FASCO Charleston Ceiling Fan (3 of 4)

FASCO Charleston 52" ceiling fan in antique brass, the third of four Charlestons that I recently saved from a local closed restaurant, and the only 2.5 generation of the bunch. These specific fans were massively important childhood fans, some of the early ones I saw that really drove my fascination because they had such different details. FASCO apparently did have some distribution up here, but what I've seen of it is very limited. This installation was the only FASCO I saw at the local level all through my childhood, with Disney World being the only other limited exposure. This fan was midrange as far as all conditions go. For some reason the motor's cast metal components (flywheel, switch housing) were having extreme sections of clouding with the lacquer. It didn't really damage the finish underneath, so I was able to get that resolved. One of the badges had lost areas of finish and was lighter than the others, so I swapped in the set from my existing hodgepodge 3rd gen because they're in almost perfect shape and this fan is nicer/otherwise complete. Other than that really just minor imperfections. The blades cleaned up quite well to their original finish, which is slightly lighter and more varied than those on the 3rd gens. These fans were coated in some of the toughest greasy residue I've yet encountered. Underneath, they're mostly cleaning up quite well, but I've had to let the blades sit with paper towels soaked in Simple Green and fully scrub the housings with warm water and Dawn to get them clean. Thankfully, these particular FASCO finishes are very resilient and mostly standing up. These fans seem to have been serviced at some level through the years, as the shaft bushings appear well-greased and there is other sporadic evidence of maintenance and cleaning. With that considered, they seem to run overall well. This one has the worst bearings of them all and initially they were rather noisy, but they run pretty smooth and after a bit of a break-in period again, they amazingly quieted down rather well. I am not doing any bearing replacements at this time; I just want to get them clean and any that may need it will be a future project.
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[@Rayfanz1]

You’ve put so much time and work into these. When I lived in the northeast, these things were just everywhere. Living in Texas for some time, I’ve seen two, and I own them both lol. They came from a former model home that was being remodeled. Always loved FASCO speed range and reliability. I’ve never experienced the flywheel issues everyone crows about. Hell, I pulled one out of the trash from a house that was ocean front, and said box was full of water! Oiled the bearings, ran that fan in my childhood home for over ten years. These were over-built. Glad you saved them.

[@vfandm]

The rubber flywheels were truly absolute garbage, especially for the 5 and 6 blade dropped flywheel models. The solid cast metal ones will never fail. Was a shame they even went to rubber at all, considering the motors and overall fans ran absolutely silent even with all the metal-on-metal contact.

[@JAX207CFS]

Amazing!