Do all ceiling fans wobble?
Published by on December 22nd, 2007
My name is Neil and I have not had much experience of ceiling fans. There, I’ve said it, it’s out there. Let’s all hold hands and sing a comforting song. The fact is I’ve not had contact with more than two or three ceiling fans - ever.
On holiday in Malta this year, we had one in the hotel room, and after spending a little time getting to grips with the control, I was fascinated by it’s complete lack of balance - boy did it wobble - but it worked well, did the job of moving air around nicely, and was attractive in design. It looked pretty new, too. (The design was very similar to this one - image provided by Farreys.com lamps.)
But the wobble. It did not exactly get to me, but I was, as various points through the week, increasingly in need of taping a coin or two onto the fins and redressing its lack of proper balance. I am presuming that might be a viable technique, though there is a risk over time that the coins will fly off and find themselves embedded in one’s forehead!
This got us into a conversation about ceiling fans, and it seems in jEN’s experience, every one she has experienced - a far greater number than me - has wobbled. In fact, the point at which the fans are connected to their ceiling mount appears to be designed specifically to cope with any wobble, thus helping to ensure it does not wrench itself off the ceiling entirely - a ceiling fan blade in the forehead seems a rather less attractive prospect than a coin. This got me thinking about the manufacturing costs of creating a properly balanced fan compared to one with a joint to absorb the wobble movement. I would guess that wobble can be introduced at any point - including improper fitting - so there is likely no way for a manufacturer to guarantee a perfectly balanced ceiling fan.
If I had one, I know I would have to spend quite some time balancing the device. The holiday-wobbling fan is on a section of video I really must get around to finish editing and post up here. You may want to try farreys.com for ceiling fans, floor lamps, or desk lamps.
6 Responses to “Do all ceiling fans wobble?”
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December 24th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
We’ve got a ceiling fan in our bedroom, made by Fantasia and it doesn’t wobble. We had ours fitted as part of the extension work completed. You can see Fantasia Fans here => http://www.fantasia-fans.co.uk/fantasia.home.php
December 24th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Neil - you are right to defer to Jen on all things fan-related because they are a staple in America and an oddity in the UK.
I live in Maryland now, and had the fun task of installing about half a dozen fans in our brand new house. I was lucky/smart enough to have the builder pre-wire the ceilings with holes/wires for ceiling fans.
For the kids’ bedrooms, we went cheap and got low price fans. They were a nightmare to install and impossible to balance.
For our bedroom and the downstairs rooms we got more expensive kinds that were much easier to install and seemed to balance all by themselves.
I’m just sorry that I can’t link to some fan manufacturer or other - I feel left out on this thread - but consider paying $150 for a fan rather than $50, if you ever find yourself in that position.
December 26th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
It pleases me to know that fans can be purchased without the need for wobble-correction. Nowhere near buying one yet, but one day for sure.
December 27th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I must make a slight correction: I have had fans without wobble, though, they were built in a compact format and could not accomodate any such swinging around. I’ve had experience with both the kind that are suspended on a rod from the ceiling (mostly wobblers - and built with some sort of bushing mechanism into their bases), and the compact models meant for lower ceiling heights (non-wobblers).
Ceiling fans are incredibly popular in the US. The last house I had in the states had one in nearly every downstairs room - three of them I think - and would’ve had them in the upstairs rooms too if the ceilings weren’t so darned low. (Of course, it could have reduced the household hairdressing costs… “A little off the top, ta.”)
January 2nd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Neil - check out this BoingBoing link and the manufacturers link below it..
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/01/02/fanimation-air-shado.html
http://www.fanimation.com/products/air_shadow/
Enjoy and keep your credit card safe… lolz
August 19th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I checked out the site farreys.com…Its quite good. Thanks