Description
Blade swap between the Lasko B20540 Power Plus box fan and the Lasko H20301 High Velocity fan. Very interesting results I was not expecting.
The petal blade from the box fan seemed to put more load on the HV fan's motor than the default blade. There was enough of an increase in drag to create better speed variance out of the motor. The petal blade was significantly quieter on all speeds, but did result in a slight reduction in air flow. I would consider it overall a better fit, the massive increase in speed variance and significant reduction in noise are both worth a slight reduction in air movement to me. The HV fan was still very powerful with the petal blade.
The box fan didn't change much at all between the two blades in any respect. I'm really not sure why this is considering how much of a difference there was on the HV fan. Perhaps the limitation on the box fan is the aerodynamic design, the restrictive plastic guards paired with the round blades being inside a box with varying turbulence. A box fan without a venturi ring really is an aerodynamics disaster.
I think both of these units look pretty cool with the opposite blades, especially the PowerPlus. I think having the metal blade in that unit works very well with the marketing and probably would have had better success than that awful all metal unit Lasko sold in the 2010s for a short period of time.
The specifications recorded during the video are as follows, represented as [Power (watts) / Wind Speed Close (MPH) / Wind Speed from ~5' Away (MPH) / Air Flow (CFM) / Efficiency (CFM/watt)].
Power Plus, default blade:
Low: 71 / 8.2 / 5 / 1,073 / 15.
Medium: 87 / 10.2 / 6 / 1,321 / 15.
High: 100 / 12 / 6 / 1,460 / 14.6.
Power Plus, H20301 blade:
Low: 70 / 9 / 6 / 1,101 / 15.7.
Medium: 86 / 11 / 6 / 1,349 / 15.7.
High: 99 / 11.6 / 7 / 1,514 / 15.3.
H20301, default blade:
Low: 93 / 13 / 8 / 1,509 / 16.2.
Medium: 105 / 15 / 9 / 1,739 / 16.6.
High: 127 / 16.5 / 10 / 1,840 / 14.5.
H20301, Power Plus blade:
Low: 96 / 10 / 6 / 1,293 / 13.5.
Medium: 107 / 11.6 / 7 / 1,432 / 13.4.
High: 130 / 14.5 / 9 / 1,817 / 14.