Vornado 610DC Energy Smart Medium Air Circulator Fan with Variable Speed Control

I had doubts about spending this much for a fan, but would say it has been worth it. The variable speed control lets you adjust all the way down to completely silent, while still getting a nice mild breeze. It also lets you turn it up high power when needed, or to fine tune it to the level of noise that doesn't bother you anymore. The cord "feels" a little short at times, as the DC power supply in the middle needs to sit on something to support it. The smaller DC cord from the power supply to the fan seems like it might be a little fragile, or that the connector at the end may be susceptible to damage, but mine is doing just fine, despite how it looks. It really does hold a nice column of air. letting you "shoot" the air for a longer distance. I would judge the Vornado claims as 30% hype and 70% truth, which is pretty good in my book. I was expecting higher ratio of hype, given their glowing claims. I can confirm the lower power draw for this DC fan. It is most noticeable at the lower settings, where I can still get a decent breeze on just 2 or 3 Watts, instead of getting a wimpy breeze for 15 or 20W from my other fans on their lowest settings. The savings are less pronounced at full power, but it still draws about 30% less that any other fan I have in the house for an equivalent breeze. I expect it will take about 7 years for the energy savings to pay for the price difference, but the infinitely variable speed by itself is almost worth the price difference. I find myself gong over to nudge the speed up a little or down a little several time a day. There's definitely something to be said for infinite speed control (and basically infinite noise control). Two or three speeds for a fan is very crude by comparison. If it's just a little too loud, I turn it down just a little. If it is just not quite enough air flow, I just turn it up a little. No more choosing between too little air or full-blown hurricane any more. It can be as quiet as I want it to be, or blow just as hard as I want it, or anywhere in-between. I got it to be "greener" and save energy, and because I enjoy "quality" stuff over throw-away stuff. This fills the bill on both counts, and the improved performance over my old fans is a very nice bonus feature. No quality problems so far, it has held up to me kicking it over in the dark a few times (too quiet to notice in the dark, but light enough to not hurt my toes too badly), and it is balanced nearly to perfection, so runs very smoothly. It still feels expensive, but is maybe worth it, or at least worth a good portion of the extra cost. I'm not ready to spend that much for all of my fans yet, but getting one of these for my highest usage fan has worked out well.

Al inicio pensé que era demasiado pequeño para poder mejorar la frescura en una habitación calurosa pero hace lo suyo. Recomiendo utilizar la máxima velocidad e ir reduciendo, según como se vaya resfrescando.

Superior indoor ventilation. Positioning this fan as recommended really works. You get air movement throughout the room but no localized blast. This is much more comfortable for sleeping, for example, than fans which blow on you directly, or wave a column of wind from side to side. It gets noisy at high speed. This problem is solved by getting one that is not too small, and running it at lower speed. Optimal noise, and breeze, is reached with the model I bought, which boasts continuously variable speed. This optimization comes at a price, however. Much as I like this fan, I have to call it expensive. If you had a variac ( a variable AC transformer ) sitting around doing nothing, maybe you could use it on a fixed-speed model and get finer speed adjustment.

I have a sound studio in the attic of my home, so you know two things: it gets HOT up there in summer, and I am very attuned of noise levels. My central air barely reaches up there, and I can't have a portable or window air conditioner up there due to the sound. Thankfully, I found these fans. They are honestly, the quietest I have ever seen. For those that care, I measured the dBs - at about a 1/3 power, this puppy gives off a measly 5dBs of noise. At about 2/3 power, it climbs to about 20 dBs. Finally, at full power, it's around 35 dBs (most of that is the actual air moving, rather than the motor). While it does get louder at the higher end of it's power scale, the good thing is I don't think I've ever used it higher than about 1/2 power. Even at low levels, it really moves the air efficiently and evenly (for a medium-sized room). The one negative note I will say, is the "small" version of this fan isn't worth it. It's somehow louder than this medium size, so for the price, go for this bigger version - it will move more air and is overall quieter. I haven't tried the $500 large size version, as for $200, this one is good enough for me. I have bought two of them, which is enough for the entire top floor of my house. Yes, they're expensive, but if noise level is important to you, these are worth every dime!

For about 30 years, I have had a 8"-10" fan mounted on the wall above my side of the bed to keep my head cool. The 8" personal-type fans tend to be noisier and are only made to last a few years when using them 50% of the time, but they also have slower speeds when you just want lighter breeze. I did those for the first 20, but 10 years ago, I bought a travel voltage converter and a 10" higher-velocity fan, then set the voltage on the converter to 220, which forces the fan to run at half speeds. This actually works pretty well, but there were times I wanted the full speeds so I eventually made a switch to go between the converter and regular power, giving me 6 speeds; 3 slow and 3 fast with no "middle" speeds. The voltage converter recently died and I felt it was time to look at what was available regarding variable speed fans. I took the leap and spent the money on this one and I'm very happy with the result. I felt way better about my purchase when I saw that this fan is FULLY made in Kansas, USA. The speed on the lowest setting is pretty low and I will likely be able to just leave it at that at night most of the year. I love that I can easily bump it up to higher speeds when I need to really cool off, which is often, going into summer. This fan doesn't have mounting holes, but the simple solution was a couple of 1 1/2" 2-hole straps, which are under $2 at your local big box hardware store in the the conduit section. I included a picture to show how I did it. The title of this review wrote itself when I thought back on the 5-6 fans used over 30 years. This fan offers near silence at low speeds but also can push as much air as I could ever want at the mere turn of the dial. Brilliant! Good work, Kansas! I am a big fan of your... fans ;)