Ceiling fans have become a chaotic, unregulated design genre
What is going on with ceiling fans
Ceiling fan design has exploded into a bizarre world of fandeliers, flush-mounted hybrids, and plastic monstrosities, driven by direct-to-consumer platforms like Wayfair and cheap integrated LEDs. The author, a renter, investigates over a hundred fans and finds that the fan has become an appendage, an unfinished thought—concealed, juxtaposed, and often absurd. Even the rooms in product photos are AI-generated, but the fans are real and purchased.
If a gaggle of five circles can be a fan, when does it end?
- donatj
My wife and I were out recently looking at ceiling fans to replace the one in our dining room, which has committed no crimes, other than having the appearance of being very much from the 1980s.
I was taken aback by how few of the fans had replaceable lightbulbs! In the entire store there were maybe three or four options with a replaceable bulb!
Call me crazy, but a nonreplaceable LED is a complete dealbreaker. I go through so many LED bulbs! I don't know if my electricity is like particularly bad or if that's just normal? The first LED bulb I ever bought (Shout out EarthLED) in 2008 for like $30 is still going strong, but every bulb I buy these days lasts like two years tops.
Anyway, we did not buy a fan.
- brudgers
Technology Connections nerd-snipes ceiling fans in a recent video,
And of course complains.
But they are technologically informed complaints.
- Gshaheen
It’s the same story for basically any part of a home. Faucets, furniture, tubs, windows, doors, floors, lamps, you name it.
What a testament to the manufacturing advances that have made it profitable to cater to every possible taste, budget, and architectural layout. It’s incredible actually.
- BeetleB
I wanted to buy a ceiling fan last year, and just gave up.
LEDs integrated into fans are the worst idea. If they're not bright enough, you're hosed. You generally can't change the color. Just stick to proven fixtures, and let me put my own choice of bulbs in it!
The other problem is just how houses/apartments are designed in the US. You should always have a separate wall switch for fan and lights! Why they couple the two - I can't fathom.
- card_zero
> a normal fan that for some reason has a border around it
So, a ducted fan! That would be a sensible and practical design if your ceiling needed extra thrust for takeoff.
Cheap and stupid goods with threatening auras, indeed. Possibly a step up from the 90s when it was cheap and stupid goods with a Memphis Group primary school aesthetic. Hard to choose.