Easy to install ceiling fan with a great warranty.
Written: Mar 02 '06 (Updated Jun 14 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very easy to install. Comes with a lifetime warranty.
Cons: Trade a little bit of style choice for diversity.
The Bottom Line: Hampton Bay fans are by far the easiest to install, and their warranty lasts forever, covering even normal wear and tear.
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| tizzo's Full Review: Hampton Bay 24750 Huntington III Ceiling Fan |
Introduction
When I first moved to Florida in 1999, one of the first improvements I made to my apartment was the addition of a ceiling fan. Ceiling fans are considered virtually standard here, and even the most basic apartments usually include pre-wired (but vacant) ceiling fan outlets in at least one or two rooms. On the advice of a knowledgeable relative, we looked into the Hampton Bay brand. At that time, the current model was the Huntington II, but I have since purchased several Huntington III units.
Price
Most versions of the Huntington III go for about $65 on Home Depot's website. Some of the more exotic color combinations go for a little bit more, and are probably not available at all local stores. I found this price to be extremely competitive, particularly given some of the features that I describe in detail below. You can certainly pay much more for a ceiling fan of similar or lesser quality.
Features
Ceiling fans generally come in two sizes -- 42 inch, which usually has four blades, and 52 inch, which usually has five blades. Fans either come with or without a light kit. Most fans that do not include a light kit are designed to allow one to be added on. The Huntington line of fans all include light kits. The Huntington II included a 3-light kit, and the Huntington III includes a 4-light kit.
Huntington III refers to a whole line of fans, identical in form (52-inch, five-blade, 4-bulb light kit), and differing in design elements, such as the color of the fan blades, color of the housing, and style of glass shades included in the light kit. The fan blades are usually two-tone, and reversible. For example, the white fans come with blades that are plain white on one side, and bleached oak on the other. You can install the blades with either side facing down, allowing you a little bit of versatility with a single fan. I imagine that this also helps them keep the cost down, since they get two distinct looks with each fan.
The Huntington III fans, like most others, are controlled by one pull-chain for the fan, and one for light (if equipped). The fan is three speed, and you cycle the speeds by pulling the chain repeatedly. From off, the first pull switches you to high. Continue pulling to switch through medium, low, and then back to off. At high and medium speeds, the only sound you'll hear is the wind being generated by the fan. At low speed, the fan is almost silent, though you may hear a very low hum if you're listening for it. The motor will also hum for a few seconds as the fan changes speeds -- this is normal.
Installation
My two favorite things about Hampton Bay fans are the ease of installation, and the lifetime warranty. Hampton Bay fans are sold exclusively at The Home Depot. As such, they are designed specifically for the do-it-yourselfer. One consequence of this is that they are extremely easy to install. Even if you've done ceiling fan installations before, and are capable of installing any kind of ceiling fan, you'll appreciate the fact that you can install these fans in much less time that it would take to install any of the competing brands. Some of the specific features that make this fan easy to install are:
Hanger Bracket with Hook
Ceiling fans are suspended from the ceiling either by a downrod connected by a ball-and-socket type hanger, or using what is called the "flush-mount" technique, in which the housing of the fan attaches directly to the housing at the ceiling that conceals the wiring, without a downrod. For safety reasons, a ceiling fan should be mounted at least 7 feet above the floor. In my apartment, we had low ceilings, and so I had to mount the fan using the flush-mount technique. In applications that don't involve low ceilings you will almost always want to use a downrod.
When mounting with a downrod, you can hang the fan and still have easy access to the wiring. When using the flush-mount technique, the downrod is removed from the equation entirely. The fan is mounted directly to the housing that conceals the wiring, and hanging the fan means installing the housing so that the wiring is covered. It is therefore more difficult to install a fan using the flush-mount technique, because you need to do all the wiring before you hang the fan, which means finding some other way to support the fan while you do the wiring. This usually means having another person stand at the bottom of the ladder, holding the fan up above their heads for as long as it takes you to do the wiring.
Hampton Bay's solution is both simple and elegant (and, as far as I can tell, exclusive). They have added a little point sticking up out of the hanger bracket. After you've attached the fan to the ceiling housing, you hang it from this point by one of the screw holes that will later be used to fasten the ceiling housing in place. This supports the fan close enough to the ceiling to allow you to make all necessary connections, and allows it to hang at an angle so that you have easy access to the wiring. It's a little bit difficult to describe, but you'll know exactly what I mean when you see it.
Snap-On Blades
Most ceiling fan blades attach to the motor with three or four screws driven in from the ceiling-side of the blade, where they will not be visible after the fan is installed. It's not difficult to attach the blades, just a little time consuming. More importantly, however, since the screws pass through the tops of the blades, you have to install them before hanging the fan. Standing on a ladder trying to work on wiring in a confined are is difficult enough when you don't have to try to manipulate your body around and between the fan blades while you're doing it.
Hampton Bay fan blades attach to the motor with no screws, and require no tools for installation whatsoever. The simple (but, again, exclusive) mounting procedure involves three large key-shaped holes in the blades, which you slip over three rubber-coated grommets on the motor, compressing a spring-loaded clip below the blade. Once you've got the blades lined up over the grommets, you simply slide the blade out away from the motor, forcing the grommets into the smaller ends of the keyholes, until the spring-loaded clip snaps into place. The grommets keep the blade from moving up off of the motor, the clip keeps the blade from sliding in towards the motor. Best of all, you can do this after the rest of the installation is complete, meaning that you don't have to deal with the fan blades while mounting and wiring the fan.
Extra Downrods
Every Hampton Bay fan I've ever purchased has included two downrods of different lengths in the package. Combined with the flush-mount technique, this gives you three choices for the height of your ceiling fan. Unless you have cathedral ceilings, one of the included options will be appropriate for your application. You can buy downrods as long as 24", and special-order longer ones, if you have an extraordinary application, such as very high ceilings.
Color-Coded Wiring
While this is by no means and exclusive feature, Hampton Bay fans conform to standard wiring color codes. Specifically, the white wire always connects to neutral, black always connects to the fan motor's hot side, and if there is a light kit, it's hot side is always connected to the blue wire. Note that, depending on how your ceiling fan outlet is wired, you may have only two wires (a black and a white). If you do have three wires, they will probably be black, white, and red. If you only have two wires, connect white to white, and connect the fan's blue and black together to the black wire in the box.
Note that even if you have three wires, all three may not be active, depending on how your switch box is wired. If you are unsure whether all of your wires are active, consult an electrician.
Balance
I can't state objectively that Hampton Bay fans are better balanced than other fans. I can report based on my experience, however, that of the eight Hampton Bay fans I've installed, none of them has required any balancing to be done after installation.
In contrast, all three of the Hunter fans I've installed have required very slight balancing, and all of the preexisting fans in the house I just bought needed balancing, though most of them were about five years old.
Ironically, Hampton Bay fans all come with a balancing kit that makes it easy to balance the fan. This came in very handy when I needed to balance those other fans I mentioned, because none of them came with anything similar.
Warranty
If you've read my review on Scotts Accugreen 3000 Drop Spreader, you know that I am most impressed by companies that have the confidence in their products to not only offer a strong warranty, but to make it easy to invoke the terms of that warranty.
Hampton Bay's warranty is both simple and, in my opinion, extraordinary. Your Hampton Bay fan has a lifetime warranty -- period. If the fan stops working or wears out, you bring it to Home Depot with your original receipt and get a replacement, free, no questions asked. This is extraordinary because ceiling fans involve moving parts, and they tend to be running most of the time (at least in my house). In short, they do wear out eventually. In my particular case, that Huntington II that I bought for my first FL apartment came with me to my first home a couple years later. After a few years in the home, it started humming and making a little scraping noise while it was running. This points to wear in the bearings, and was particularly annoying since the fan was installed in our bedroom -- but is not unusual in a fan of any brand that has run almost continuously for five or six years.
I pulled out the manual, read the warranty, which directed me to call the local Home Depot store. I called, and they told me to just bring in the fan, and the receipt, and I'd get a new one of the same or better model. I took down the fan, my wife dug out the receipt, and we went to Home Depot. Within 10 minutes, we walked out the door with a brand new Huntington III (the Huntington II had since been discontinued).
If you remember nothing else from this review, remember to save your receipt!
Caveat
One thing I should note is that the lifetime warranty is on the motor only. The rest of the fan is under a one year warranty. Now I'm a big-picture kind of guy, and a ceiling fan is a very simple contraption. The motor is the only part that is likely to wear out, and is the only part that I've ever had fail in my past experience with any model of ceiling fan. It is also the only part that you can't replace for a fraction of the cost of replacing the fan -- when you need a new motor, you need a new fan. So as far as I'm concerned, a lifetime warranty on the motor is a lifetime warranty on the fan itself. But strictly speaking, this is not accurate. Consider yourself warned.
Amusing Anecdote
OK, I don't know how much they add to the review, but I like amusing anecdotes. So here goes:
Not long after we got this new fan, my wife and I were shopping for our new house. The sellers of the house were showing us around, and at one point one of them proudly pointed out that all the fans in the home were from a local store that sells what I can only assume are considered to be somehow "upscale" products. "None of that Home Depot stuff" (yes, she specifically singled out Home Depot!)
My wife and I smiled politely, and were careful to seem suitably impressed. Within six months after moving in, the fan in our bedroom, which was just past the end of it's five year warranty, was replaced with a Hampton Bay Huntington III.
Negatives
If there is anything that I can criticize about Hampton Bay fans, it is that the selection is less than infinite. The Huntington III is an outstanding fan, suitable for almost any application, and comes in enough color combinations that you can fit it into almost any decor. But it's intended for the mass market, and as such they've designed it to be perhaps a little "blah".
If you're going for some kind of really specific look, you may have trouble finding a Hampton Bay fan that works. I've bought two Hunter fans in my life.
One was because I needed an outdoor fan, Hampton Bay and Hunter each made exactly one such fan, and the Hunter fit better with the decor.
The other was for our formal living room. We really like very dark cherry wood furniture, and that is what we got for our living room. We wanted a brass fan with wood grain paddles for the room, and it just happened that Hunter had one that was a better match to the furniture than anything Hampton Bay was offering at the time.
In both cases, Hampton Bay lost out only because of their limited selection. And in neither case was Hunter's selection any less limited -- it just happened to contain the closest match to what we were looking for.
Conclusion
Unless I have a very specific design requirement that Hampton Bay can't satisfy, I do not expect to ever purchase another brand of ceiling fan. Particularly if you are a do-it-yourselfer, I strongly recommend that you look at Hampton Bay first, and only look further if you can't find something that fits your budget or design criteria.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tizzo
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Location: Melbourne, FL, USA
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 28 members
About Me:
I'm a Software Engineer from NJ, now living in Melbourne, FL.
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