Dusting Day: Try These Simple Removal Methods
Cleaning ugly dust from ceiling fan blades is not a well-liked chore in my household. It is time consuming and is often put off for another day. Here are some tricks and a link to a tool that I have found to help in both the cleaning of the blades and making the blades easier to clean in the first place.
Trial and Error
Over 25 years of cleaning the ceiling fans of every house my family has lived in, I have come to detest this cleaning chore more than any other. I first tried simply wiping with a damp cloth. Wrong, the statically charged dust would just smear, leaving the fans looking worse than before. Using a rag soaked with a degreasing cleaner such as 409 helped, but I still had streaky black smudges on the fan blades.
Dusting Day
The disposable dusters of the Swiffer type removed most of the dust, but the leading edges of every blade still had the greasy black stains. If I dusted first and them wiped with degreaser the white blades came more or less clean. I currently have five fans with five blades each for a total of 25 white fan blades, dusting first and them wiping could take over an hour.
Out Comes the Vacuum
On a visit to the local home improvement center, I stumbled on to an attachment for my shop vac. This was something that I didn’t have, so I bought one and gave it a try. The attachment decreased the time required to clean the fan blades and did away with the need for a step ladder, reducing the risk of a fall. This attachment should work with any vacuum that uses a hose.
One time Fix
The blades of most ceiling fans are made of plywood. Both the top and bottom are sanded smooth and painted. The edges are not sanded and only lightly painted, leaving a rough edge for the statically charged dust to take hold. Over a weekend, I removed each blade by unscrewing from the fan, sanding lightly (paying particular attention to the leading edges of the blades) and repainted gloss white using simple aerosol paint. Painting leaves only a smooth edge for the dust and is now removed with no greasy stain.
Considering the effort required to remove, refinish and reassemble the blades, I am pleased with the outcome of the project. Coupled with the purchase of the vacuum attachment, the time spent in cleaning the ceiling fans has been reduced to a manageable endeavor.
