Most of us love summer, but striving to stay cool and to beat the heat can be challenging. No one likes sticky sweat, and it’s hard to be productive (and difficult to sleep!) when the room is too warm or stuffy. Air conditioners are not for everyone – they can be clamorous, and valuable to run — which offers compact electric fans an excellent solution to feeling more relaxed and comfortable. They are cost-effective, simple to establish up, and can be relocated from room to room if required. They come in a variety of different styles to suit the room and your needs.
The Good Housekeeping Institute regularly tests cooling home appliances from portable air conditioners to smart ACs and electric fans. The fans here depict a cross-section of the market, and we’ve selected a range depending on their design and purpose.
Here, we’ve rounded up Seven top picks based upon categorical Lab tests, road tests of some newer models, and industry expertise.
1. Hand-Held Fan Portable Mini Fan – Idealife USB Rechargeable Hand Fan
This Hand Held Fan Portable Mini Fan is rechargeable has a long battery life and features 3 speed and two-mode settings.
This is a powerful handheld fan with 3 different speed settings to command the amount of air movement created. I also have two different modes that allow it to simulate a natural breeze or the steady airflow of a more traditional fan. The battery of the mini fan will last 7.5 hours on the lower settings and only takes 3.5 hours to fully charge via USB. The fan also comes with a base and a makeup mirror.
This handheld fan has a large battery life, a quality of settings, and a stand for tabletop use. It’s also an excellent travel fan and will keep you cool wherever you go!
2. Honeywell QuietSet Whole Room Tower Fan-Black, HYF290B to beat the heat
A favorite with Amazon customers, Honeywell’s whole-room tower fan has a small footprint and a lot of power to cool a medium to the large room. Eight-speed settings and unrestricted oscillation let you elect between extreme cooling (with slightly more noise) to a moderate almost-silent breeze – ideal for cooling a bedroom when you sleep. Adjustable lighting keeps the controls unobtrusive at night.
A handy remote control means you don’t have to get up from where you are to adjust the settings and the timer lets you set the fan to turn off automatically at the end of the cooling period. If you need to relocate the fan, a built-in carrying handle makes that easy – and a holder for the remote helps prevent it from getting lost.
3. ibohr Mini Fan Silent Fan Electric Hand Fan Portable Handheld Battery Operated Fan to beat the heat
The labor Mini Fan Silent Fan Electric Hand Fan Portable Handheld Battery Operated Fan is another great handheld fan that is portable, powerful, and quiet.
This mini fan is very muted due to its brushless motor. It is also powerful owing to the 7 blades that allow it to move air efficiently. This voyage fan comes with 3-speed settings and charges via USB. It is also small and lightweight which makes it very unobtrusive and often people won’t even notice you are using the fan. It also features a sleek, attractive design.
This is a great handheld fan for anyone looking for a sleek and quiet fan that is unobtrusive enough to use in a working environment or at an event.
4. TaoTronics Tower Fan Oscillating Fan Powerful Floor Fan to beat the heat
At $80, the TaoTronics TT-F001 isn’t an inexpensive tower fan, but it makes up for it with a great mix of features and by packing plenty of cooling power into a compact, 35-inch build. Its 60W power draw was second only to Dyson among the fans I tested, and its highest-speed setting was the second noisiest, ringing in at 48 decibels — but neither factor is a deal-breaker, particularly if you need a smaller tower fan but you don’t want to sacrifice cooling power.
As for the features, the TT-F001 includes an ambient temperature reading on the admittedly dated-looking display. Those readings proved to be completely accurate when I used some of the thermocouples leftovers from my waffle maker tests to double-check them. Better yet, those readings let you run the fan on an auto-pilot mode, where it automatically turns on whenever the temperature rises above 79 degrees. With the elimination of Dyson, none of the other fans I tested extended an auto-pilot mode like that. I also appreciated the artificial breeze modes and the removable cover in the back, which makes the fan easier to clean.
5. Rechargeable Outdoor High-Velocity Floor Fan to beat the heat
Whether you need cooling during a power outage, or you want to create a breeze for your summer picnic, the Geek Aire floor fan has a rechargeable battery that gives you around 20 hours of cordless runtime and a battery power indicator that lets you know when to recharge. It has a durable water-resistant metal construction, and a built-in handle to make it easy to carry. The brushless motor allows it to operate relatively quietly, making it ideal for use while sleeping. The fan can be tilted to direct the airflow, and the variable speed control gives precise control over the amount of cooling.
6. Better Homes & Gardens 40″ 5-Speed Tower Fan,Internal Oscillation, Black to beat the heat
Available at Walmart for less than $50, this Better Homes and Gardens-branded tower fan appears to be a reskinned version of a well-rated model from HomeLabs that sells for roughly twice as much on Amazon. Alongside the sleep timer and the three-speed settings, you’ll find two additional modes that simulate a natural breeze. The remote uses magnetism to stay in place on top of the device when you aren’t using it — a nice, high-end touch not commonly found at this price.
The sturdy, understated design features a grill that oscillates within a fixed base, making it less conspicuous than a tower fan that turns entirely from side to side. While I found it plenty powerful to cool off a medium to the large room on a hot day, it still managed to keep things a little quieter than smaller tower fans like the Vornado V-Flow and the TaoTronics TT-F001.
I’d like it better if the warranty ran longer than a single year and if the build weren’t quite so plasticky, but those trade-offs are more than fair at this price. If you’re looking for a capable tower fan that feels more expensive than it is, this one fits the bill better than anything else I’ve tested.
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