The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Shop Fan Suggestions

Being it's 350° and 100% humidity here in Georgia I'm looking for a portable shop fan. I have seen several that move some air, I'm wanting something that isn't to loud, around 36 to 42 inches. Any suggestions?

An old squirrel cage fan out of and old house furnace moves quite a bit of air, and shouldn't cost too much.

I agree with Brian 100%. Ask any HVAC guy in your town or village. Usually the fan isn't what goes bad and these have 3 speeds and a few have 4. Most of these HVAC guys won't re-use an old one (for insurance reasons) so they end up in the dump or to recycling...meaning they may give it to you for free. One tip: Get some 1/4" or 1/2" screen and cover the intake hole. In the furnace they aren't covered because there's no need but you might be impressed what these babies can suck in if given the chance. Good luck!

I bought a wall/ceiling mount one from Menards a few years ago. Mounted it up on the ceiling in the back corner of the the garage, pointed down at the floor level of the opposite corner.

It has made a big difference in taking the worst of the heat buildup out of the garage. They way our house is built, there’s a section of attic storage right above. Garage used to be a sauna.

I went thru 3 iterations of fans and the best was a used HVAC fan mounted on a rolling cart.
I know it's outside your question but have you thought about a window AC unit. A couple years ago I bought a window unit from Ollies on their 15% off coupon for no more than a good drum fan cost.

If one lives out of the rust belt, a swamp cooler works really well at keeping a shop cool, at considerably less operating cost than refrigeration.

Ed

Once hzd a 36" fan on a pedestal that I moved around where i wanted it. Something to think about.....and Ace Hardware had them on sale recently.

Several of the guys in the shop have the ones a garden hose hooks to but since the humidity is so high they just use them without water. The outlet is not overly large so just cools directly in front. Have a huge ( 6' blades) one that will move air the length of the shop (100') .
Takes up a lot of space so making one with dual 30" squirrel cage fans and a 5hp motor. It will be on a pivot that swings into place when doors are open.

I have a 36" pedestal the fan, it's just so loud you can't hear your self think. The shop is not fully closed in as yet but once it is I have a 3 ton mini-split that I'm thinking of using.. I just want something the will move more air and lit tle quieter.

Georgia isn't different than Dallas...possibly slightly more humid but not much thanks to all the man-made lakes around here. Any fan that moves a great deal of air is going to be pretty loud by sheer definition (unless you spend a lot of $$$ on one of those crazy large ceiling fans the dealerships use in their shops). But it seems to me one good scheme might be to suck the hot air out from the top. Our garage is connected to our house. What I've thought about is installing an HVAC fan in the attic and attaching it to a simple duct system that would suck hot air from the ceiling of the garage and push it into the attic (where it would go up and out the turbine vents on the roof).

One of the fans I went thru was a fan from a heat pump exterior unit mounted in the ceiling. Works fairly well if you're near a window. Still have it in the ceiling with a trap door so I can close it off with a couple long sticks in the winter. Also sometimes use it to exhaust something (dust, paint etc). I had the same problem with a pedestal fan, moved a lot of air but very noisy.

Tut, don't forget I'll put you an accoustical ceiling in yours with insulation like i did mine. It makes a big difference. Labor is free!!!!

My garage is small and gets really hot in the summer. This year I purchased four of these 16 inch fans and installed them up in the interior stringers of the garage to get a little circulation going. Two in the back, two in the front. They are remote control so I can put on just what I need, usually all four. They are like 36 each at Home Depot or Amazon.

Comfort Zone CZ16WR

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Comfort...djustable-Tilt-in-White-CZ16WR/205376618

I am really thinking about adding an attic fan or whole hose fan to the ceiling. A lot of older homes here in the South had them before AC was really the norm. The fans pull air through the shop allowing you to just crack the doors and windows to create crossflow.

If you use a whole house fan, there are some things to know. Generally they are used to pull air from the living space, up into the closed attic space, then push it out vents up there. You open a window in the living space when the air out side is 5-10 degree cooler then inside (morning and evenings). You pull the cool air into the living space, which then pushed the trapped hot air in the attic space out the attic vents. For attic vents, you can use gable vents or turbine vents, but be sure you have enough square area to accomedate the square area of the fan diameter. They are loud, so there are new products on the market (Quiet Cool) that are not as loud, but 3-4 times as expensive as the whole house fans at Lowes or Home Depot!

The attic area of the shop will be insulated and has soffit vents as well as a ridge vent. I was thinking that I could add a thermostaticly controlled gable fan to aid in pulling air through the attic space. As for the whole house fans that I've seen in use, they work well at circulating the air at low speeds. I think just having some air moving in the work space would be beneficial.

Soffit and ridge vents are pretty restrictive and will have a hard time handling large amounts of air. Adding a gravity gable damper might be a good option...just make sure you have the damper capacity matches the fan size.

Mike B