A Dusting Conundrum: Ceiling Fans

America's Preferred Home Warranty, Home Maintenance

 

Ceiling fans—can’t live without them, don’t want to clean them. They should just spin off the dust anyway… right?

It’s sad to say, but ceiling fans are not self-cleaning, so they tend to get cleaned when dust bunnies build up and send us a fuzzy reminder. That’s when you get out a wet paper towel, give it a quick wipe and you’re done… right? Wrong.

Simply wiping the dust off of your ceiling fan’s blades can leave them unbalanced, and we all know how annoying an unbalanced fan is: Creaking, clicking, or whining as it spins. So here are some better options to choose from:

  1. For light dust, use your vacuum’s brush attachment and gently run it over the top and bottom of each blade (yes, there’s dust underneath too). While you’re at it, give your fan’s cover a good vacuum too.
  1. Thicker dust bunnies need a little more (but still gentle) cleaning. Start with step one, then fold a damp cloth (microfiber is best, but any soft cloth will typically do) over one side of a blade, and slowly pull it from one end to the other, applying equal pressure on the top and bottom of the blade to avoid warping. Rinse your cloth and repeat on the other side, then do the same for all the remaining blades.

Do not use heavy cleaners like bleach: They can strip away the finish and cause warping. Also avoid any form of one-sided pressure on the blades from any direction.

Now that you know how to clean those fan blades, you’ll keep them sparkling, right?

(What? Dust bunnies can be cute…)

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