So, I purchased a no-frills Lasko stand fan to run overnight when it's not warm enough to turn on the AC but not cool enough to sleep comfortably (I'm very a warm-blooded sleeper). Well, a fan is a fan, but I noticed something when I turned it off. It was making a very noticeable scraping sound as it spun down, obviously bearing noise. It was more pronounced if you tipped the fan a few degrees. You could see the hub wobble so obviously there was some play in the bearing assembly. I mean, it was a $25 fan, but still.
So I boxed it up and exchanged it the next day for the same model, thinking it was a fluke. SAME EXACT THING. I boxed THAT up and exchanged it the following day for a Bionaire (different company, I think Sunbeam/Jarden Consumer Products) which was a little higher in price ($55) and was equipped with a little more features, like a remote control and a thermostat...guess what? SAME THING! Same wobble, same bearing scraping noise as the cheap Lasko, even though the Laskos and the Bionaire were manufactured by two different companies.
I figured it was no use to keep exchanging them out. They all have cheap motors, and as far as the motors go, they are pulled from the same parts bin, so I'll keep my fancy schmancy $55 thermostat/remote controlled model until it pops a fuse and locks its rotor or shreds its bearing sleeve, which should happen after this cooling season or the next. The first two Laskos I took back and the Bionaire I decided to stick with are all pretty quiet when running, it's just that the bearing noise is really prevalent when it is spinning down. Not something I would expect on a new product out of the box.
My parents still have the old Galaxy stand fan with the semitransparent blue blades. They've had it before I was born, since the late '80s. They take it out of the garage every spring and store it away every fall, and it still works beautifully.
So I boxed it up and exchanged it the next day for the same model, thinking it was a fluke. SAME EXACT THING. I boxed THAT up and exchanged it the following day for a Bionaire (different company, I think Sunbeam/Jarden Consumer Products) which was a little higher in price ($55) and was equipped with a little more features, like a remote control and a thermostat...guess what? SAME THING! Same wobble, same bearing scraping noise as the cheap Lasko, even though the Laskos and the Bionaire were manufactured by two different companies.
I figured it was no use to keep exchanging them out. They all have cheap motors, and as far as the motors go, they are pulled from the same parts bin, so I'll keep my fancy schmancy $55 thermostat/remote controlled model until it pops a fuse and locks its rotor or shreds its bearing sleeve, which should happen after this cooling season or the next. The first two Laskos I took back and the Bionaire I decided to stick with are all pretty quiet when running, it's just that the bearing noise is really prevalent when it is spinning down. Not something I would expect on a new product out of the box.
My parents still have the old Galaxy stand fan with the semitransparent blue blades. They've had it before I was born, since the late '80s. They take it out of the garage every spring and store it away every fall, and it still works beautifully.
