We all know what fans are for right? Their main purpose is to provide a cooling system based on the circulation of air around the room which results in a breeze. So far, so good. Electric fans can now be fitted to ceilings, used as standalone fans and fitted in the back of electronic devices such as TVs and computers to cool down the components, these are called axial fans. You can also buy hand held battery operated fans to use whilst out and about or in your car.
Whilst fans may now be standard office and home furniture, used by many of us for their correct purpose, to some the electric fan is a source of great entertainment and endless YouTube video frolics. However, reader do be warned, for here are 14 objects that you really shouldn’t be sticking in an electric fan.
1. Your Tongue
Perhaps you have burnt your tongue or maybe you feel that an oscillating fan will be a good way to clean your tongue? Whatever the reason, sticking your tongue into the path of rotating blades is never going to end well. Yes it will hurt and no it’s not really worth the dozen or so views you’ll get on YouTube.
2. Your Hair
A fan can be a good alternative to a hair dryer, should you find yourself without, however, you should never get the fan so close to your hair that it becomes entangled. With the large electric fans this could result in you losing a large chunk of hair and with the handheld ones, you may have to spend the rest of the day wearing a rather fetching fan in your hair until you manage to untangle it. It will do nothing to improve the style or quality of your hair so if you do use your fan as a hairdryer, be careful.
3. The Pet Hamster
You may not like the hamster very much and may think that it’s a boring pet but that is no excuse to stick it into an electric fan. Also you then have to deal with a sobbing small child who has found their badly beaten hamster dead in its cage. It’s not clever and it’s not cool.
4. The Cat/Dog’s Tail
Ditto. Hopefully if you do attempt this, the dog will turn round and bite you and the cat will scratch your eyes out.
5. Batteries
If your fan is electric and has a plug for you to insert into the socket, then you do not need to insert batteries too. This will just result in your batteries experiencing a meltdown.
6. Water
Believe it or not, pouring water into a fan will not result in a nice cooling shower but a rather hot electrifying experience.
7. Your Social Welfare Book
The cuts are quite severe enough so there really is no need to make them more severe.
8. Homework
Trust me; your teacher will have heard just about every excuse under the sun. Claiming that your homework fell into the fan just won’t cut it.
9. Your Ear
A small battery operated fan may be useful for cooling you down but it cannot remove earwax so do the decent thing and use soap and water.
10. Your Tie
I don’t know what would possess someone to stick their tie into a fan but let’s just say that the results could well be all part of natural selection.
11. Talcum Powder
Unless you are trying to create a Christmas scene.
12. A Pencil
Many a bored employee has stuck their pencil into the axial fans at the back of the pc or laptop. All that will happen is that your pencil will splinter and damage the fan, causing your pc to overheat which will then have to be sent to the repairmen. They will find the pencil shards and only bribes will prevent them from spilling all to your boss.
13. Paint Tubes
See the talcum powder only add ‘unless you are trying to create a work of art’.
14. Insects
This includes worms, spiders, beetles, flies, etc. It will get messy and I wouldn’t like to be the one who has to clean the blades of various insect body parts.
Christopher Parkinson originally studied microprocessor design theory before testing phone lines and repairing faulty circuit boards for a couple of telco companies. His interest in electronics started at an early age when he used a screwdriver to open up a video game console to see how it worked. These days Chris is a home electronics enthusiast who enjoys tampering with the latest technology when not writing about the latest Arduino kits from Newark.
