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bloke wrote:

They'll be here next week (when I might have time to put them up)...

I thought your new intern at blokePlace was going to take care of that stuff??

We've never had a ceiling fan burn up. I put up Hunter's in all rooms when we bought our house 30 yrs ago. Don't know where Hunter fans are made currently.

Yeah, but did you buy the good ones amongst the Chinese fans??

bloke wrote: also WANT a couple of spare new "looks-just-like-this" fans to store away - and to pull out as others burn up in the future.

You might want to pull the extras out occasionally and spin them to keep lubrication/bearings/? from going bad...

All of those fans are copies of Cerveny ceiling fans anyway.

cjk wrote:All of those fans are copies of Cerveny ceiling fans anyway.

The rotary fans, at least...

Rick F wrote:We've never had a ceiling fan burn up. I put up Hunter's in all rooms when we bought our house 30 yrs ago. Don't know where Hunter fans are made currently.

I put up a Hunter ceiling fan when I built my music room back in 1975. It's been down once to replace the REAL off-the-shelf industrial-quality sealed ball bearings. I doubt if I'll ever need to buy another ceiling fan.

It COULD have been made in China but I doubt it. There is some good stuff coming out of far-flung places but the quality is such that it will cost more than most of the crap that can be found in the 'big-box' hardware stores.

I've never had a ceiling fan burn out either. We have six in the house, and a couple of them are 15 years old. I just replaced one that must have been 20-25 years old. Only one was a Hunter, and it was a good fan, but in terms of functionality and value I can't say it was noticeably better than some of the others. Our fans have tended to get replaced for stylistic and function-related reasons.

What I have noticed over the years of fan replacement is that each round of newer fans seems significantly easier to install than their predecessors. This is mostly due to design improvements, but also to weight reduction. They also come with new features like wireless on/off and speed control -- which in an older house is great unless you really enjoy pulling new wiring through old walls and ceilings and floors. This is one reason I wouldn't want to "stockpile" fans: the improvements in technology can really matter.

In terms of cost, my guess is that the newer fans are no more expensive -- and possibly less expensive -- than the older ones. But that's mostly a gut feeling. The ones we buy just aren't that expensive (generally in the $130-$150 range, at most). It's also important (in rooms with "normal" ceilings) to have the low profile versions -- which just weren't available in the old days. And the lights are better now.

I don't know who's responsible for all these things, but the fans do seem to be manufactured in China. I've got to the point where I'm disinclined to buy a ceiling fan that will last for 30 or 40 years since I'm pretty sure I won't.

bloke wrote:We run all of ours nearly all-day every day: 365...
...Do most of you who've not worn yours out run yours constantly ?

I've got three going on 30 years that run 365 days a year and they are all going strong. I may replace the one in the Florida room for one that is more compact though.