I don't see why people are supporting the position "box fans don't /
can't / haven't caused house fires".
I've had some get very close to that point.

They are cheap electrical devices often neglected and run for hours
unattended.
I've abused a fair number of these units; old metal ones & newer cheap
plastic units.

Several units have just stopped working & been brought back to life by
dropping them on their faces.
Clean them? Why bother... as long as they run, run 'em 'til they
stop.

One overheated & all the internal smoke leaked out but no flames.

Reported cases of 42 serious malfunctions.
How many unreported? 10x? 100x? even at that rate they don't seem all
that dangerous.

But knowing that they "could be a problem", let's us be a bit more
careful with how they are used (if we choose)
My "work around" is to only use new units unattended and never leave
the "beaters" running alone.

I wondered how many of the "failed" units were abused or misused?

I more amazed that they don't cause problems way more often
considering the way see them used / mis-used.


cheers
Bob

I had one burn up in my bedroom window one night. When the wind is right I
think they can be overloaded causing them to fail.