I’ve had these steel fans over a decade and I maintain them with a little grease each summer. This summer in particular, I think the grease in the can is degrading and I’ve needed to do this maintenance three times this year so far. Not wanting to futz with this another time this year, I tried a new lubricant: baby oil (the mineral oil base kind of baby oil).
Works great and now my living room smells ever so slightly of baby.
Yeah, grease can become a problem over the years as the waxes in them harden. Oils are often better for the plain bearings found in a small fan. And even small ball bearing tend to prefer oils over grease.
Do your fans have little oil cups? When I was a kid, small fans often had little oil cups to directly lubricate those plain bearings regularly. So many 3-in-One oil cans.
Nah, no oil cups. These fans are your basic modern chinese fab’d steel fan with simple bearings. Fairly certain that they never intended anyone to ever open/maintain these because it is a pain in the ass to do, and in fact, I’m surprised at how much labor is required to (dis)assemble these (too many fasteners IMO).
That’s too bad. I have a tabletop oscillator that is 60+ years old that has those oil cups. I’m having it buried with me when I die. That way no matter how hot hell is, I’m going to have my fan!