weird nightime Lasko fan noises...

[firedome]

OK this may be a confession of some kind of mental issues lol... but. Like many we use a fan at night as a source of white noise for sleeping, a series of cheapo mostly Lasko box fans over many years. We don't like a/c much so have a lot of them, 8 or 9. At night, particularly, when all else is quiet I notice that beyond the steady motor hum and fan whirring there is always some kind of subtle strange intermittent electrical? pulsing/surging sound, in all of them. Switching them out, changing speed, location, air direction, what it sits on, nothing seems to eliminate it. Is this some neurotic obsession, has anyone else noticed this? My wife doesn't hear a thing and thinks I'm nuts, but my hearing is better than hers, she didn't hear the d/w humming the other day when it was broken. So anyway, could it be induction, motor design, line current? It sounds like some kind of very subtle electric surging on-and-off, with no fixed pattern. Enough to interfere with sleeping - I'm a very light sleeper - and driving me crazy!
Anyone else notice anything like this? Maybe I just need a different/better/quieter fan?

 

[robbinsandmyers]

Lasko fans werent the highest quality and didnt use the best motors. You're prob hearing 60 cycle hum in the motor or the tin in the fan buzzing. My go to was Robbins & Myers but I've jumped ship to Emersons. They were literally the best built fans ever and stuck with cast iron decades after the other famous well built names like Westinghouse, GE, R&M , etc switched to cheaper pot metal. I'm assuming you are using a desk and not a box fan correct? I've been using Emerson govt fans made in the ;ate 40's the past year with capacitor run motors. These are 12" models that draw 40 watts on high and run cool as a cucumber 24/7 and can be trusted if you leave the house for the day provided you keep them oiled like any other fan. These are HEAVY fans and absorb any kind of buzz/hum etc and just give off wind noise. I would advise buying one no newer than the 40's off Ebay with a cast iron base as well as motor housing. If heavy cast isnt your thing the next best fans I've tried were 70's-80's Panasonics or Sanyo's with Lucite blades made in either Japan or Mexico. All plastic except for the cage but very quiet and just give off wind noise. I wont buy whats considered vintage " drug store" fans because they were built to a much lower price point than I prefer and dont hold up under heavy use.

 

[firedome]

thanks for the comment, all of them

presently are Lasko 20" box fans. I may take a look at those '70s Panasonics.

Had thought about buying one of these, the motor looks to be of high quality, but it's a bit big for the BR!

24 Inch 3-Speed Heavy Duty Metal Industrial Drum Fan, Yellow, Simple Deluxe

Simple Deluxe 24 Inch High Velocity Air Movement Heavy Duty Metal Drum Fan 3 Speed Air Circulation for Industrial, Commercial, Residential, and Shop Use

www.zenhydro.com

 

[robbinsandmyers]

If you want to stick to box fans try a vintage Emerson, Lau, or Vornado from the 50's. Built like tanks and well balanced with strong motors. Sadly most box fans rattle, its their nature.

 

[arbilab]

Not all Emersons are created equally.  For a small window I bought a small Emerson box fan in 1968. 

Good thing I was home/awake when it started smoking. 

 

Only been a month so I took it back and they gave me another one.  Wasn't long before that one smoked too.  Decided to do without.

 

Decades later, bought the 'spring sale' special, one of the downscale brands but one you've heard of (Lasko?). 

Ran it until the bearings seized, about 20yrs.  Bought another just like it, still have it. 

 

These were all pretty good whitenoise generators, without sounds that would get your attention.  Ceiling fans, another matter. 

They all made once-around noises, clicks or buzzes.

 

[robbinsandmyers]

Reply #4

Im not a fan of box fans excuse the pun. They have cheap stamped steel motors and arent built very well. The only box fan I saw worth its salt was the ancient Spin-It-fan I owned from the late 30's with a cast iron motor and weighed 3 tons. Sadly it was more a whole house fan even on low than a regular fan it was so powerful. I own an early 50's super rare Polar Cub Custom box fan by Gilbert only for show because its a unicorn but prefer desk fans. re:Emerson, I did state what era to stop at because thats when even they cut corners. My family had a blue Lasko box fan when I was a kid, had louvres and was reversable and was a rattle trap and fried after 5 years.

 

[firedome]

back in the day...

like the early '70s, we inherited a 1950s? Westinghouse Mobilaire big fan that sat on a vertically adjustable stand with wheels and had concentric side-louvers like smaller Vornados (still have one of those). Just a great well-built fan that we used through 3 apartments and 15 years of our first house, about 20 years in total. Gave it away prior to moving out of state, a big mistake. I'd love to find another one of those!

 

[circlew]

When I was a kid, we had a fan that was called a Mathes Cooler. It is made of wood (probably mahogany), with a vertical metal grill, and has a drawer pull on top as a carrying handle. I think my parents got it sometime in the late 40's. I still have it at storage, but it needs refinished as the varnish peeled when we used it in the hot attic. This fan was fairly powerful, and reasonably quiet. We also had a window fan with dual fan sections, and could select one or both. We got that one sometime around 1960. The brand was Martin, Marvin, or something like that.

 

[qsd-dan]

Not all Emersons are created equally.

The Emerson 77646/77648 w/capacitor motors and 79646/79648 AP-G fans are the only ones worth purchasing.

The 77's are far too quiet to generate wind noise, which I use around the house and near windows to draw air from outside. The 79646 AP-G is still too quiet for my ears. I use the 16" 79648 AP-G on a nightstand by my head facing the opposite direction for sleeping.

Most box fans are crappy build quality, noisy, rattle, inefficient from a CFM/wattage perspective, and generally use substandard inefficient shaded pole motors.

 

[robbinsandmyers]

I have a 1940 79646-AU in my bedroom I use in warm months and was using it for white noise and it was just perfect for that. Even though its not a govt fan its still built like a tank and will last another 80 years. I my 79646-AP-G got severe use last summer and I just restored a 79648-AP-G thats going in the front room to replace my 1948 GE Vorty pedestal I may sell. Current project almost done is another 79646-AP-G for the computer room. White noise for me cant be too loud or it keeps me awake. Box fans are out for that or I'll never sleep. The 1940 makes just enough white noise it cancels out my upstairs neighbor, my main street traffic noise, and sometimes my landline in the front room. Something happened though and I reset myself and dont need white noise to sleep anymore. So the fan is just for warm months or when cooking smelly/smokey stuff and need to blow that out of my bedroom across the hall into the bathroom while the exhaust fan runs.

 

[qsd-dan]

The 79 series residential shaded pole fans are still great machines with excellent build quality and efficient compared to other makes and models but they use twice the power to get the same job done as the government fans with a capacitor motor.

 

[robbinsandmyers]

Agreed. That capacitor run motor is simply brilliant in design. The new plastic junk China cranks out that will burn up and fry in 2 years prob draws more current than those G series Emersons.

 

[qsd-dan]

Modern fans don't even come close to these in build quality, noise, and efficiency.

When I first discovered these fans in the mid 2000's back when they were still the best kept secret, I'd pick them up on Ebay for prices between $0.99-$20. I remember putting a watt meter on one and nearly lost my mind. The plastic fantastic 16" blade Chinese fan I was using at the time moved MAYBE 400 CFM's on high while making a racket and sucking down 154 watts. I put the 77648-AO (16" blade) on the watt meter, high speed, and it literally moved 5 times as much air while sipping 58 watts...and achieved those figures quietly.

 

[robbinsandmyers]

Dan would you have a few parts for sale? I just re-assembled my newest 79646-AP-G tonight and it came out great. I bought it from a man in upstate NY and the USPS tried its best to destroy it. They did a pretty good job on the blade and cage. I brought the cage back but the blades are not running true and it has a slight vibration on high which it shouldnt. The thing was so beat from 50+ years of use in a V.A. hospital with no service. The motor bushings were very sloppy and the shaft scored, plus the brass gear in the gear box was stripped smooth and the steel worm gear spiral was very sharp and pointed where it rode in the brass gear so Im afraid it will ruin this good one I bought. I got a motor housing, rotor, and gear box from a 79648-AP-G from a collector in SC but still need to find the steel worm, plus an undamaged blade. If you dont have any willing to part with would you know of any out there? Thanks.

 

[qsd-dan]

Sorry, I don't have any spare parts. I've been lucky to have all of my fans function correctly but I did end up sending a couple of the 16" 77 series blades off to be rebalanced.

Parts for these fans are very common. Between Ebay and the folks at fancollectors.org, you should be able to find everything you need.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Odd fan noises

Glad to hear I'm not the only one! I hear an almost cyclical, but not totally regular, noise from one of ours... it might even be the a/c we have in the bedroom window, but I don't remember. I know it's not happening now but the a/c isn't in the window.

 

It's interesting that it keeps me awake with the uneven, pulsing noise. We have a white noise generator going and that doesn't affect me at all. In fact, I'm so used to it that it's weird if it's not on like the few times Rich does an overnight with a client and isn't there to turn it on.

 

Chuck