Reviews of Minka Aire F803-TL Artemis 58 in. Indoor Ceiling Fan - Translucent

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List Price: $869.85
Sale Price: $549.95
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I have three of these fans in my Art Gallery. They were installed 4 years ago. Their style and function are beyond wonderful. They are quiet, move large volumes air without a lot of turbulence, and have constant admiration of my customers. Yes the blades are plastic but if you could mold wood into that shape they would be cost prohibitive. Guests don't believe me at first when I tell them they are plastic. I wish I sold them in my store because so many of my customers have liked mine so much they have bought them. I am buying my fourth one today this time for my home. They are that good.

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The fan is fine, but from all the pictures, the text, and the price, you would think it was made of formed plywood (think Eames). But NO. The fan blades are molded plastic painted to look like wood. They did a nice job with the painting, but it's still plastic.

On opening the box, I felt I'd been tricked.

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The Artemis fan moves a lot of air in almost total silence. It looks like a sculpture. The fan goes great with 8 foot ceilings. It comes with a short 3.5 inch downrod and is itself a pretty low profile fan so it works very well in 8 ft ceiling rooms.

It's made from extremely high quality engineering plastic (polycarbonate) the best choice ecologically (recyclable), functionally (wood is inconsistent and hard to balance) and economically (it would be hard to make it in wood for less than several thousand dollars apiece (there is an Italian fan with real wood blades by Boffi very different in appearance but also nice but it costs more than five thousand dollars).

Honest reviews on Minka Aire F803-TL Artemis 58 in. Indoor Ceiling Fan - Translucent

This fan is very cool. It is of good quality, and installed easily . The blades are plastic; but, look great. The fan is well balanced and is very stable at all speeds. The remote also works great.

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If you compare this fan to the competition using purely technical attributes such as volume of air displaced, motor efficiency, power to operate, etc, you'd be disappointed and it would never justify its price.

Let's face it, the spec sheet isn't impressive at all. At 5100 CFM and 100 watts this fan lands in the bottom of any list of fans of this size.

And the light dome is too small. It has a single socket for a small old style 100W halogen bulb. There is no way you can fit an energy efficient bulb in it. If you're replacing a ceiling fan that has decent lights, you should count the cost of extra floor torches into the price of this item.

Here's another practical thing: assembly required, but the instructions aren't the easiest to understand.

And you don't control this fan with a simple ON-OFF wall switch. It comes with a fancy electronic switch (Minka-Aire WC212 3-Speed Fan Forward/Reverse & Up/Down Light Dimmer Wall Control) which sends signals to a remote located in the fan. It's not terrible to wire, but if you're not the handy type, better include the cost of an electrician in the price as well.

Speaking of the fancy switch, I have 2 nitpicks about it.

First, since it's a remote controller, why does it need to be wired in the wall? Why not let it be removable so that you can control the fan from your bedside for example?

Second, it has 2 buttons for a single light bulb. Why 2 buttons? Well, since it's also a dimmer, you'd think that one button would dim it up and the other would dim it down. You'd be wrong. Both buttons do exactly the same thing. As far as this engineer is concerned, that's the biggest puzzle on earth, rivaling the Stonehenge in England.

You keep one of the buttons pressed down and it will dim the light up, slowly, until it reaches a peak, and then it start dimming it down until it reaches the lowest point and the cycle repeats itself. Problem is... because it's so gradual and slow you can't tell where the peak and bottom are. Say you want it at the brightest setting. If you pass that point, you'll have to keep it pressed down and let it dim all the way down, sloooowly, before it will go up and you try your best shot again.

Since they have too buttons, why not just let one button dim up and the other dim down? It certainly feels like, with their new found power after winning multiple awards with their design, the designers were running the engineering department.

Having said all that, this is more than a fan. The main reason for someone to buy this fan is as a decor accessory, such as a nice sculpture or painting. Consider this: for a sculpture or painting to garner the same amount of compliments and be the talking piece in a party you'd need to spend a lot more than $500. And they just sit there in the corner, they don't do anything. This fan actually does something practical.

Form over function is the best phrase I can think of to describe this fan.

And what a form!