Five Types of Ceiling Fans

All ceiling fans are created equal, right? Not quite. Like many things in life, the range of options with ceiling fans is more diverse than a person might expect. To the uninitiated, fans may seem an unnoticed home accessory, homogenous and dull, but those in the know recognize the possibilities a good fan can do, depending on what's needed.

Here are five types of ceiling fans:

Hunter Ceiling Fan: No, this doesn't refer to a camouflaged fan favored by outdoorsman looking to shoot an elk or fox. Maybe those types of ceiling fans exist somewhere, though for our purposes, when we talk about Hunter Ceiling Fans, we're speaking of one of the oldest luxury fan makers in the world. Since the late 19th century, Hunter has produced an innovative fan known for its style, quality, and whisper-like performance. The firm continues to press forward, creating an auto-balancing fan in 2007 and the first ever wireless speaker and ceiling fan combination two years later.

Craftmade Warbird Airplanes: Here's another ceiling fan with an intriguing name. It practically sounds like, if turned on, it would embark on some prolonged bombing campaign. Homeowners needn't fear, though they can revel at a fan painted to look like an engine propeller. When turned on, the fan will make it appear an airplane has crashed down and resides on the other end of the ceiling.

Imagine It for Kids: It's an exciting moment for expectant new parents to decorate the nursery their son or daughter will know as home. There are toys to be arranged and cribs to be set up as well as the basic safety precautions that go into childproofing a room. In all the hoopla, it can be easy to neglect getting a fan that will complement the room. This manufacturer produces playful, colorful fans with all sorts of images on the blades, everything from monkeys to nursery toys to dragonflies.

Slack-Motor Ceiling Fans: Companies like Emerson, Casablanca, and NuTone, as well as the aforementioned Hunter produced these kinds of fans in the 1970s. At a time when much of the world faced energy crisis, drought, and other catastrophes, slack-motored ceiling fans were designed to run off a flywheel with greater energy efficiency and at a lower cost. While the fans achieved their greatest popularity in the 1970s and '80s, the motors are still in some high-end, contemporary fans.

Belt-Driven Ceiling Fans: These are the types of fans that sit closely together, generally in one room, running off a centralized belt that goes from fan to fan, uniting them into a shared system of movement. They're an older type of fan, which makes them mostly appropriate today for period-themed decorating.

Christian Davidson is the author of this article of different types of

ceiling fans" including Hunter ceiling fans.