Are BOX fans dangerous????

[jw]

But they contain motors too, and could catch on fire. It would be much safer to place some mice in a squirrel cage and connect a fan blade to it.

[J Burns]

A window fan is intended to seal the window space so it can inhale as well as exhale.

Placed a few inches from a screen, a box fan won't inhale much through the screen but will exhale very well through the screen. This can be demonstrated by dangling a piece of toilet paper beside the fan. If it's blowing toward the screen, there won't be much air movement beside the fan. If it's blowing into the room, the toilet paper will probably be sucked toward the screen and into the fan. The viscosity of still air makes it hard to reach the fan through the screen, so air from the room is sucked around behind the fan.

When a fan exhales toward a screen, the velocity of the air will carry it right through. A fan 6" from a screen will do better than one 6' from the screen because the velocity will be greater at the shorter distance.

A 20" box fan should exhale twice as efficiently as a 10" window fan. The smaller fan would have to impart 4 times the velocity to blow the same volume as the larger fan, and that means 16 times the energy.

I have a couple of loops of cord tied through the top of my 9-pound box fan. It takes just a moment to hang it from hooks at the top of my kitchen window, where the air is hottest and most humid and there may be smoke in the event of a cooking mistake. If I want to cool the house, I walk outside and feel for any movement of air. If there's air coming from the direction of that window, I'll put the fan on a table in a window on the other side of the house. No use fighting Mother Nature.

[Bob Villa]

Who would be willing to fork-out $200 for this Made in USA product?

Lasko and Lakewood are made in America from foreign and domestic parts. My box fans are Lasko and more than 10 years old and no issues or complaints.

[Harry K]

But...but...but...aren't mice a source of dusease? Looks like the only solution is to crawl into a cave naked and never come out.

Harry K

[Harry K]

Yep. But just look how much safer you would be without the box fan...lets see, known problem (not the 'could have' 'might have' problems) divided into the population equals? I guess some vanishingly small chance of it causing a problem.

Harry K

[clare]

It's a WIKI - take it with a few grains of salt. Any moron can write anything and look like an expert.

It is designed that it will stand up to weather IF used in a window - still not designed "as" a window fan - but unlike "most" the fan is weatherproofed like a windowe fan motor.

The same lasko as sold by Home depot - it is ACTUALLY an indoor-outdoor fan - designed to be used on patios etc, not as a window fan - but as such it is safer than MOST box fans if you are going to use one in a window. Also considerably smaller than the "average" box fan, at 22" overall, with a 20 inch blade

Home Despot carries an affordable "window fan" designed to do the job -

well as a better, electrically reversible window fan that is still quite affordable - And then there is Lasko's window fan that allows you to close the window without removing the fan I suspect there is a good reason they sell "window fans" as well as "box fans" - different horses for different courses.

You could pull a plough with a thotougbred, and you could take a Clydesdale to the sulky track - but neither is optimal, or even close, for the job.

[J Burns]

Air King is now a Lasko subsidiary. The 9166 made its name as a fan that would blow 7000 cfm. Evidently, the construction wasn't good enough for that much power; bearings seized, blades cracked, and grilles broke. So they put on a wimpy motor for which they claim 3650 cfm.

I believe the Lasko 20-Inch Premium Box Fan ($24 at Amazon) claims 3623 cfm for only 150 watts. The manufacturer claims it blows 30% more than other fans. In that case, it would need more stability. Indeed, it is heavier and deeper than typical of plastic box fans. The 28 reviewers seem to have a consensus that it blows more than other box fans they've owned.

I once tested box fans for thrust by weighing them, hanging them by 6 feet of cord in the carport, and seeing how far back they moved when I turned them on. From pounds of thrust and diameter I could compute cfm.

I remember my 9-pound Holmes was very wimpy compared to my antique

24-pound Lau. Dadburnit, I'm getting knocking from the Lau motor now! I think the bearings are no longer handling the thrust. If I could find a replacement motor, it would be expensive. I wonder if it's easy to get bearings for a motor with a 3/8" shaft.

[jw]

Yep, you're right..... The cave better be sealed to prevent pollution from getting in too.

[jw]

Well, just to be really safe, I am going to have a welder make a solid steel box to put the fan inside. I figure it needs to be at least 1/2 inch thick solid steel with no holes anywhere. The cord will go thru a piece of well pipe and be connnected right to a breaker in the breaker panel directly, because plugs can create resistance and thus heat, and fire.

[jessicacadman7]

My window fan just sparked up right now a few times and made popping noises! Freaked me right out and it is brand new and doesn't have any dust on it!

[J Burns]

This is the weekend when kids prowl neighborhoods looking for fans to throw firecrackers at.

[micky]

No more dangerous than any motor, most of which will last for years if not decades and fail without causing a problem.

TAke it back and get another one or another brand.

I"m using my father's fan now that he bought around 1955. Old ones have to be oiled every year or two but it still works fine.

[ecaden1]

ok lets start off by saying that newer box fans are cheeply made, but the answer to your question is no there is one model of lasko box fan that was recalled but if you dont have that model you should be fine.

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

No, let's start off by saying you are replying to a SIX YEAR OLD thread. Question was posted on August 08, 2010.

[gfretwell]

They were death traps in 2010 but they are fine now. They just blow the thermal fuse now and you throw them away.

[brianisha9tailedfox]

I just saw a fire on my street, and the box fan was burned out hanging from the third story, I know what caused the fire, as it was charred. It was th e box fan. So anyone saying box fans dont cause fires, either has not had i t happen to them, or theyre just ignorant.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Maybe the fan burned from something behind it and sucked the smoke and flames trough it. Did you see the fire marshal's report?

[clare]

ant quality box fan is either thermaly protected, impedence protected, or both.

[twaldeck1712]

Ive never had an issue till yesterday when my fan caught fire and turned itself into melted plastic

[damienghughes]

87.314159265358979323846% to be exact :)