5 Star Desk Fan

The benefits of living in a new build is that in the winter our house is warmer than most peoples' which is great as it means we don't have to put the heating on for as long so we save money. However, in the summer we are now realising that this has the opposite effect- our house seems to store hot air which makes sunny, summery days really stuffy so we have had to invest in fans to try to cool the house down which is costing us in electricity! This 5 star desk fan is one of the fans that we have bought and I must say it doesn't deserve the title of 5 stars!

The looks

This fan isn't anything especially special looks wise which is fine by me as I was buying it for practical reasons and not to look particularly special and statement-like. It is just quite a standard-looking fan- with a white base and dark metal grill on the front of it. The dark metal makes it look a bit more appealing than if it was all white but like I say it's not exactly anything special!

There are four buttons on the base which have the different settings and these are numbered 0,1,2,3. So as you can tell by this little description this fan is nothing outstanding.

Settings

The settings that this fan has to offer include it's speed and it's ability to occilate. The speeds means you can control how fast the air is circulated so it's the actual 'propellers' inside the fan which change speed and not the fan's movement. The slowest setting I find still creates a lot of wind and moves the air. I think that this is a good setting to have it on if you are going to have it stationery and in your face, I use this when I'm lying in bed and have the fan directed at me. The faster two settings I tend to use if the fan is being used to cool down a larger area such as an entire room or is loosely aimed towards something. This is because if it was aimed right at me and the top speed was selected it would be just too much, my hair would be blowing everywhere and it actually does make it quite cold! The occilating setting means that the head of the fan will turn 180degrees which helps to cool a room down. If I'm just hoping to cool down a room in general I will have it on this setting but usually I keep it still and just aimed at one area because it does generate quite a lot of noise!

Does it work?

This works whilst it is on yes. When this fan is on- no matter what the setting- it does cool the air down around it. Whether you have it on fast or slow, still or occilating it will cool down air, however, as soon as it is turned off and the breeze it creates disappears instantly the room is still just as hot as it was before. This is a great fan for a temporary measure- if you're feeling hot and need to cool down then turn it on and sit in front of it but it's not going to actually cool down the air for a long time it just creates a cool breeze.

It's negatives

This fan is very noisy. When you have it on the occilating setting it is suddenly much louder, it is almost like a grating, grinding noise which is very disturbing and gets gradually louder and more dramatic as it turns so it kind of ebbs and flows making it impossible to just get used to and try to tune out as black noise so if you're watching television whilst this is on or trying to concentrate on something it can be very distracting. I tend to just keep this on still so that it's not as loud... it still does create a noise though. The slow setting is the quietest and it gets louder the faster it goes. It is quite a grinding noise again but is at least steady so you do learn to tune it out. I often have this on whilst I'm watching the television and I have learnt to just ignore it and carry on with what I'm doing, however, my husband is unable to and becomes frustrated with it so I think it depends on what person you are.

It's positives

The grate on the front of the fan is very narrow so if Hope comes into the room I don't have to worry about the safety aspect of this as her fingers are too big to fit through the small gaps in the grate. This is a very important feature as obviously a fan like this could cause extreme injury if little fingers managed to get into the wrong places so if you have children this is something that you don't have to worry about too much in terms of safety.

It does cool you down instantly, it's not like it has to take time to 'warm up' so it's nice to have instant cold air. I'm pregnant at the moment and finding the hot days really challenging so although this fan has it's down falls it has come in very useful to help cool me down quickly.

Conclusion

This is by no means the best fan on the market. We have a few and they all seem to be quite noisy but this one does seem to be the nosiest of the ones we have so it can be really annoying and distracting. It does, however, cool you down instantly, you don't need to wait a while for the cold air to hit you instead it blows a cool breeze instantly.

What I like is that it just creates the cool air by whizzing round quickly the air that is already present, it's not like a machine which blows air at you which it's sucking in and filtering out which always feels a bit unhealthy.

The fan does have various settings which is good to provide you with options and I find that they are very useful and i do use them all instead of just sticking to one.

This is fine for me to help cool me down when I'm feeling really hot and needing to cool down, it's just a shame that it's effects don't last long- as soon as you turn it off the stuffiness in the air seems to return right away so for that reason I think this fan is fine for personal, short-term use but to cool down large areas and for a long-term effect this isn't very good.

3 stars for me as it's too noisy which can be really annoying! It cost us £25 from our local hardware store at the beginning of the summer.