Performing regular maintenance on your portable outdoor fans will help them last as long as possible. Ideally, you should follow the maintenance schedule that came with your fan or that is on the manufacturer’s website.
However, if you don’t have or can’t find maintenance guidelines specific to your fan, you can follow these tips to help extend the life of your outdoor fans.
As you start going through our maintenance tips, you might realize that you can’t follow them for your fan. This is likely because the fan you have is simply not designed to be maintained. Rather than being set up for disassembly, maintenance, and repair, the fan is designed to be left intact until it breaks and fails.
Fans designed for maintenance will have screws, bolts, or other fasteners that are easy to access and manipulate. It will be relatively easy to see how to partially disassemble the fan to access key components, and putting the fan back together after maintenance will be equally easy.
Other fans, however, will be held together almost entirely by rivets, plastic snaps, glue, and/or plastic welds. Where there are screws or bolts, they’re not easy to get to. While these fans can technically be disassembled, doing so will likely break them. If you get to maintenance steps that might require you to do more than your fan easily allows, do not do those steps. This may reduce the lifespan of the fan, but that may be the manufacturer’s intent.
Daily maintenance for a fan extends only to a basic inspection. Before turning a fan on, check any visible wires, including the electrical cord, for damage. Once the fan is on, watch it begin to spin. It should start quickly and silently. If it makes noise or overheats, shut the fan down and go through monthly or annual maintenance steps to attempt to resolve the problem.
Every month, your fan will benefit from a thorough cleaning. Wipe off all the fan blades. Vacuum dust from other parts of the fan that you can see.
Remove the cover over the fan motor. Vacuum dust from the interior of the fan. If there is excessive buildup, use a dry cloth to wipe the exterior of the motor clean. If there seems to be excessive dust buildup in the fan motor, either the cover is not sealed correctly, or the fan may not be designed for the environment where you are using it. Check the manufacturer’s recommended operating conditions.
If your fan has a belt drive, adjust the belt tension if necessary. Every few months, spray the belt with a non-slip compound. Make sure the pulleys and drive shafts seem secure.
Tighten mounts and hold down bolts as necessary.
Check the alignment of the drive shafts.
Where you can access them, lubricate bearings according to specifications.
Inspect the fan closely for corrosion. Clean away any corrosion. If corrosion seems excessive and/or has significantly damaged parts, replace the parts. Check the seals on the cover, and the manufacturer’s recommended operating conditions.
Flexible and plastic parts can wear out or become brittle over time. Make sure these are all in good shape. Most manufacturers recommend replacement of these parts on a certain schedule, even if they seem in decent condition.
If your outdoor fan has reached the end of its life despite regular maintenance, now might be an opportune time to upgrade your outdoor cooling.
A Portacool portable outdoor evaporative cooler does more than just push hot air around. It can cool the air on your patio, gazebo, barn, or other open space.
Visit a local or online retailer today to get your Portacool portable evaporative cooler.
