Air King 9166F 20" Whole House Window Fan , Gray

I grew up in a small house with no central air conditioning and our only means of cooling the house was a 25" Air King box fan, circa 1960s. By the time of my parents last move that original fan went missing, and although it was super ugly and dirty, dented, missing carry handle and all its buttons, the speed controls worked great as long as a screwdriver was nearby, and it was mighty morphin powerful! But was it loud! People who have bought this model 9166, complain about its loudness (and it is loud) have no idea how loud those old metal box fans used to be unless they owned them; but by comparison this baby is nearly silent. However, this fan doesn't begin to compare to anything on the market today, especially something that could be picked up at a local big box store for a comparable price or less. I purchased this fan in May 2016 on the recommendation of my father who has been happily using his similar Air King model (version previous to this) for the last 10-12 years without incident yearly from mid-Spring through early Autumn. Prior to buying I read every single 1-3 star review and agonized for days over the decision to blow $150 on a fan! A fan! (I really wanted to blow that money on a new pair of Birkies!) When it all came down to taking the plunge, I realized I needed either three window fans for three different rooms or one really good house fan. The Air King 9166 won and I haven't looked back. The ONLY thing I don't appreciate about this is the noise, but it's only 25 feet away in basically the same room and I can always hear the stereo or TV which aren't ever blasting or even near to 1/4 of full volume. Not bad. I have noticed many comments regarding the fan shaking or vibrating walls and floors; I haven't had either problem in the two seasons or 10 months of operation. My home is a 2,100 sq. ft. tri-level and this fan cools the main and upper levels down nicely in the evenings, which is when I run it most often. Rarely do I ever utilize any settings other than Low/Exhaust as they are perfectly capable of making the house comfortable within 15-20 minutes. By "perfectly comfortable" I am referring to making the inside temperature just as comfortable as the temperature outside. Twice I've run the fan on the Medium/Exhaust controls due to my own impatience, and as one might expect the noise level to increase to some degree it wasn't discernible nearly as much as one might think. One time I turned it on the High/Intake settings which sent a month of filing and the contents of a standard filing cabinet drawer flying across the dining room, sailing on into the living room and smack into the bay window. So, yeah, high/intake...No. Not necessary. While I don't feel as if it needs to be said, I will say it anyway: when operating the Air King fans it is absolutely imperative that the house has plenty of proper ventilation. The window the fan is installed in must be open 100%, ideally in the same room across from the fan another window should be open several inches as well as other windows around the house, especially on the same level of the home in order for the fan to function well. This fan is installed in my dining room window which is always fully open when the fan is operational. Next to the fan window is another window that I open at least 3-4 inches minimum. Across from the dining room, is a family room with three huge windows and two smaller side windows. Those smaller windows are always adequately (3-4") open during operating hours. The kitchen is next to the dining room - same thing, windows open at minimum of 3-4". The second level bedrooms, baths, sitting room always have excellent fresh air circulation. Whether its important or overkill on my part it's worth mentioning that I always wait until the fans stops (completely or nearly depends on the mood of the day) rotating once the power has been turned off before closing the window it is housed in. Additionally, when it begins to rain I cut the power on the fan and close the window, because electricity and water...um, no! If this ($150!) fan ever quits on me it will not be my fault, and especially not because I didn't something careless. People have asked whether the fan should be screwed into the window frame, and I have done just that. The window closes effortlessly behind the fan which is brilliant. No more messing about with lugging a fan in and out of the window when it rains, is too cold, or too hot, and then wondering where to put the thing. Also, no shaking, rattling or vibrations, as mentioned above. It also seems to make good sense to screw it in from a safety standpoint as this sucker isn't any lightweight piece of equipment. Final word on this screwy business, $150...for a fan. Because I run the air conditioning so much less now than I used to, I have saved on average, June-August $127 per month. Hello new Birks! Another thing to note is, absolutely yes, you want a screen down between the outside world and this fan, if you normally live with screened windows. Otherwise - bugs! I live in the woods, my fan is still in the window and we just finished up with stink bug and mammoth wolf and barn weaver spider seasons; can you imagine if the fan was open to the elements? Oh gawd just kill me...no screens... At the end of a warm, stuffy day I highly recommend the Air King 9166 for it's cooling efficiency and capabilities.

Ok, Ill try to keep this short. I have seen a lot of people complaining about how loud this fan is. I will honestly say it is not quiet. This is a great fan. Probably one of, if not the best window fan out there available today. I grew up with fans running in my bedroom, so I am perfectly fin with the noise level of this fan. Is it higher than some other fans, probably. But it is also much, much stronger of a fan, and probably moves 10 times as much air all the quieter fans. My fiance loves it and it is right above out headboard. She said the same exact thing as me, and she actually likes the sound because it drown out any other noise and makes her sleep better. And it has saved us money because we do not need to turn our air conditioner on yet. And it is almost June. I have always had to turn it on by now. It is heavier than most other window fans, but this is more like a whole house fan really. And it is quieter if you have enough windows open. It needs for you to have enough open for air intake, so it does not put a strain on the fan by trying to pull air when there is no air to pull. You will need a little do it yourself brains, and a little know how with some minor tools to mount it. My set up was a bit harder than most im sure, as it did not fit the window just right and had to improvise. But that was my own fault. I had to have this fan because it moved the most air and I wanted to save money on my electric bill by not running the AC as much. I even removed the steel mounting brackets and used heavy duty anchors in the wood trim around the window, and put a really nice thick rubber gasket seal all the way around it so it is air tight, and sucks some serious air through my house. Even on the lowest setting you can feel air moving around the first floor, and it is in a second floor window. And put this sucker on the high setting, and there is a breeze coming in all the windows. Its great! It moves so much air that if you let the door get too close it will suck it shut! So if you can handle fan noise, and wont complain when you know it is a high power fan that moves some serious air, then this is for you. If you want a very quiet window fan, then by one of those cheapos that barely move any air at all, and you will be happy with how quiet it is. But then you will not be happy because they move 1/10th the amount of air this one does. If you purchase this fan, knowing it moves some serious air, and has a high power motor, and is going to be louder than those cheap weak window fans, and then complain and leave bad reviews, then that is a pretty crappy thing to do. And if you are not handy at all, and cant mount it, dont complain about how hard it is to mount. Its a heavy duty whole house window fan not a 3 pound cheap piece of junk. Half of the units frame is plastic, and the other half is metal. Measure you window accurately, and read the specs to make sure it will work for you before you waste you time. Or you can modify things and make it work like I did because I had to have it. But I give it 5 stars even with the fact that it is louder than all those cheap ones. I wanted a fan that would move some serious air and this is probably one of the last ones that you can buy of this quality. Now you can look it up on youtube and find some pretty strange guys doing reviews on it and testing it in animal costumes, but they actually really knew about fans and gave it 5 stars also. I almost forgot. The fact that it has low, medium, and high, and even better that it can exhaust air out of the house, or you can just twist the switch the opposite direction and the fan will run in reverse and pull air straight into the house without turning the fan around, also with low medium and high. Buy it.

****** UPDATE 15 MONTHS AFTER PURCHASE******* This fan no longer works. Turned it on back in November and it was as dead as a door nail. I was busy and didn't have time to mess with it but just recently sent email to company to see if there might be a quick fix. Will let you know. Received reply from Air & Water Inc. Here it is. --- Unfortunately the item is out of warranty and we are unable to exchange the product. We do not offer technical support for thee units, what I would recommend doing is contacting the manufacturer directly to see if they may be able to troubleshoot the product. To contact Air King directly please call 877-304-3785. Thank you for choosing Air & Water, Inc. ---- Well, the box works for Christmas light storage. It is sturdy and keeps the rats out. ********************************************** I have read a lot about this fan, both good and bad. With some of the bad reviews I had to ask myself, "How far has fan motor technology progressed in the last 20 years?" I have fans over 20 years old that still run and that made me wonder about the complaints of "motor burn out." Lets take a look at what might be happening with "FANS GONE WILD." First of all this fan is like an engine, it needs air to run properly. That pedestal fan or ceiling fan in your home has and endless supply of air as it isn't removing or replacing air, it is only moving it around. But a window fan needs more - an unobstructed source. Since it is moving air either in or out of a capsule (your home) it must be able to do so freely. I know, I know, I'm just like you. I love to turn a window fan on, crack another window open about 2 inches and feel that wind roaring through but that isn't what is best for the fan in the long term. You need to have at least 2 windows open = to the size of this fan to help it live a long and healthy life. This fan is already working hard moving a lot of air - it shouldn't have to struggle for the air. As well, get rid of the screen where you have the fan installed, that equates to about a 50% blockage. It impedes air movement in either direction. It blocks air being removed by the fan if you are exhausting air from the home or it blocks air trying to enter the fan if you are blowing air into the home - get rid of it. As well, this is why you need 2 windows open to run an exhaust fan. Those 2 windows probably have screens that impede the air movement as well. You can leave those screens in place but open at least 2 windows. The test: Open the intake windows you plan on using while running your fan. With the fan running now crack a door open to the outside of the home. Without closing the door or lodging it in place, gently push the door closed. If the fan is still trying to pull air in through that door, pushing it back open, you need more windows open. Air should be entering your home with the least amount of resistance possible. My 19 year old son and I installed it - he said it was the easiest thing we have ever put together and installed - it was. It is a little noisy so you will need to place it away from a main living area. If you are like me however, that fan will put you to sleep in about 5 minutes in your bedroom. It looks good and the Storm Guard feature works easily and as advertised, allowing you to close the window when the fan is not in use. Remember and trust that this fan is moving a lot of air as advertised, you don't need a small cracked intake window with a 30 knot breeze blowing through it to know that. 2 intake windows open to the size of the fan should do. All you are looking for from where the air is entering the home is the sensation of a vague feel of air movement - not a 30 knot breeze. To restrict the air flow of a fan is like driving your car with the parking brake on - your brakes will be gone before you know it. That fan that sits on the counter or pedestal doesn't have to work for air, it is all contained within the capsule, your home, those fans merely moves air. An exhaust / intake fan is different, much different. Make it easy on your fan and make it easy on yourself. Good fan - I like it. If the motor craps out on me this decade I'll let you know and take back all of this. I haven't disregarded the bad reports I have read, I shall keep the box for a while. Always Uncle Jim. My name is Jim, I have a high school diploma and am a self proclaimed expert in Fanology. All of my fans still run.

If you are here reading this, you probably already understand the premise. These big fans can create negative pressure inside your house by blowing out. You fire this thing up, then open windows elsewhere in your house to essentially create powerful, artificial cross ventilation, rapidly exchanging the hot air of the day inside your house for the cool night air outside. In the shoulder seasons, a fan like this can eliminate the need for A/C, saving you huge money on your electric bill. We even run it occasionally on a warm winter day to just replace all the stale air in the house. This thing is no joke. It is big. It is heavy. It feels almost industrial. You will need to think carefully about how you install it in the window and you will be putting large screws into the window frame to keep it stable and in place. Once you install it, you are likely leaving it in place permanently. (You install it so you can open and close the window as needed, without needing to remove the fan.) You also need to make sure wherever you are installing it is not near things like window shade cords, drapes, etc. as it is easily powerful enough to pull stuff like that into it if it got too close. You want this in a bare window with nothing near it. Once you kick it on, you can probably just tolerate being in the same room with it on low. On high it is absurdly loud, and even on medium it is quite loud. In other words, do not install this in your bedroom and expect to sleep next to it, it is just too much fan for that. But it works, and works well. It moves the kind of volume and creates the kind of negative air pressure you need to fairly rapidly change out the air in even a very big house. Mine is in an upstairs, spare bedroom. On cool evenings, I open a couple of windows downstairs on the other side of the house, and crack open a window or two in the master bedroom, then fire this beast up and kick on the various ceiling fans around the house to stir up the air. Then I LEAVE THE ROOM and let this thing work its magic. In my good sized house, it takes maybe an hour or so before the hot stuffy air inside has been replaced with fresh, cool outside air, equalizing the temperature inside and outside. Then I go back upstairs and turn the thing off, restoring my house to quiet. What do I like: the power, and the fact it has now held up for several seasons. I've had a rattle or two I needed to fix but that was due to errors in my install. The fan and housing itself is well made. What do I not like: mainly the fact that it is so noisy. You could run it on low in another room and tolerate leaving it on all night. But I normally run it on medium and shut it off before bed.

The fan is rated to move 3560/3120/2510 CFM. So at its slowest speed it is still moving more air than my former 20 inch box fan could on its highest speed. At high speed it seems to move even more air through my house (2,200 sq feet/two story) than I was getting before running two 20 inch box fans at their top speed. I have it installed in an upstairs window (exhaust) with a downstairs window open to pull cool air in. Standing at the bottom of my stairs I can feel the air moving as it's getting pulled up to the second floor and out. It's not a toss your hair around breeze, but with two 20 inch box fans before I couldn't feel the air moving at all. Lowes suggests a whole house fan able to move about 4400 CFM for a house my size. This gets my close enough without spending over a thousand dollars on equipment and more for labor to wire and fit a larger whole house fan through my ceiling and venting up into my attic space. I'd buy this again in an instant considering that alone. I recommend it if it it's a good fit for your windows. Noise level: not bad considering the work it's doing. You wouldn't want it cranking in the room your watching tv in for sure. What I like best about it: the price for the amount of air it moves this is tough to beat. Bonus is the design allows the window to be closed with fan in place. As it's kinda big and bulky that's a definite plus not needing to pick it up after each rain storm to put it back in the window. The design of the fan includes two sides that slide in and out to accommodate various window openings. In my situation I have windows that are finished with sheetrock on sides vs solid wood trim surrounding the window opening. While I could have screwed into stud framing beneath the sheetrock that's not something I really wanted to do. In addition, I wanted the ability to move the fan to various windows vs having is screwed down to one at a time. My solution was to frame the fan to fit my window widths as seen in the pics. Will you have to do this? Probably not. Just seemed the best route for windows like mine and wanting to move it windows in other rooms like I could with regular box fans.

Bottom line, it's perfect for our needs and works well. We moved to the California mountains (7000 feet elevation), so the days are warm and nights very cool. We have no air conditioning. We installed this fan a month ago to bring in the cool air in the morning. Then we close up the house all day and it stays cool. In the evening, we again open the windows and bring in the cool air again. So the fan gets a workout. It installed easily with four screws, two on each side of the window. Initially it vibrated considerably and was noisy. Our window is narrow so the extendable side panels were almost completely closed, causing some blockage to the exhausted air. These panels have removable pieces stamped in the metal. So all you have to do us wiggle them back and forth a bit to break them loose. Once I did this, the air flowed easily and most of the vibration was eliminated. There was sill too much noise and vibration for me (OK, I'm a bit anal), so I contacted the company and was connected to a quality specialist who was excellent...a credit to his company. There are 4 rubber vibration eliminators that come with the fan. He sent me 6 more. When I added these the noise was reduced significantly and is totally acceptable to me (thanks, Carl). I have a 1400 square foot home all on one level and it draws air from every window on all three speeds, cooling the entire house. It's the perfect solution for us here.

The installation instructions leave out a few things. I was concerned about rattles and shaking and noise in general after reading some reviews, but I've had none of those issues. Mine's housing was slightly bent and the packaging was damaged (I expected this due to ordering an Amazon Warehouse version). The installation was easy, I did have to add a piece of wood to the middle of my double windows to mount the housing on properly. I was skeptical of the four little screws being able to handle the weight of it, it's a beast, but most of the weight ends up on your windowsill. I've got double hung windows and they easily open and close even with the fan in place. There's four screws on the back of the fan around the outside, make sure you loosen those screws before you put it in the window and adjust its position, then tighten them down against the sliding panels to lock everything down. I suspect that and not using the little plastic guides on the metal panels is what causes most people's issues with rattling and movement noise. The amount of air this thing moves is wild. It is also not quiet, it's mostly just the normal fan sound, just amplified. I can hardly hear it in other rooms of the house though. It's nothing like the freight train noise of my grandpa's attic fan though. All in all, so far, this fan is worth it. Excellent fan, moves air well, I'm very happy with it.

My 24" Patton whole-house window exhaust fan recently stopped working after 32 years of very good service. That fan appears not to be made any longer, so I opted for the only other similar whole-house window fan I could find. That happened to be the Air King 20" reversible whole-house window fan. Granted, the Patton fan is 24" and is exclusively for exhaust, but Patton’s far greater ability to remove air is remarkable. By comparison, the 20" Air King’s performance is disappointing at best, even after taking into account the different blade sizes. The Patton fan could create quite a breeze throughout the house. The Air King fan can’t. Although I have no equipment to measure air flow precisely, it would be fair to say that the Air King fan at the high setting seems to move less air than the Patton fan set at the low setting. No doubt the blade design has a lot to do with that. The three Patton blades are rectangular and scoop-shaped. The three Air King blades are tulip-shaped and flat. The rectangular, scooped Patton blades appear to have more surface area and a better design for effectively catching air and directing it out. The motor speed was moderate, but that fan sure put out a lot of air. The tulip-shape of the Air King blades seem to be designed for aesthetics, not efficiency. The motor seems to rev up as though there is little resistance. It’s fast. I realize that the blades for the Air King have to work in both directions, so they cannot be scooped for one-direction efficiency. I think that is a built-in design flaw that causes inefficiency in the Air King. Let’s be realistic: Both of these fans are described as whole-house window fans. A whole-house fan is used as an air removal system as it creates a slight vacuum in one room to pull air into the house through the opened windows in other rooms in the house. That is how it works as a whole-house fan. I think that designing a whole-house fan to be both an intake fan as well as an exhaust fan is just a marketing ploy. If you set a whole-house fan to the intake mode, it will blow everything in the immediate room into chaos unless all items are anchored down. A whole-house fan is for exhaust. However, if a window fan is small and intended to ventilate only one room, not a whole house, the fan motor can justifiably be reversible. Intake air flow from a small fan would not cause chaos. The construction of the Air King is certainly adequate, even admirable considering the price. The grill wire is heavy-gauge metal, although it has to be to support the heavy motor. That is a refreshing change from the plastic grills that you see on most cheap table and pedestal fans. The overall design seems good. And the Air King web site says the fan is made in USA. Remarkable! I like that. Shipping from VMInnovations was fast, considering that it had to go all the way across the country. The Air King will never be like the Patton fan because of the fan size, blade shape, and motor power. The Patton is 4.8 amps and 450 watts, and the Air King is 1.4 amps and 170 watts. These fans are not even in the same world, so I suppose it is not fair to do a comparison of them. It’s just that I have lived with that excellent Patton fan for over thirty years, and that experience does influence me. Nevertheless, I think it could be much better. I think you could call this review a constructive criticism. I am giving the Air King four stars, not five, because I think they could have done better by making the fan exhaust only, and then redesigning the fan blades for greater efficiency. I wonder if they will ever do that. Do companies listen to customers? P.S. Watch out for price fluctuations. I have seen the Air King priced everywhere from around a hundred (lasted only about a day) to well into the two-hundreds, all through Amazon. I was not aware of the extreme price volatility when I purchased mine at the then Amazon price of around one-ninety. Still, that’s not a bad price for a well constructed fan. I purchased the Patton 32 years ago for around one and a half. I suppose it would be about twice that much today, if it were even available. UPDATE: There were some panel screws missing from the fan when it arrived, a really minor thing. Still, the customer service seemed to bend over backwards to find replacements and send them to me, which they did. My experience with customer service at VMInnovations is that it is exemplary. Now that I have used the fan for a few weeks, I must downgrade my opinion of it to three stars. The construction of the fan is good, but what really matters is performance, and its efficiency in moving air is pathetic. No doubt the CEO, the pointy-haired boss, and marketing demanded that the fan be bi-directional, but I’ll bet the engineers knew from the beginning that it was a mistake. During hot weather when we need the air flow the most, the fan just does not deliver. It may be marginally satisfactory for an apartment or a very small house, but for anything larger you will be extremely disappointed, as I am. To call it a whole-house fan is just a cruel joke. I have been considering getting my old Patton fan repaired

Works really well. Vents entire house as advertised. Low setting is very quiet.

I love this fan..people wrote it made too much noise..but nothing unbearable only when you put it on the max settings. It cools tje room down fairlywell.its not an air conditioner But it one of the best fans...I did not have any motor issues yet..like that sound others reported...it easy to mount and stay very sturdy..no issues here except the price is too high for a fan might as well get an air conditioner with that price..

very strong air flow, highly recommand

Put it in any fitting window, open other windows, turn it on, push air out. That's it. You'll never suffer from heat and humidity again. Who needs an AC?

It has metal skirts and its noisy and rattles. I also have a 16" which is a lot quieter but less rugged built.