NorEastFla
I know there can be a difference in quality in the way things are built (including fans). But for me it still doesn't justify the high costs. I have been taking things apart, and building things from other parts so long that it's just second nature to me. I guess that I just cant imagine why anyone would want to do things any other way.
The fan I linked to was just one example, there are hundreds when you look around (like I'm always doing). Personally I'm not needing a fan that has a life span of 1 to 2 decades, and I'm satisfied with the life span of the fans that I have bought in the past. Granted they are not on 24/7 for years at a time, but for the most part have lasted quite well. For instance the box fan that I use when sleeping is on almost 24/7 during summer. The only time it's off during summer (April to October) is when I'm not home, so it's on at least 15+ hours a day. It has lasted at least 3 years like this with no singes of slowing down, I have defiantly gotten my $19.95's worth from that Wal-Mart special. I do need to clean the dust out of it a couple of times a year, but that's all the maintenance I ever do to it.
I have never been one to limit myself to using any product only for it's intended purpose, that's just out of the realm of my comprehension anymore.
I guess I understand where you are coming from when you are concerned about possible fire's burning down your house, and insurance company's not wanting to cover it because of using a product in a way that it was not designed for. But again I have been fabricating my one things for so long that I'm very comfortable in my ability's to make things safe. In 30+ years of doing things like that I have never had any unexpected fire's. Safety is always a concern for me, and I'm always thinking about what's the worst that can happen. I check and recheck things to make sure problems like that won't be an issue before I ever trust it to be on it's own. But again that's just second nature to me so I guess I just take it for granted that everyone else would also.
Again I guess that I just took it for granted that everyone would adapt a fan the same way I would. That's part of choosing a fan that's easily adaptable for the particular application from the beginning. As for restricting the air flow, I would simply just fabricate it in a way that the air flow is not restricted. Not so much because I didn't want to burn the motor out early, even though that would be a concern depending on how much it was restricted. But for me, if it were restricted that would diminish it's efficiency in ventilation of the area (the purpose of the fan in the first place). In other words you would need a larger fan to do a smaller job, and that just does not make much sense to me.
I know that everyone is different and has there own comfort level when it comes to fabricating things, but for me I just can't justify spending any more than about $40 to $80 high end max for a fan that could not put out more than 1000 cfm. Even then I would just be spending that much because I wanted to be lazy, and just didn't want to deal with fabricating anything. But that's just me and how I do things.
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