Fans (not the computer type)

So, it’s been hot as hell in my apartment this year, and a month or two back, I bought a cheap ass 16" pedestal fan. Well, on the weekend, it crapped out. Basically, when I turn it on, it would hum without actually spinning the blades. If I gave the blades a helping start, the fan could kind of keep them going. But eventually it would stop spinning.

Since it only cost me $20, I figure no big deal. So I go to a better store, and pick up a better fan. Two year warranty, remote control, various other little cool features. It cost $50.

Well, I set it up yesterday, and when I woke up this morning, it had stopped spinning. Turn it off then on again? Won’t start spinning. And the motor housing was very hot.

Anyway, with the first one I thought maybe it was bad luck, but with a second one, I’m starting to wonder if there could be other factors. Anyone have any ideas? A fan probably shouldn’t die after a single day of use.

Your house is haunted, and the ghost keeps getting its voodoo (or whatever it is that ghosts wear) stuck in the fan blades.

I’ll suggest a Lasko High Velocity Fan. We’ve had one for a couple of years, and it kicks all kinds of ass. It does have a remote if you can’t be bothered to actually stand up to adjust it.

return it, get another.

in fans, usually the bearings get jammed or something that makes it difficult to spin. what you describe doesn’t sound like an electrical problem at all.

$50 for a fan? You’re almost halfway to an air conditioner.

Then I was cheated - I paid $4000 for my aircon.

At work I reestablished my geek-cred by mounting a hdd-cooler with dual 40mm fans to blow air in my face instead (it’s the yearly heatwave not caused by global warming but rare enough to not warrant aircon in our building…)

I have no idea how good a $120 air conditioner would be. Certainly it wouldn’t cool your whole house, but it would do more than a fan.

This is the correct answer. Because no matter how large your apartment is, you won’t find a fan anywhere that will actually cool it off.

But actually, you know what? I wouldn’t plug it in to the outlet that keeps burning the fans out.

Yeah, when I get a replacement I’m going to avoid the plug I was using previously. I’d hate to think it was electrical problems. That would suck.

As for air conditioners, as much as I’d really like to get one, I don’t want to install one myself and accidentally drop it out an 18th story window.

Maybe something like this may help? Link is only a visual, you can get something like this at Radio Shack for cheap.

I just installed a big, 15k BTU unit in our apartment window. It would have been better to have two people to lug it around, but it wasn’t that hard, really.

If you’re worried about that, you can always get one that doesn’t sit in the window, like this

Does anyone have any experience with mains water cooled air conditioning systems? My casement windows aren’t suitable for a window unit and living in a block of flats I can’t do a wall mounted mounted one or an ordinary split unit. But fans just aren’t cutting it in the summer months given how well insulated my flat is. Even now, with outside temperatures barely in double digits ©, I have to have the windows open.

If anyone knows, what’s the power/water usage like and is there any impact on water pressure? Is there any chance a single say 12k BTU outlet could cool the whole flat (ca 750 sq ft) or is it only going to work in the one room?

Are we talking about a swamp cooler here, or something that actually uses coolant other than water?

We had a swamp cooler in my grandmother’s living room window for years, in central Oklahoma. I loved sitting in front of that thing when I was a kid, it did a nice job for what it was capable of. It certainly doesn’t cool a large room, though.

I’m not talking about that, no. This type has a proper condenser (including, I believe, non-water refrigerant) and a wall/ceiling mounted fan like a split unit. It’s just that the heat removal is done via mains water rather than expelling hot air.