Well unless there is some obvious detriment to you plants... then they sould be fine. My capensis that I have outside get whipped around all day and pounded with rain.... all is well for them. But if you would want to change it, just wire up a cpu fan and a power regulator to control the speed.

Wow, it looked really beautiful back in October. Considering that the damage happened over the winter and the fact that my outdoor palms are showing very similar damage to yours right now, I want to say it's cold damage. Temperatures in the upper 30s shouldn't do damage to your Fiji fan palm, but maybe it's possible that your yard is in a cold microclimate or maybe the individual palm is just a bit more sensitive to the cold than the species as a whole. Livistonias are supposed not show frond damage until temperatures reach the mid 20s but I have 2 livistonas that show damage whenever temperatures go much below freezing. When did the damage start to show and is it getting progressively worse or has it stopped? If the damage over the span of a few days or a week or 2, it's a good sign it might be cold damage. I hope it recovers. If it is cold damage it should have no problem recovering in the spring! Good luck! -Alex

Also the unit is only three years old, and I have seen pros posting on this site. The warranty says 5 year limited, would the fan motor be covered?

thanks for the reply Jackfre. I thought about your suggestions about rerouting the warm air down to the return air and it got me thinking. instead of doing that I pulled the snap limit switch from its location low in the plenum and relocated it higher in the plenum and closer to the heat exchanger. now it starts the fan sooner and runs continuously until a minute after the burner shuts down. exactly what I wanted. problem solved. thanks again, Jackfer