Customer Reviews

Air King 9166 20" Whole-House Window Fan

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Air King has had a 20", model 9166 for quite awhile. I bought my original in 1998. It filled the important niche between an industrial strength attic fan and a smaller lightweight window fan. In 2004 the original plastic fan blade failed, but fortunately I was able to obtain a replacement. That model 9166 continued in service until last month when it screeched to a stop with a seized "lubricated for life" bearing and another cracked plastic blade.

The new model 9166D (under review) was purchased as a direct replacement. While the new 9166 now has an aluminum blade, unfortunately it has a weaker smaller motor, resulting in inferior performance. The old 9166 had a quiet low speed of 520 RPM that moved a respectable 4160 CFM. The new 9166's low speed is a noisy 1100 RPM, but at that speed it only moves 2510 CFM. So at that twice the speed it moves only a little more than half the air.

Air King's 9166D specifications tell the story of the weaker performance. The weaker motor consumes less power, but is noisier at all speeds.

HIGH MED LOW
OLD CFM 7005 6155 4160
NEW CFM 3560 3120 2510

Length:: 0:59 Mins

I'm Kelly Thomas, I own http://www.SIHomeTours.com Installation was quick, easy and a big red sticker told me to reverse the side panels as well as the first line in the instruction manual. I'm also pleased to see the all metal construction, this fan is built to last. (plastic blades will flex and your cfm will drop.) Yea, it's noisy at full speed but I've got some light weather stripping that'll be perfect to significantly reduce the vibrations. We'll mostly run it at low speed anyway which still moves 2510 CFM. In contrast, we recently purchased TWO $8.00 twin plastic window fans from a local big box on closeout, [ regular price ~$20.00+, very much like, the Holmes HAWF2030 ] and those things are not worth spit!! The Air King will just about suck the cat through the door from across the room! I'm confident that my Air King was well worth the money.

Great fan, pretty simple installation, instructions and big sticker on fan tell you to reverse side panels that one person had a problem with...go figure. Moves a LOT of air, keeps my three story house nice and cool. A little loud on high, but I guess that is to be expected when the fan is moving over 3000 CFM @ 1600 RPMs. I recommend!

I purchased this to help ventilate my old house and it is now set it up in a window in my third-floor attic. First, the bad stuff.

The installation instructions are abysmal. I needed to do an exterior frame mount (which entails mounting it OUTSIDE the interior window frame, rather than mounting it within the window frame) and the instructions leave out a VERY important detail. To mount it this way, you must remove the expandable side pieces entirely and then turn them around and re-install. That would have been useful information to have.

Also, the fan does not mount easily on a flat window sill. I had to install a piece of molding on the window sill to keep the fan's bottom from scooching right out the window (and down three stories). That bit of info is also not mentioned in the instructions.

Third, I did initially try an inside-frame mount and the design of the fan is such that this is nearly impossible to do, unless you have the widest window frame that this fan will accomodate.

Now the good stuff. It is an easy-to-use fan and the six-option switch has three speeds and two directions. The select-speed knob is well-located and easy to read and use. The fan is mostly metal and looks like it is well built (other than the design problems listed above). It's powerful enough, but it's not a super-strong fan. With the opposing attic window shut, this fan will pull a slight breeze from the second floor bedroom windows, but it's not like the belt-driven whole-house fans of yore. Those things would suck unsuspecting kittens and pet iguanas right off the floor.

However, it does help ventilate the house and it doesn't make too much racket. This fan is mounted directly over my bedroom window (10' up in the attic) and on high, even at night, I do not hear the fan. For the money, it's probably a pretty good deal. Above all, it'll help keep my attic from turning into an oven during the dog days of summer.

I purchased this fan several weeks ago through another Internet company (amazon.com doesn't carry). When it worked, it was great. But for some reason, it burned out after only a few weeks of use. I contacted the manufacturer about warranty service- from the first contact, all I got was hostility from them. Was there a power surge? Was it plugged in properly? Did you try different outlets? Finally, they told me to send in the receipt and they would send a new motor. So I sent it in, and a few days later, another person called me and told me that I hadn't set up a Warranty Claim. I told her I had spoken to someone already- she said I was lying, and told me that I would have to ship the entire fan to them, and that the engineers would determine if the problem was my fault, and may or may not fix the problem. I've never been treated so rudely by a so-called 'customer service' department. STAY AWAY!!

I've had the previous version of this fan for 8 years and it is excellent. Moves huge quantities of air without excess fan noise. This new version is very loud and on the low and medium speeds has an annoying whine. So, I studied the specs between the old and new. The old fan, at high speed, drew 364 watts/3.2 amps at 834 rpm. The new fan draws 170 watts/1.4 amps at 1600 rpm. So, the motor runs twice as fast, draws less than half the current and moves less than half the CFM. A real let down for $170.00. This is my third Air King so I am quite familiar with the brand. I wrote the factory and they told me that they are using new CFM measurements that are more accurate. HAH. This fan is FEEBLE!

We have a steam and radiant-heated home, thus no vents for central A/C. Plus, here in Michigan we don't need it too often. My wife and I prefer fresh air in the home anyway and only use our bedroom A/C unit when absolutely necessary. Now we have this Air King fan which we bought from [...] (great price and delivery). Installation was a breeze (yuk-yuk), but make sure you have a window large enough to accept it. The height specification (26 1/4") is ideal, but the fan needs about 24" of open space to be effective. The 27" minimum width is required, however. Follow the simple instructions, and you should have no problems. Just make sure the window has a screen on it. I installed the fan in my wife's study on the upper floor. Since hot air rises, I prefer this location to a main floor one. By adjusting which windows and doors are open, you can control the amount of air pulled thru the home. Actually the amount is constant for a given speed, but the effect can be enhanced by closing off windows or doors to create a greater venting effect throughout the home. Today, it hit a balmy 90 degrees, and we really felt how well this fan keeps the air 'fresh' and not stagnant. Noise is the biggest negative, however. At the highest speed, my wife can't stand being in the same room with the fan. The low setting is still powerful, but the noise is tolerable. By noise, I mean air 'white' noise and not motor noise. We usually keep the fan on most of the day at the low or mid setting. On hot days, the high setting is best for our 2200 sq ft home. The fan is well-made and I expect it to last for years. This is well worth the comparably high cost vs the cheap box fans.

I recently purchased a home (stripped foreclosure; the expense of air conditioning was not an option) in Oakland, CA. Like where I used to live (San Francisco), Oakland has a very mild climate - most of the time. However, over on this side of the Bay, it tends to get hotter during the day, which can lead to an uncomfortably warm, stuffy house after being closed up all day. Enter the Air King 9166 (psssssst! I bought it at the company website! It's $30 less and FREE overnight shipping!)

I could sit and argue with those who complain that it's not "all metal"; and it's not. However, the blades, motor, fan grill, primary housing and extensions are metal, which is all that matters to me. There is a decorative plastic cover, which I find perfectly acceptable as it doesn't affect the performance in any way.

And WOW does this fan perform! I came home shortly after dusk to a 77 degree house after a fairly warm day. Outside, the temperature was in the 60s. I like it cool; I switched the fan to "medium" exhaust, cracked open a couple of windows and my house temp was 70 degrees in less than 30 minutes.

I'm fortunate to live in an area where the temperature variance between night and day is fairly high - if you do too, you'll love this fan. And at [...] bucks, with little noticeable change in your electricity bill, you will too.

This fan is perfect for whole-house, nighttime ventilation of our 1,000 SF home. I have tried a lot of fans and I really believe this can move the 3,560 CFM they rate it at. It is also energy-efficient at 20 CFM/Watt. If your house is much larger than 1200 SF, you would probably be better off putting in a permanently-mounted whole house fan of larger diameter to meet the recommended 2-3 air changes per hour for whole house ventilation. But I am glad I didn't have to deal with cutting a hole in our ceiling! Noise level is what what I would expect for this much air flow through a 20" diameter fan. It is down the hallway from our bedroom and is low pitched white noise, so it doesn't bother us at all. Construction quality is impressive - lots of steel and good fit and finish.

It seems that you can't find high-quality window fans in the stores anymore (i.e., built the way they "used to be"). But this one is built very well, like the window fans I grew up with.

The housing is very sturdy and there are no rattles or annoying vibrations when it's running (which is a fatal flaw in many flimsy fans/fan housings).

Installation was a breeze in my fairly-standard double hung windows. There is a template included for screw placement. And you can close the bottom sash behind the fan, while the fan is still in place -- a must-have feature if you are a frequent user of the fan.

It is a bit loud -- but the noise is all "fan" noise, not other rattles/vibrations, as mentioned above. So it's not particularly annoying. But if you are sleeping with it in your room, you will not hear much else going on around the house. Of course, that's a bonus when the garbage truck shows up at 6AM and all your windows are open... :-).

One nit is that the switch just doesn't have a substantial feel to me. It's hard to explain, but it just "feels" a little cheap. But "feel" aside, it'll probably last forever.

All-in-all it's just what it should be, with construction quality that is hard to find these days.