Say hello to my number one fan! I think I bought this back in either 2004 or 2005 (as it was pre-blog I can’t check) but I do know that it was back in 2010 when the band holding the front and back grids together went SPROING one day and I had to resort to tying them together by making clever use of freezer bag twist-ties. And since then that’s what I’ve done. Every spring I cut off the old twist-ties, give the grills and fan blade a wash, and put it all back together again.

These days Old Faithful has yellowed with age, with various bits now different shades of ochre and cream – none of it is the Storm Trooper White it was when I bought it. But danged if it doesn’t work just as well as the first day, and even better than other fans I have bought since then. I use this one in my bedroom during the summer because it’s silent as a whisper and those big blue blades whooosh a lovely soft breeze over me all night long, which is really the only way to get through the hot summer nights here. I think we are sometimes too quick to discard appliances that go sproing rather than look for a solution, which is not made easier by so many devices and appliances that seem to have a built-in self-destruct date. What’s your favourite old appliance?