On Thu 25 Jun 2009 07:23:23p, RBM told us...


"woger151" wrote in message
...
I want to buy a ceiling fan for a medium-sized bedroom with 8' ceilings.

The brands that SWMBO has looked at on the web include Hunter, Hampton
Bay, and Casablanca.

Some advice I've seen on the web and usenet include things like (a)
remote controls often break, (b) some intelligent chip thing on
Casablancas can burn out in power surges and they won't ship you a new
one for free, etc.

I'm asking about the brands now because much of the advice I found is
at least a few years old and thus of questionable applicability to
fans available now.

TIA,

S
A couple of things to keep in mind. Casablanca is an excellent fan,
extremely quiet and perfectly balanced, but pricey. They have had issues
with some of the control systems like intellitouch, doing strange things
for no apparent reasons. Some of their fans, and many Hunter brand fans,
which are both made by the same company, are excessively heavy and
cannot be mounted to a standard ceiling fan support box. These fans
require wood bracing above the ceiling that a large lag bolt must be
screwed into. In the event that you don't have access or the desire to
do this, check the mounting requirements before purchasing.

Hampton Bay is just a trademark of HD, the fans are made by a variety of
companies, some are really well made and quite inexpensive, but it is
kind of pot luck.
Emerson and Minka-Aire are two other companies that make mid grade
perfectly good fans as well, and like most of the Hampton bays fans,
will typically mount to standard fan support boxes.

Emerson fans feature 3 grades/types of motors in various styles, which
reflect a wide price range as well. Their top grade motor has a lifetime
full replacement warranty, requires absolutely no maintenance other than
surface cleaning, and is perfectly silent in operation.

Apart from the Hunter Original (which weighs in at ~50 pounds, I wouldn't
buy any other fan than Emerson. I've owned 5 of them for many years, have
moved them from house to house several times, and they still perform like
they were new out of the box.

--
Wayne Boatwright
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat. There's no
pleasure worth foregoing just for an extra three years in the
geriatric ward. ~John Mortimer