Me and the vac techs in this area prefer the metal fans-for another reason-the dirt tracked in from outside is very fine and sandy and abrasive-swear you could glue the stuff to paper and make sandpaper out of it.It erodes any plastic fan quickly-esp Sanitaire fans-and the fan housing.Then both are weakened so if the fan does hit something hard the fan and housing breaks.Ditto with Oreck fans and housings.Some salesmen claim the blades of the plastic fan "flex" when they hit something-the metal does not.There may be something to that-was said by a Kirby salesman that used to work this area.I just haven't had the best of luck with the plastic-so I am careful as to what I let the machine pick up.The Riccar folks claim you can pick up drywall screws with the Radiance-haven't tried that-treat it like the Kirby-just careful as to what it picks up.So far the tech hasn't had to replace andy Radiance fans.In the Radiance the fan and housing are plastic-"composite" as Riccar calls it-reinforced with carbon fiber.In one Heritage Kirby I have-tried it with the carpet nozzle(was a trade in for a TriStar)and it was fine-then tried the hose--KAAAAWWWAAACK!!!the fan EXPLODED!Looked at the peices-was many cracks in the plastic-suffered from age.Metal doesn't have that problem-have a few 500 Kirbys and their fans are fine(metal)Same with a Dual 50 and a Dual 80.Looked like the plastic in the Heritage fan was some sort of reinforced plastic-found what looked like white fibers in it.I still remember the dramatic demo done by the Royal salesman a while back-the picking up of pennies with a Royal Classic and the fan only suffered a few nicks and one slightly bent blade.The pennies were bent and folded over.Wonder if a plastic fan would take that.