Hunter 26421 Architect Series Plus 52-Inch Ceiling Fan White With 5 Reversible Bleached Oak/White Blades

Balanced straight out of the box
Bought this to replace a similar Harbor Breeze ceiling fan. It’s on a fairly long down rod (probably 18″… reused old one), which makes any out of balance worse as the fan has more leverage to create wobble. Hunter does enclose a blade balancing kit, but I was surprised to not need it. The fan was better balanced straight out of the box than I’ve ever been able to get most fans balanced over the years with a balancing kit. With the fan on high, the pull chains hang straight down and don’t sway at all from any wobble.Also the fan is very acceptably quiet, which is of course very important when trying to sleep on a quiet night when you can hear a pin drop.Only thing I can nit pick is I’d probably prefer would have been for the light kit to come separately, and for Hunter to offer more light kit choices. It comes with a 3 bulb, frosted buttercup globes fixture. Some people might prefer a 4 bulb design, different buttercup designs, or a large single globe design, which is why I’d prefer to purchase a light kit separately.We use the fan lights as the primary light source for a fairly large room, and the old fan had a 4 bulb light kit. Plus the fan comes with only 40w equivalent LED bulbs. So this was a substantial reduction in light output compared to the old fan/light. We noticed and realized this was likely going to be an issue before we bought the fan, but planned to buy 60w equivalent bulbs to compensate. We did that and are satisfied with the amount of light output.I could tell this Hunter fan was better designed than the Harbor Breeze as I was putting it up. Starting with the hanger bracket that connects to the ceiling junction box, it is wider and heavier made, and has rubber pads that become compressed against the ceiling, which helps it tighten more uniformly should the ceiling surface not be completely smooth, and helps dampen any wobble or vibration.Also the ball joint of the hanger is not a perfectly round ball shape. It is rounded, but also has a slight triangular shape, which matches the socket in the hanger bracket. So while that slight triangular ball/socket design still allows for any needed movement, it also creates somewhat of a little “detent” pressure to help keep the downrod in a straight down position. I suspect this design overcomes any slight blade imbalance, and is probably why the pull chains don’t even sway at all even on high.Overall I’m very pleased with the purchase, and think it’s excellent value for the cost. Bottom line is that I wouldn’t do anything different if I had to do it over again.

Beautiful Fan!
This fan is a big improvement from the one we replaced with it. The fan is quiet and works great. We have it on the short rod. It gets hot in AZ even with the ac on so good ceiling fans are a must. Thank you!

2 Updates: Light kit failed in just 3 weeks. Pain to install, but it looks good, works well, & price is right.
Update 6-15-2018 I contacted Amazon to just get a replacement light kit. No dice. They referred me to manufacturer. We all know how that went. (20 minutes of phone hell, never reached a human, and finally got disconnected – Oh, how surprising!)I was still under 30 days (barely), so I started a return for the whole unit with Amazon, and then I ordered a whole new unit to replace it. Not about to uninstall the whole thing (mounted on a 14 ft ceiling), so I just took the light kit out of the new box and replaced the defective one, then returned the second fan unit, untouched, with the defective light kit, and a note saying not to resell the unit, unless they replace the light kit..RETURNS WARNING: Not sure what’s up with Amazon now, but used to be if a return was started before the 30 days, you still had a couple weeks to get it back to them. This time, I set up the return 29 days in, and the email they sent me said I had less than 24 hours to get it back to them, to get a refund. Ack! I called them, and they fixed it, but the way they fixed it, was to claim I was returning the second fan I’d just ordered – thus eliminating any 30 day window for returns on the new fan. I called them back, and said the first kit worked great on day one, too, but failed after 3 weeks, so I’d like to keep my option to return the second one in 30 days, if need be. They said they’d fix it, but it still shows I returned the second one, not the original fan, and it’s been 2 weeks. Hopefully, I won’t need to return this one, but Beware – they are getting tricky on returns, and read those emails, to be sure you still have time to return it, even if you started the return before the 30 days.——————————————————————Update 6-3-2018: Light kit failed in just 3 weeks from install. Will update again, after attempts to resolve.————- Original Review ———————Just installed yesterday. Light kit and fan blades were harder than needed to be for install, but at the end, it’s a nice looking fan & light, and mine works well so far.Pros:- Looks good overall. Color is crisp white, and the light kit has pretty, swirled design glass, that looks clean.- Light bulbs are the tiny candle kind, but they put out a surprising amount of light in my kitchen.- Moves a lot of air, and does so QUIETLY! Very quietly.- Easy electrical connectors for the light kit. Just snap together, no wire nuts.- Roomy fan housing, so the wires fit easily inside (and potentially any remote you might buy separately).- Extra long wires, so if you need a down-rod extension, it’s great. I needed 4′ extra, and didn’t need to cut, or splice.- Good support bracket for holding it up while you connect the wires, especially with the down-rod extension.Cons:- Install is harder than it needs to be, so plan on cursing more than usual.- Screws are super short, and nearly impossible to get started, because your fingers can’t hold them close enough to even start them.- Screw holes are not all pre-threaded, light kit is just punch holes, so plan on cursing more than usual!- Fan blades now require a rubber grommet to be installed, prior to screwing blades to their holders.- Grommets are quite the pain to install, and there are 15 of them, so plan on some time to do that.Overall, I like the fan/light kit. Once you get it installed, you’ll be happy, and the price is right.You will be climbing up and down that ladder to find your screws that you dropped (a LOT), but if you learn from my mistakes, you’ll pre-install all the screws for the light kit before you even get on that ladder. Don’t assemble the kit, just get the screws in place – to open up the holes. They aren’t threaded, so doing it on the floor is wildly better than doing it on a ladder, over your head. Once you’ve threaded the screws in, they’ll come in and out a LOT easier, so when you are up there, you won’t be fumbling/dropping/cursing quite as much as I was.FYI, I’ve installed about 15 ceiling fans in the last 35 yrs, and this was harder than some, easier than others. Just new ways to make it hard, but they’re almost all a pain to install, one way or another.

Needs slightly better instructions
Great fan, very happy with it and relatively easy to install. Should have better instructions on wiring for when you have a double switch on the wall, one for fan and one for light. Ended up waiting backwards so the switch at the bottom of my stairs now does the fan and not the light like it used to. Otherwise great.

The box came damaged however, the internal packaging kept the fan in tact. It looks great and more importantly works great.

Bought the fan and remote control at the same time, product arrived before expected. Instructions were clear, all screws and fasteners for different functions were in individual well labeled packages. Installation went well. The only reason this does not get 5 stars is odd non symmetrical gap between the cap and the down rod.