Panasonic 16” Industrial Exhaust Fan | 2025 Remake!

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I usually do a video remake every 2 years, but somehow this fan slipped through the net & went as long as 5 years 🤷

During those years, this fan mostly sat unused in my old workshop, until my new workshop was built & I made a spot dedicated for 16" industrial exhaust fans. Multiple changes have been made on it as well, the most obvious being the balancing weights on 2 of the blades. A viewer pointed out on my first demo video of this fan that the blades are oddly out of balance even though there were weights on it, but those 'weights' were actually magnets that I placed on the blades in a failed effort to balance it. I was so fed up from the constant shutter rattling that I decided to take drastic action & drill holes on 2 blades to mount bolts & nuts for balancing. It is still slightly out of balance, but far better from the 10 magnitude earthquake rattle this fan did before. Another change that's harder to notice is the deeper blade pitch. Upon testing the power draw from this fan, I noticed that it pulls about 15 watts under its own rating. Since the airflow from this fan was originally so-so, I decided to add pitch to the blades just enough that the motor can still spin up to full speed, and also draw its rated consumption. Surprisingly enough the motor doesn't get any hotter, and this fan has no trouble opening its shutter fully since it blows harder now. With the original pitch, this fan was just able to keep its shutter fully open without causing any buffeting sound. I don't think this fan will last half a year if I run this fan long term in this new pitch configuration, but because I only use this fan for like half a day max, it's fine for me.

This is still one of my most favorite exhaust fans, as I have plenty of stories with the National & KDK variants, including one episode when a cake shop owner joked about trading his National unit with my parents' car when I was a kid. Something about the blades & 3 motor brackets make me very nostalgic. That's perhaps due to the 80's Sanyo 16" industrial vent fan in my old kindergarten that looks similar to this fan. Yes the quality on this fan is significantly lower than the National variant that I grew up with, and the wind up speed is ridiculously long for an industrial rated fan, but this is definitely a fan that will stay in my possession long term. I do wish to acquire a good condition motor from a National unit to swap out the weaker motor on this fan though.

#Panasonic #ExhaustFan