Board 8 > TIL: Ceiling fans have a reverse switch

(+) Yeah! (+)

I saw an article on Yahoo (https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/ (remove space) tiktoker-reveals-secret-dual-purpose-190242427.html) about a guy who just learned his ceiling fan had a switch that reverses direction, and that it helps heat rooms during the winter. He made a post on TikTok that garnered over 2 million views, which led to the article being written. To put it bluntly, the comments section is...not kind. Not that I really expect a comments section to ever be all that positive, but I thought I'd find at least a couple "oh my god, I never knew that!" posts. Instead, it's all a bunch of boomers chastising the younger generation for not knowing anything. Gee, thanks. I'm not even a millennial, guys. Chill with the snowflake comparisons.

I grew up in a house that didn't have ceiling fans anywhere. We used floor fans. We had central air. But no ceiling fans. So it's not like this was something my parents would have taught me. And I've never heard of anyone *warming* their room with a fan, even if the principle behind it makes sense. But for the last five years I've been in a room with a fan, and I'd never noticed there was a switch tucked away on the back side of it from where I sit. AFAIK, it had two pull chains, and that was it. I think I might have once noticed the switch when I was cleaning and pondered what it was for. But the comments section sure seemed to think this was common knowledge and that you'd have be an imbecile to not know. So now I'm curious, hence the poll.

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I don't think all ceiling fans have that switch.

But yeah, it's the difference between pushing the air down versus pulling it up due to the shape of the blades.

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Watched my dad flip all the ceiling fans in the house twice a year, so I knew this. But it doesn't shock me that a lot of people don't know this ceiling fans aren't an overly common thing to own.

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Yea I learned about this when I was a kid. I never really use those switches though.

As far as the comments go, I don't see any need to make fun of someone for discovering this, but I do see a need of making fun of the article for how revolutionary they make this seem.

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I knew about them but never bothered using them for my new apartment. Turns out all of the fans were going in the wrong direction and making my rooms way hotter.

After I flipped the switch my rooms are like 15 degrees cooler now. Felt pretty stupid for just assuming they were set the right way

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Didn't know
Never had a ceiling fan either

Is there any reason to use the "reverse mode" anyway?

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Yeah, I knew this because my mom would make a point of switching them in our house. But I haven't lived in any place with ceiling fan since moving out so it's been pretty useless knowledge.

Also kinda want to see the reactions of people who activate the switch and suddenly have huge build-ups of dust fall off the fan.

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The Utility Man posted...

As far as the comments go, I don't see any need to make fun of someone for discovering this, but I do see a need of making fun of the article for how revolutionary they make this seem.

Yahoo has articles like these a lot, basically just reacting to people on social media viewing something en masse. Not the first one I've seen where it's just a bunch of people discovering something that maybe possibly they could have or should have known. It's also a better tone for the article to take than to be condescending.

Nanis23 posted...

Is there any reason to use the "reverse mode" anyway?

See the other posts in the thread. In summer, you push cold air up. In winter, you push hot air down. Effectively the fan goes from a cooling device to a heating device.

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I learned mine has this but I've never though to use it in the winter, I'll try it when the time comes.

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Ceiling fans were a major source of entertainment for me as a child whenever I was visiting my grandparents, so yea lol

We'd do stuff like turn the fan up all the way and stick our fingertips in the path of the blade to slow it down and eventually completely stop it with our hands

Yeah we were almost certainly damaging them but didn't realize that lol

Duh

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azuarc posted...

Yahoo has articles like these a lot, basically just reacting to people on social media viewing something en masse. Not the first one I've seen where it's just a bunch of people discovering something that maybe possibly they could have or should have known. It's also a better tone for the article to take than to be condescending.

I mean yes it's better to do what they did than to be condescending, but really I think the best thing would be to not even make the article. People often just suddenly realize things that others have known for a while, so it's no big deal and obviously no reason to make fun of someone(I mean outside of being close friends with them or something), but it's also not news worthy.

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Learned this when we needed new ceiling fans a few years ago. Never use it of course but it was neat to learn.

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To even see the switch on the fan that's in my living room right now, you have to be over six feet tall and standing in almost the very corner of the room, due to how the light fixture obscures it

Yeah just generic "people overreacting because they're on the internet" stuff

I never heard of this, even though I had ceiling fans in my house as a kid.
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I knew the switch existed but not what it did

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turbopuns3 posted...

Ceiling fans were a major source of entertainment for me as a child whenever I was visiting my grandparents, so yea lol

We'd do stuff like turn the fan up all the way and stick our fingertips in the path of the blade to slow it down and eventually completely stop it with our hands

Yeah we were almost certainly damaging them but didn't realize that lol

i was a big fan (no pun intended... at first) of doing that with those big, square white floor fans. sticking crayons or pencils in there and drawing on them while they were spinning, too

life was pretty boring before video games

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbrJb-ldDO0

hours and hours and hours

Next thing you know they'll be writing about how so many people peel bananas the hard way...!

*backs away slowly*

Yeah, the switch on mine is pretty obvious.

I did not know yahoo.com was still a thing people used though
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tyder21 posted...

But it doesn't shock me that a lot of people don't know this ceiling fans aren't an overly common thing to own.

Really? Ive never seen a house without at least one

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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Really? Ive never seen a house without at least one

My apartment doesn't have any.
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If you'd asked me while I wasn't home whether my apartment had a ceiling fan, I might not have known for sure. I've been here close to 2 years but I don't think I've ever turned it on.

I tell my fiancee this every year when she puts them in the wrong direction every year for literally no reason at all.

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Never had one growing up, but my current condo has 3, which is maybe a little excessive, but I don't mind

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I was over at my parent's today and they didn't know about this.

They did have both of their fans on, and it was set to make it hotter. It's probably been in that setting for 10 years.

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