people, they start looking at you funny.

Well, I have a confession about something that most people wouldn't begin to understand, and it is this: I hate ceiling fans. I mean hatehatehatehatehate.

They get filthy in a heartbeat. They're horrible to clean (I just finished cleaning one the previous resident neglected, and OY, whadda job!), and I hate their obnoxious humming.

But what I dislike about them most is their proximity to my head. I'm tall, about six-four, and those blades seem to be hell-bent on connecting with the top of my head. I know logically that's not going to happen, but psychologically, I feel very weird around one whizzing so close to my ears.

I know the things are supposed to supplement your air-conditioning and save you money. I know a lot of people love them. I know they're everywhere. But I detest them, and I promise you, the next house I own (as opposed to renting, which is what I'm doing now), there will be No. Ceiling. Fans. At. All.

There - I have it off my chest. I hate ceiling fans. In fact, I'm thinking of starting the S.F.E.D.C.F. - the Society for the Elimination of the Dread Ceiling Fan.

Who among you will join me?

 

[rayjay]

Sandy, I am with you. I hate them also, never owned one, and never wanted one. That is what central air conditioning is for, or a window air conditioner. I think they are also ugly, and collect a lot of dirt. Especially one in the kitchen. They are also gawky looking. lol

Sorry for the rant. lol lol

I agree with you 100%

PS: I am around 6'3" tall and know what you mean.

 

[westingman123]

must be a tall thing!

I'm NOT tall, 5'9'' on a good day, and I like 'em. Well, some of 'em. Not the ceiling-hugger new-fangled type that hum, but the down-rod casablanca looking ones. But then, I don't care for air conditioning, so I'm just weird. LOL

 

[panthera]

Yup, yup

I'm over six foot, too and the blasted things are scary, dirty and icky.

That said, the do keep the air recirculating from up to down.

Just, couldn't someone invent a blade which was easier to clean?

 

[danemodsandy]

My Post...

...Might not have been quite so rantalicious if I hadn't just finished cleaning one. It was a pretty fair job to do, and it wasn't the worst-neglected one I've ever seen, not by a long shot. I've been around some that were truly disgusting, with black greasy build-up on the leading edges of the blades, and grey fuzz everywhere else. I mean, you're breathing that! Ick, yuck, ptui.

I agree that they're unlovely, and it seems like their designers work overtime to come up with dirt-trapping curlicues.

 

[panthera]

That's alright, Sandy

Given the level of discourse some of the younger members from foreign shores have stooped to in the last weeks, your rant was more like a gentle reprove.

The worst part of the dratted things is cleaning out the motor. I swear, they direct 90% of the air they move up and into those teeny-tiny vent holes, knowing full well that they will plug up with pet hair and grease the second hour they're in service.

 

[toggleswitch2]

For me, they appear to churn up the energy in a room and are not relaxing.

Also, IMHO they tend to create yet another focal point in a room and distract the eye from proper and more soothing/restful-to-the eye focal points.

I won't even mention that there are SUPPOSED TO BE (read: no one does this in a retrofit when a light fixture becomes a fan) SPECIAL hanger boxes to ensure that the constant motion (and the weight of the thing itself) does not pull the nails out of the studs and have the ceiling fan/ paddle fan impale you as you sleep. (Yes, believe it or not, getting impaled in such location is not really a goal of mine).

When I bought my house that had a gas stove and a big dog in it before me, there was a verly cleary delineated line across the top of the kitchen wall [say 1 foot (30 cm) down] where the ceiling fan had flung grease from the stove onto the wallpaper. Just to make it more interesting, the dog hair was stuck up there too.

Dog was not mine.
Fan went
Wallpaper went
Gas cooking went (in favor of much cleaner electric).

What kind of pigs ARE there on this planet anyway?

I did take the bedroom ceiling fan and move it to the living room. The fan was a simple, plain and and elegant white timless design and was to a much better scale in a larger room.

I had a corner house with low-to-the ground windows. So for me, the cental air was cranked to 77*F all summer and the bathroom window was opened an inch (254 mm) at all times for fresh air. No dust, no dirt, no street noise, no humidity, plenty of fresh air, and best of all, TA- DA no ceiling fan shaking vibrating and creaking!

I guess I should point out that a ceiling fan in the bedroom does have its benefits. For example hooking one's stileeto heels and pumps onto it.

The one time I DID like a ceiling fan was in Puerto Rico where the guest-house (in a tropical HELLO! climate) did NOT have air-condtioning.

 

[rp2813]

Living where we do, central A/C is the exception, not the rule. So we do have ceiling fans. The more modern designs are easier to clean. I use a microfiber mitt or one of those fuzzy wands to clean the blades once in a while.

The thing I learned is that it's worth it to buy a remote controlled model, particularly in the bedroom. When we had the type that was controlled by pull-chains, more than once when making the bed and flapping out the sheets, they'd hit the chain and if the fan was running, things would get all tangled up.

I do appreciate our ceiling fan in the bedroom on the occasional hot summer night. Central A/C would be great, but we'd hardly ever use it.

I really hate the look of the ice cream parlor type of ceiling fans with the frilly glass lamp shades. I'm with you 100% in that regard.

 

[brisnat81]

In our sub tropical climate here, I love em.

We replaced the 30yo ones at Michaels mums last year with Stainless ones and each 6 months I get up and give them a rub with stainless cleaner. No cracks or crevices, just straight lines and easy to clean.

Ducted air is only common here in new houses and even then not always. She has a large split system in the lounge that cools most of the upstairs pretty well, but then the mindset here is that you only put the AC on, on a still hot humid day. The rest of the time the fans keep everything nice and comfy.

Michael is 6'6" and he has to watch his head, he only has a couple of inches clearance before the blades.

The one thing I cant stand are those combined Ceiling fan/light combo's, they seem to create a strobe effect with the light pulsing. If they are installed seperate to the light, then they're greash, and much better than having box fans and extension cords trailing around everywhere

 

[112561]

I wanted one in my dining area

but I decided to put the old hanging saucer fixture up instead, when it's possible. I only wanted the most ordinary three blade unit, without those gross Morning Glory lights and wicker 5 blades sticking out. This isn't that type of house to start with. Strange, I'm in the tropics, and I don't even like the tropical look.

 

[maytagbear]

I don't HATE celing fans,

but I am not a fan of them. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I'm a short little thing, just 5'8" which is tall for Ma's side, and a shrimp from Dad's, so it's not the height matter.

It's the aesthetics. Most of them are so unappealing. Hunter and Casablanca (are they still in business?) have some of the better ones, but........

I will stipulate to their energy virtues, but......

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[bobbyderegis]

I once saw a man with his young son on his shoulders almost lop the kid's head off because he didn't see the fan going. I am not a fan (no pun intended) of them either: I think they are just plain ugly. There was a rage a few years ago when churches started putting them in, supposedly to push the heat down from the high ceilings. One church placed them too close to the recessed lights and the place looked like a disco. The only place I like them is outside on a nice porch.
Bobby in Boston

 

[rp2813]

I like the 3-bladed look better, and Minka Aire has a great faux brushed nickel retro propeller looking ceiling hugger type that worked well with our MBR decorating scheme at the other house. Just a flat milk glass shade on it that was flush with the lower surface of the fan. Very sleek and unobtrusive. My only complaint about the 3-bladed type is that the sound of the blades slicing through the air is much more pronounced. It got kind of annoying. We switched to a 5-bladed with similar styling in the current MBR and it's much more quiet.

 

[joeekaitis]

6'3" and wouldn't want to sleep on a hot summer night without one over the bed.

Weird, I guess.

 

[elginkid]

I dislike them for everything except their practicality. I am also not a fan of air conditioning, but I distinctly dislike looking at ceiling fans, particularly in the public spaces of a house. Give me a gasoiler or electrolier any day. Awnings, curtains, open windows and desk fans are the way to keep a place looking snazzy and feeling comfy.

Wes

 

[appnut]

Weird, I guess.

I don't think so Joe.

I can't be WITHOUT them!! My first house dind't ocme with a single one (and this was in 1980). My dad installed two immediately. I have to have air circulating and I cannot stand the noise box fans make, old-fashioned oscillating fans are a bit better but I don't like the periodic blast as it oscillates back and forth. Gimme a ceiling fan any day. If it's above 63 in the house, it goes on for when I sleep. Yeah Sandy I'll admit, you'd have fricken stroke if you saw all five of mine, but I cannot get on a chair and clean 'em, I don't have the balance and equillibrium without falling off the chair--I can't even change a light bulb. so thee, deal with. But I have to have ceiling fans. it's the only way I can survive in the summers, as I get older, with the temp for AC set at 78 or 80 at most. And I have to have gentle breeze blowing on my face. When I was in the hospital for 3 weeks in fall of 2001, I was very thankful the room had a small fan mounted on the wall so I could have some breeze on my face. I guess I"m wierd--ceiling fans and fluorescent lights don't bother me one bit.

 

[appnut]

To me, ceiling fans are "old South". Before the days of A/C, that's how people kept cool. When my grandparents built their new house in the early 1930s, they put a Hunter Ceiling fan in the dining room--one that's till in the family and restored in the late 1970s. That fan in that dining room in Houston were some of my ver earliest memories of giong to my grandmothers. She had "cassack" (???) fans in just about eveery other room and I could only tolerate them. I thinnik they scared me cuz I dindn't always "see" them and ended up tripping and falling cuz of them.

 

[sudsmaster]

I'm not too fond of the frou-frou ornate ceiling fans (these supposedly went out with fern bars in the 70's), but I like the more modern ones with sleek enclosed fluorescent circline lighting.

I have two like this in my home - one in my family-room-office off the kitchen, and another in the dining room. I don't run them very much so they really haven't collected much dust/dirt/grime. Really. Probably because they don't have much in the way of nooks and crannies for dust to gather.

The only problem I've had with them is that since they are remote/radio controlled, I had to change the codes a few times to prevent them from responding to errant signals. No problems after that.

 

[swestoyz]

Awnings, curtains, open windows and desk fans are the way to

Wes - I DARE you then to sleep in my guest room in the middle of August then! While my 1914 Prairie was built with duct work for a gravity fed heater, a ceiling fan is the only way to keep sane during the balmy summer months due to a lack of central A/C. And this is with curtains, windows open (hello trains at 11:30 PM!), and a hassock fan to boot.

Ben