What is a “pusher” fan?
A pusher fan is a fan that is installed ahead, or in front of the radiator, and wired so that when it is running, the air is “pushed” through the radiator core. All Perma-Cool electric fans are pre-assembled at the factory and shipped as pullers, not pushers. Top Can an electric fan be installed as a pusher or as a puller? Yes, while all Perma-Cool electric fans are pre-assembled at the factory, and shipped as pullers, they are reversible. In most cases, to convert a fan’s directional flow from a puller to a pusher, the blade must be removed and flipped over (or reversed), and the wiring must also be reversed. In some instances a fan can be converted by simply reversing the wiring polarity. Top What is more efficient a “pusher” or “puller” electric fan? A puller fan is more efficient. A pusher fan is generally only 80% as efficient as a puller fan.
Contrary to Perma-Cool’s answer, the true "Pusher Fan" concept was introduced back in the early ’50’s for farming crawler tractors. The regular fan blade was replaced with one of reversed pitch which blew cooling air back through the radiator, thus reducing clogging of the fins with chaff and grain dust. I belive it was Modine that first introduced the reverse-flow concept in air-to-liquid heat exchangers (not to be confused with "counterflow").
