This fan is a superb deal!  The retractable blades are barely noticeable at all, to the 'untrained eye', but then when you need a fan, they pop out and get to work.  People have been VERY impressed by how quiet it runs and how beautiful it is.  The fan was a breeze for me to install...done in about 35 minutes...but those 61 individual strands of crystals were a bit of work, and took us about another hour.  It took a bit of a tag team effort from my wife and the ground and me up on the ladder to get that done.   Once it was up, though, it was all worth it!!!