20.3.2017

We installed the Westinghouse fan & light pendant just today so, for now, our review will focus on the installation we did rather than how it works out long term. I will say from the outset that I can see it operating just fine for quite a while. It seems solid and gives off an air of competence in its manufacture, but only use will determine the facts of that aspect. I'll look at1/ Things that came up during installation (inc. remote unit)2/ How it looks and works as a new unit3/ A few observations4/ Definitive info about a suitable bulbShort-form review.1/ It can be a real fiddle to install if your wiring isn't perfect.2/ Looks nice, fairly quiet, some nice features. It blends.3/Needs work if you want to carry on using your existing simple wall switch.4/ You can angle the bulb holder to get a choice of bulbs to fit. Just don't do it too often.But first, please remember this if you plan to fit this yourself and you're not an electrician.Dying to fit your fan?Installation could be short and painful if you don't switch off the lights circuit at the consumer unit/fuse box. The light switch alone is not enough, since the lighting circuit in the ceiling is always live, and the wire to your lightswitch just makes interrupting the circuit for that particular room's light easier - the wires for the rest of the lights remain active (otherwise switching off one light would switch off every other light in the house!). So kill the lights circuit at the consumer unit with its switch, or pull the appropriate fuse.1/ InstallationI'd like to say that it is a "breeze", but despite the bad pun, it isn't. I had a terrible time with the ceiling wiring because the instructions assume that you will only switch the fan using a remote control and not from your old wall switch. They also assume your ceiling wiring will be neat. Ha! If you simply can't live without it being wall switchable using your old fitting, you will need to split out some of the wiring at the ceiling rose to make that separate switchable circuit. In my case, I was pretty irritated about this assumption on the part of Westinghouse and will get an electrician to get that working as we'd like. The online versions of the specs and installation guides don't mention this problem because the instructions expect you to do things Westinghouse's way, and not necessarily how you'd prefer it to work! That niggle aside, we did manage to get it working along with the wireless remote we'd also ordered first time, no problem.Installation was still a "monumental faff", even so. Most of the work needs to be done up at the ceiling and, if you are fitting the optional wireless remote as we did, you have twice as much to do. First of all, though, you must have somewhere very solid to mount the fan, either a concrete ceiling (in which case I advise getting better, longer, screws for the unit, and suitable fixing points for the concrete) or find the central line of a ceiling joist. If you have a drywall ceiling I don't see a heavy unit like this staying up there for longer than a week unless it is attached through to a joist. If the people that built your house were even halfway competent, the ceiling wiring should come down adjacent to a joist.Westinghouse organise their own cabling quite nicely, with snap-together cable connectors complete with alignment arrows for orientation (between fan and remote), but if your ceiling cables are short and plentiful, connecting to the mains can be a pain. With a light in the middle of a typical ring circuit you'll have nine wires from the ceiling, 3x earth/live/neutral, and a fiddly little chock-block to push the copper into. The chock-block is also a little deeper than most I've ever used, so if the stripped parts of your wires are in any way short, you might want to ensure that there is enough copper beyond the shielding before you try pushing them all into place and screwing them in. Things can get a bit tight and, for laughs, Westinghouse instructions just show single cables going into the chock-block!If you're installing the wireless remote, the next paragraph covers this, otherwise you can skip it.Installing the optional remote receiver (the part that goes inside the ceiling rose) ought to be easy, but in our case the bundle of wires exiting the ceiling was slightly obscuring the slot in the ceiling mount into which the remote receiver is pushed, so in our case it was a pain trying to get it past the bunch of cables, and because wires emerge from the unit on each side, it only pushes through one way. My advice would be to put the ceiling attachment in such a position that the wiring emerging from the ceiling comes up *beside* the mounting bracket and is positioned right next to the chock-block, and not through the hole in the centre of the ceiling bracket, and also to one side of the gap in the bracket into which the remote receiver is slotted. The large Westinghouse ceiling rose will be large enough to accomodate this.Some people have mentioned that it is a nuisance fitting the blades, especially fitting them last! Well, yes and no - there is a slot in the lowest section of the fan that allows a screwdriver to pass through to the fan disk (which isn't the bit with the light on it, but the bit above that), so provided you have a magnetic screwdriver that can hold the screw to itself while you feed it through the lowest section, you'll be okay. These screws are already in the fan disk and need to be removed, and then screwed back in when the blade has been positioned properly. With 2 screws per blade, this makes a fair bit of time working over your head. The blades have metal attachments that use the 2 screws mentioned to attach to the fan disk, and three more decorative screws per blade with very tight felt washers. These can take a while to prepare (threading washers onto the screws) so a willing helper can take that job on!2/ How it looks and worksIn situ, the completed fan looks great, with a contemporary look that is very easy on the eye. For something considerably larger than most ceiling shades, it does a great job of disappearing once you get used to it.It is very quiet in operation, although with my good hearing I can clearly tell whether it is running even with my eyes closed, even on the lowest setting. That said, it is an unobtrusive hum that could actually help people that are woken by the slightest noise because it raises the background noise a little and might hide a few of the quieter sounds.On the high speed setting the blade/wind noise is more than the motor noise - there is a distinct "rush" of air with the motor almost buried beneath it. It is still not overbearing, and may even help people drift off to sleep. If the unit is not mounted completely immobile, you may find that small imbalances in its rotation can set up rhythmic creaks. Ours does this a little on high speed, but we can live with this because the high setting would be very seldom used. Even the mid setting is rather breezy.The switchable direction for the fan is a stroke of genius for winter use, when heat gathers up at the ceiling and needs to be encouraged to circulate a little more.3/ ObservationsIf your remote doesn't seem to operate the light but runs the fan just fine, try switching on the light using the pull cord, after which you can use the remote for dimming.It is a bit of a bind that we can't carry on using our wall switch (until we get out an electrician to split the wiring and make it work that way), and I was a bit surprised that the lighting remote button didn't work until I'd pulled the lighting cord. It seems to need to be switched on by both the cord and the remote together.The bulb we fitted would also only be switched entirely off by the pull cord. Using the dimmer, the bulb (a LED dimmable one) would go to a minimum brightness and just carry on glowing if switched off, and dimming similarly went from bright to this muted glow, so for now we will need to use the pullcord until we figure this one out. Some dimmable devices have a "minimum brightness" setting that can be adjusted, but I'm pretty sure that this unit doesn't have that very handy feature.4/ Compatible bulb sizes.Some reviewers also complain that it is hard to find bulbs that are small enough. I've just installed a Diall E14 bulb bought from B&Q, which is 107mm end-to-end. This is possible because the glass shade has a wide point after which it narrows down into its inverted dome, and by angling the light bracket that holds the bulb so that it is inclined slightly down-angled from the ceiling, the tip of the bulb will fit into the shade at its widest point. Going anywhere beyond 107mm would be pushing your luck, though. It is a tight fit. We will look for an E14 bulb that is shorter and fatter next time, and will also see whether all LED bulbs have this problem of not switching entirely off on the Westinghouse dimmer remote. (See updates below)Sorry if this is all rather long-winded for you, but the laughable Westinghouse instructions really almost require consumers to fill in all the missing bits, and the tips & tricks.I will come back to this review after a summer of use and mention how we got along with it (gotta use these calendar apps for *something* useful!).Until then, stay safe.4/4/17 After two weeks of use the fan is now settled in. Initially it would cause creaking sounds from the ceiling on top speed. It no longer does that. Another aspect we noticed the first time we ran the fan together with the light is that there is light spillage up to the ceiling, and this causes shadows of the fan blades to flicker on the ceiling (the fan is on the short extension tube, not flush-mounted). While we were okay with this, we thought it should be mentioned since the subtle strobing effect could disturb some people who are sensitive to flickering light.18/4/17 Last update for a while. We ended up switching the LED bulb to a halogen one. Although the LED E14 bulb worked "okay", the only way to stop it glowing was to switch it off using the pull-cord on the ceiling unit. Couldn't be done from the remote, it would just go to a pale glow due to the efficiency of LED technology, which can produce viable light from the very tiny amount of current from a lighting circuit that is switched off! This was proving to be annoying, so we switched to halogen and the dimmer (remote) works a treat now. With the LED bulb, minimal settings were still putting out a lot of light, and switching off would still have the bulb glowing. With halogen, "off is off", and if we use the on/off button on the remote it comes back on at full brightness. If we switch back on using the dimmer button, it comes back at the last dimmer setting. Really nice to use. On the plus side, if you can live with the LED quirks, dimming the LED doesn't result in it flickering (we used a Diall E14 candle LED bulb from B&Q - we switched to Diall halogen at 107mm long end-to-end.Edit 2-Sept-2017: Still loving this unit, which has seen us through a few sultry summer days in quite a lot of comfort, even if it has sometimes meant interrupting things and going to the fan for a cool-down and a rest. We may need at least one more, maybe two, for other rooms. We thought we'd never have need of the most forceful setting but have used it now and then when we've woken feeling too warm - it knocks the heat back really well. Most summer nights we've left it on setting 1 and had a very comfortable time. It might actually be too effective to use in winter, when we like to move air around to keep the room feeling fresh.In the months we've used it I can't say I've ever forgotten that it is there, which I thought I'd probably do. It's very unobtrusive but still a bit of a presence in a low-ceilinged space (our ceiling is about 7ft 6in/228cm from the floor).The only possible gotcha with these units is the risk of inadvertently putting fingers or arms up into the fan disk. This might sound a bit suicidal - you might wonder why someone would do this. Just try pulling on a t-shirt nearby - it can be that easy to get your hands awful close to the fan disk just by doing something else that you do without thinking. If there's a risk like this, you might need to consider mounting the fan over something else that stops you standing anywhere near or beneath the fan. In our room the fan disk is about 6 inches in from the foot of the bed, which is also wide enough to keep us away from the blades from either side too, so we're okay. I've had a couple of close shaves though, so this is something that definitely must be borne in mind. It either needs to be mounted high enough to be out of reach of outstretched fingers, or sited so that you have advance notice that you're getting rather close to the blades. It's too easy to forget the fan when you're doing something familiar such as pulling on a shirt.Apart from that caveat we're still loving it.

23.7.2014

I brought one of these from amazon.de because uk amazon had run out.installation:turned of main power unit in garage (no power in house). Tested for live with a volt sensor, no live, i can proceed work ok.i got up in the loft , walked across my boards which are laid over the ceiling joists, found the beam which i wanted and drilled one 2mm hole close to the beam , either side of it. went back down stairs and looked up ...there is my beam!, i used a 16mm wood drill and drilled right through the ceiling joist for the power cable. I used the existing light cable, but i fed it into a 4 way 30A round bakelite junction box (to be safe)and connected up the fan (simple 2 wires).I used the provided screws in the kit to screw the fan base into the beam (now i know where it is thanks to 2mm drill holes showing location !)I made the power connections , and connected the RF remote control kit i also purchased (it fits inside the fan base perfectly)and hung the fan body up using the 5-6" extension rod (research says with rod is better).I then put a light bulb in, restored the main power and tested it worked both manually with cord pulls, and the remote. all working good, it tunrns both directions, and light bulb dims/on/off o.k. (with the remote installed you can still operate the fan manually) and the wall switch (which controlled your old light) will still control the light on the fan normally on/off, thats a good feature as i was worried when i got the remote system i would loose wall control, not so, wall switch works light still, good!.I fitted the fan blades, first 6, then 3 to see what gave the best flow, actually to my suprise, 3 blades gives a better flow! so why westinghouse? do you supply 6?.plus my fan was out of balance to the point of moving about 5mm wobble at the bottom most point when in the 2nd speed mode.i tried moving the blades from one position to the next, tried different blades, all of them left me with a certain amount of wobble at least in the high speed. So, i decided to balance the fan like you do a car tyre, and i used a very small chinese coin (ironically as its probably made in china) and i taped it on the backside of the blade, starting at the outer tip in the centre of the blade, and working my way slowly into the centre of the fan testing each position and speed for wobble. yes, it took a while, but, i found the optimum posisiton for balance for all 3 speeds and now i have no wobble on the fan due to inbalance of the blades. the coin was about 9x1mm.once i had found the optimum balance , now was time to get the correct level of light. As many have had trouble finding a decent size low energy bulb which gave enough brightness because of the length and the E14 socket (candle bulbs) i used a 350LM 5.5w E14 clear candle led made by Kosnic, and i just pulled/screwed off the plastic cover which covers the led's.. this enabled the length of the candle bulb to be reduced to about 50mm!, easily fits. the led bulb cover was plastic, so no danger of breaking it by unscrewing/pulling it , it is only glued to the bulb base. i also tried CFL (compact fluorescent ) bulbs but they flicker because of the dimmer, so are really no good. the clear led was bright enough for a 3.5x3.5m room at night no problem.The fan was a little noisy during the first day, after a few weeks of intermittent use at nights and evenings i can say on the lowest setting (we placed it above a bed) it gives a lovely light cool breeze, the second setting is stronger, a little noiser with the humm, but you could still sleep if you needed it (i doubt you would need it that strong) the third setting is like a desk fan, its crazy fast!, and hums loud, i doubt you would sleep on the 3rd setting. the 1st lightest setting is perfect for our 3.3x3.5 bedroom , its quiet, its puts a very light breeze past you while you sleep.for the money this fan (including remote was 120) its a good buy, you may need to balance it, its not impossible. i am quite happy, i would not be without it during hot nights, its true to say it does not change the temperature of the room, but having air blown across your skin gives fairly good cooling compared to having boggy static hot air!. thumbs up.youtu.be/b3lGIr4tRgU

18.11.2015

After a couple of problems with ordering this the fan arrived this morning and is now in place and working. Unfortunately the Westinghouse RF Remote which I had ordered with the fan did not work so I am now waiting for a replacement remote. The fan itself is a very neat unit, well suited to the small double bedroom where it is installed. There is a bit of mains hum in evidence whilst the fan is on, this is independent of the fan speed setting and the installation instructions say this should disappear after a 24hr running in. There are no rattles or noises other than that.Installation was simple once a suitable joist had been located and wires from the previous ceiling rose were drawn through.

9.7.2019

Bought this item to replace a previous ceiling fan that had expired. The instructions are clear and the assembly is straightforward as long as you follow them closely. The ceiling bracket is easy to fit and because the mounting comes with connectors you don't have to mess with the heavy assembly while you are setting up the bracket and electrical supply. I used the ceiling rod as some reviews had reported noise issues with mounting against the ceiling directly. I am 6ft tall and even with the rod installed the fan cleared my head. Assembling the rod and preparing the fitting is very easy. Once you are ready to install the fan it just slots into the bracket and you connect the power and earth supplies.

29.9.2020

The Westinghouse fan is easy to assemble and install, and works well - the only thing that lets it down is the light. It can be used with a halogen bulb but I prefer LEDs so I first tried using it with an 8W golfball bulb, and found it only illuminated one end of the shade/globe. I bought a Paulmann 28643 LED Filament Candle 6.5 watts Classic lamp which now illuminates the shade more evenly, but it's still a bit dim. Other than that, I'm happy with the fan - it runs very quietly (so far) and there's not much noise even at full speed. Now for the detail...! As supplied, the fan is wired with both the fan live feed and light live feed connected together - i.e. L, N & PE.

27.7.2020

Overall it does what it's supposed to do, it moves air and provides light.Plus points: It's compact and will fit in smaller rooms. I have it in my study and it's made the working environment a far more pleasant experience.It has 3 speeds for the fan, which gives you controllability.It can send air in either direction, which is ideal for either moving cooling air around the room or drawing warm air from a heater and distributing it for a nice even heat, will be useful in the winter even if that sounds counter intuitive.It looks very attractive and stylish.It comes with a small extension to get the blades away from the ceiling to make it more efficient.The fan can be operated in any permutation of direction/speed/with or without light.Negative points-It's a bit noisy.

3.8.2017

Well made, fairly easy to assemble as long as you are ok on a step-ladder, it's not a light weight but manageable. Wiring is ok if you have enough mains cable to pull through once the ceiling rose is removed. If not you'll need to use a connector block to extend the cable to the fan and reconnect the on-going circuit and the wall switch. (This is all assuming you are replacing an existing pendant light). With the fan running it can be liable to wobble slightly if it's only held in place with the supplied bracket. It is still safe in that it's not going to fall on your head, however, I sorted this easily by adding a third small bracket on the outside of the fan casing and the ceiling 45 degrees around from the existing fixings.This stopped any wobble and made the whole thing quieter too.

30.8.2016

Bought this having had some lower cost fans from another manufacturer, along with one Westinghouse.It's heavy, and takes ages to put together and put up. But everything is really obvious, electrical connections look far safer than the others did (and they meet wiring standards). It also comes with the drop rod for high ceilings and it's designed to take the Westinghouse remote control (which I fitted)In use, there's a slight noise when speeding up but it's silent in operation (at least as far as I can tell), and just runs for hours without fuss. This model is their smallest fan, so the breeze produced is in quite a specific area - our other Westinghouse is larger. The breeze is noticeable even at minimum speed,

4.7.2015

Really nice product. Was a bit dubious about buying this after reading some reviews saying they were not getting much air flow and others which mentioned vibrations.What a pleasant surprise and great purchase this turned out to be. We fitted it flush to the ceiling, no extension rod, and only used 3 of the blades ( having read a previous review whereby he had originally tried 6 blades but then found only 3 worked just as well if not better ). It is great. It's in our 3 year old's bedroom which is helping with sleep in the sticky still summer.The fan has fast, medium and slow. The bedroom its in is approx 10 by 8 and medium is ample.The toggle pulleys it comes with are chrome with discs at the bottom,

11.10.2014

Purchased this fan after much searching and for its good reviews. Very good quality fan and quite heavy, bought for our pointed ceiling caravan. Had it professionally fitted by electrician. Opted for flush fit to ceiling as limited head room. Although fan looked fabulous, good light and perfectly fitted in with our decor, there was hardly no air flow and the fan was very noisy on the higher speeds. We were very disappointed thinking we had made a bad decision on purchase. However, we were wrong. The electrician suggested he fit the extension rod as perhaps there was not enough air flow above the fan to make it work. This he did, and wow what a difference. Even on speed 1 the air flow is good,

19.3.2013

Bought this fan as a replacement in one of our bedrooms. Went together well and the fitting was straightforward. The promblem started when the glass bowl for the light was clipped into place. The infuriating vibration from the bowl is horrendous! I eventually resorted to stretching an elastic band around the collar of the bowl which has reduced the vibration to an almost acceptable level but I do not expect that solution to last as the band will perish with the heat from the light when left on for protracted periods. I was going to buy a further 2 of these to change the existing fans in the other bedrooms but will now decide on something different from these. Why don't I return it you ask?

3.9.2017

I fitted this fan in my office (small bedroom) of about 5 square metres.Fitting to replace existing light was easy enough with a couple of minor points:* the instructions could have been clearer on a couple of points.* The fitting of the blades is pretty fiddly and begs for the screws to be dropped on the floor - make sure you use a magnetized screw driver for this to avoid the big hunt for the missing screw.Performance wise I couldn't be happier, on full speed the papers on my desk certainly start moving around so it's certainly moving a fair amount of air.Improvements which could be made as well as the fitting items above:* The pull chains are plastic at the top so these could be better

10.10.2016

My husband and I have only limited experience of DIY yet we managed to follow the instructions and fit this without too much trouble. We had a minor confusion as the room we chose to install this happened to be at the end of the lighting ring but a quick check on YouTube and this was quickly resolved. The fan comes with an extension so you can fit it a little lower however we found fitting it sung to the ceiling was a little easier. The fan its self is plenty adequate in a double bedroom we only ever have it on speed one as this creates a nice breeze and is almost silent. Even at higher speeds which we do not require its not noisy.

14.6.2018

Excellent fan. Had it installed for just over a year now. No problems at all. I use it every single day. It does make a very faint hum, whilst in operation but the whoosh of the fan covers the noise once it gets going so really doesn't matter.I also purchase the 4 speed fan control at the same time(you need a neutral at your switch for this to work).You do need a fairly small bulb to fit under the glass cover.(E14 60w max)I highly recommend this fan and the switch too.I would say any bad reviews are because of installation error.Monday 13 April 2020Had this installed and running every night (except when I’ve been on holiday) for over 2 and a half years. And it just started to make a loud noise when at full speed.

7.10.2016

Thos is the second Wesringhouse fan I have bought.The first is almost 14 years old and only now showing signs of fatigue. This new one is a quantum leap in its appearance over the original and looks absolutely superb in place. It operates in near silence with only the sound of the air audible. The bracketry supplied to attach it to the ceiling has an ingenious plug that allows installation without the weight of the fan hampering your efforts and the unit can be flush mounted or lowered depending on your own requirements. The maximum wattage for an incandescent bulb is 60 so we have paired it with an LED e14 bulb to maximise light and still only use 9 watts. So if you are looking for quality,

Westinghouse Turbo Swirl 76cm - Reviews

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