What are the Best Outdoor Fan Features?

One of the most important groups of features is Safety Features, including Safety Ratings. These are especially important with outdoor fans as opposed to indoor fans because there are more safety issues when using any electrical appliance outdoors.

Functional Features relate to how an outdoor fan is made. Noise levels, weight, frames and finishes are in this group.

Features that make a fan easier to use or allow you to fine tune the fan’s cooling ability are listed under Operating Features. These can range from remote controls to all sorts of adjustment options: blade speed, height, tilt, oscillation … even an option that can make your fan useful all year — reversible rotation.

And for lack of a better term, we’ll include a category called Financial Features which includes initial cost, operating costs, return policies and warranties.

Outdoor Fan Safety Features

All electric outdoor fans should have a safety rating. This rating means the fan has been reviewed by an independent testing agency such as UL (Underwriters’ Laboratory). These agencies review motors, components and connections to determine how safe they are to use in certain kinds of environments. This is a critical feature for any outdoor appliance. For more on product safety, go to the United State Consumer Products Safety Commission: cpsc.gov on product safety testing and ratings.

Look for the agency’s seal on the box of a new fan or stamped or labeled somewhere on the fan, itself. If you are shopping in a catalog or on a website, look for a statement like, “UL damp rated” or “UL rated for wet locations.” If you can’t find a rating for a particular fan, contact the retailer or manufacturer before you make your purchase to be sure it will work safely where you need it.

UL ratings are for three kinds of environments:

• DRY — for dry locations ONLY. Never use a DRY rated fan in a damp or wet location.
• DAMP– safe for protected outdoor use, for example, open walls with a solid ceiling, in a greenhouse or tent; not good for direct contact with water — rain or puddles, but outdoor humidity is fine. Damp rated fans don’t have the safety features to be used safely in wet locations. Also called indoor-outdoor fans or just outdoor fans.
• WET — can get totally wet — rained on or sitting in a puddle is fine; can be cleaned by hosing off. Safe to use indoors or outdoors. These are often call indoor-outdoor fans or simply outdoor fans.

If you’ll be using fans indoors and outdoors and want them to look alike, use an outdoor rated fan for both indoor and outdoor settings.

An automatic shut-off feature can turn off an outdoor fan in case it is knocked over or something gets caught in its blades. This can protect your fan as well as property and people.

A GFCI plug will immediately shut off an outdoor fan if there are any electrical surges, protecting people from extreme shock. Portable GFCIs are also available, and some outdoor power source outlets have GFCIs installed. Always perform a safety test on your GFCI each time before using it.

Functional Features of an Outdoor Fan

Outdoor Fan Frames

Outdoor fans with plastic or polypropylene frames and/or housing may cost less and need virtually no maintenance, but they can be less durable than metal. This may be fine if you’ll be using it in a protected area or if you won’t be using it often. Outdoor fans can benefit from the extra strength of a steel frame, especially if they will be permanently installed. The steel is much heavier than plastic and will make your fan harder to move and install. But the strength of steel will protect your fan from the harshness of the outdoors and help it withstand being knocked around.

Fan Finishes

Powder coated finishes on metal stands, blades and housing help resist the elements. Some finishes are beautifully antiqued or textured. Consider in advance how protected these will be from the elements — what if they get scratched? How will you repair the finish? What steps can to take to maintain that finish? The seller or manufacturer will be your best source for answers.

The Weight of an Outdoor Fan

Knowing the weight of a fan before you buy it can help you decide in advance how you will install it and set it up. A lightweight fan is also more portable.

How much does the fan weigh all together? Will you be able to lift it? For ceiling and wall mount fans, will you be able to lift it while you are installing it? Will you be moving the fan often? Are there handles and wheels to help with that? Narrow wheels work find on hard surfaces, but wider wheels are really helpful if you’ll be moving it across grass or other uneven surfaces.

How is the weight distributed? How stable is it? Floor fans are generally more stable that standing fans but a standing / pedestal fan may suit your needs better. Standing fans will likely need to be anchored to prevent them tipping over.

Noise Levels

Many manufacturers use a decibel rating (dB) to give you an idea of the amount of noise you can expect from their fan. The decibel rating is a common measurement of sound. 0dB is inaudible — it’s at the bottom level of average human hearing. 120-140dB is where sound becomes painful. But the actual decibel rating is a limited indicator of noise produced by a fan because of how fans make noise in the first place.

Fan noise can be made by many things: the movement of the fans parts, the motor spinning, the motor’s own cooling fan inside the enclosure, the blades moving against the housing, the blades moving through the air. The way you install it can make it louder or quieter, and how close someone is to the fan makes a difference in perceived noise level. So, it’s very hard to pin down a precise noise level. Decibel ratings can be helpful, if not precise.

Consider the quality of the fan’s sound as well as its volume. Different frequencies produce different tones, even at the same dB level. A low rumbling sound may not be as noticeable as a high whistling sound.

Ideally you should listen to an outdoor fan in the same kind of space you’ll be using it, before you buy it, to make sure that it’s acceptable. Realistically that’s nearly impossible, unless the manufacturer has one terrific return policy, or if you happen to run across someone else using the fan in a similar setting. Use dB ratings to get a general idea of the fan’s noise level.

Outdoor Fan Operational Features – Ease of Use

Portability

Many outdoor fans are portable so you can move them when you want to where you need them most. Some are available with optional dollies or casters. If your fan is heavy or if you expect to be moving your fan across uneven surfaces such as dirt or grass, opt for wide wheels that can handle the weight and the surfaces more smoothly.

How an Outdoor Fan is Mounted

Ceiling fan downrods and angle mounts allow ceiling fan installation on special ceilings. Downrods are used for high ceilings — grand entrance ways, courtyards with high overhangs, airplane hangars and garages. These lower the fan closer to where its air flow can be better felt. Angle mounts are designed to attach ceiling fans to angled ceilings.

Remote controls make adjusting fans controls easy for ceiling fans and other hard-to-reach fans. Some of these are hand-held while others can be installed onto a wall. You can control others from an app on your cell phone.

Variable speed is especially helpful for outdoor fans. The environment outdoors is extremely changeable. You might have a very hot day with no breeze, followed by a very hot day with a strong breeze, followed by a mildly hot day with a soft breeze. Variable speeds let you adjust your fan’s air flow to the needs of the day — less on milder days, more on hotter days with less or no breeze.

Variable speeds can help with the set up of your fan. If you need to cool a certain area but the fan’s noise is too loud, you can move the fan back a few feet and set it on a higher speed. This also help if layout of an area is such that you have to move the fan back farther. By the same token, if the area is small, you can position the fan nearby and use a lower speed setting.

This is part of the set up trial and error you sometimes need to go through to figure out the best set up for your fan and your area.

Many fans, especially outdoor ceiling fans, have reversible rotation. This means in addition to their regular cooling function, you can reverse the fan rotation to draw warm air up in cold weather to help heat an area.

Many standing and wall mount fans have an oscillating feature, which means they swivel back and forth to give a cooling effect to a larger area. This changes the position of the air flow. So even though the size of the air flow doesn’t change, it moves, intermittently covering more area than if it were still.

Look for tilt or rotate features, allowing you to change the direction of the air flow without moving the fan. You can angle a fan to direct all of its flow to one particular spot, or angled slightly to another spot without moving the fan. A high-speed fan directed right at people can feel like a hurricane and blow things all over the place. But if it has a tilt or rotate feature you can direct it at the ceiling or a wall to disperse the air flow and make it a softer breeze.

Adjustable heights are especially helpful with standing fans. You can extend or shorten the frame to fit certain areas or to help adjust the direction of the air flow.