Best fans 2024

This fan has several things going for it: it’s hugely powerful, it can oscillate vertically, horizontally – and both at once, and it has handy smart controls that give you granular control over its direction and oscillation. It’s quiet as well.

You can stand it on the floor or on a table or counter and chose an exact airflow direction, or give it a wider scope and use it to cool several people in a room. It can blow air to a maximum distance of 110ft and you can stand it in front of an air conditioner or a window and it’ll amplify the cooling airflow. It has several modes, including, natural, sleep and turbo and a number of fan speeds.

Controls come via a subtle LED panel on its base and via an included remote control. But to get the best from this fan, you’ll want to use the accompanying app to easily programme settings, set a timer and use voice control. Altogether, it’s pretty impressive for its price point.

If you want a fan that looks more than functional and will blend into your home, the Whisper Flex is one to consider. It comes in four colour options (black, white and two shades of grey) and the fan itself is matt and all one shade. But that’s not the best part of its design.

The Whisper Flex can transform from a pedestal to a tabletop fan in a few seconds. All you need to do is remove the central column. Another attractive element is the fan’s control centre, which is a digital display set into a dial that you turn to choose settings. But, although it looks good, it’s not that easy to read.

This isn’t a huge problem as the fan also comes with a colour-matching remote, which magnetically sticks to the back of the fan for storage. Then, there are the smart features. Download the Duux app and you can control the fan on your phone, which is great for easy scheduling, or use voice commands via your home assistant.

The fan has 26 speed settings, vertical and horizontal oscillation and three modes: normal, natural and night. You can set a shutdown timer as well. As its name promises, it’s genuinely whisper-quiet: you won’t hear it at all.

Bear in mind that you will need to assemble it before use.

if you’re looking for a quiet air circulator, Meaco’s Sefte fan is one to consider. It’s one of the quietest models we’ve tested. Meaco claims an operating volume of only 25dB on lower fan speeds – we can confirm it’s virtually silent at this level – and you won’t need to turn it up higher to keep cool and comfortable this summer. This makes it an ideal choice for a bedroom.

It doesn’t have smart features but it comes with a remote that’ll allow you to set a switch-off timer for up to 12 hours. The remote is nicely designed, with glow in the dark keys, and it magnetically attaches to the centre of the fan so you won’t lose it. There are easy to use, on-device controls as well, and a round digital display that shows settings and the current temperature.

It has three operating modes, including one that adjusts the fan speed depending on the temperature in the room, and a night mode that slows the fan hourly.

One of its best features is its adjustable oscillation, which you can control vertically and horizontally and set to cool a narrow or wide portion of the room.

Purifying fans are well worth the purchase if you or anyone in your family has hay fever, allergies or asthma.

The Purifier Cool Autoreact is expensive, but as Dyson fans go, it’s not one of the brand’s priciest models. That’s partly because it doesn’t also function as a heater, and partly because it doesn’t have smart features. What you’ll get for your money – apart from Dyson’t iconic design – is a quiet, powerful purifying fan with an on-device digital display that gives you a variety of air quality readings.

Inside the fan is a HEPA 13 filter that will remove 99.95% of particles as small as 0.1 microns, as well as VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from the air.

It has 10 fan speeds and it sits on a rotating base that’ll allow you to cool a large section of the room, or focus on a single person. Oddly, there are no on-device controls at all, except for the power button. You’ll need to adjust all settings via the supplied remote control, which is easy to use and attaches magnetically to the fan when not in use.

This fan is a little different from any of the other products in this round-up. For a start, it’s portable. Even better, you wear it around your neck, so it’s completely hands-free. What’s more, you can use it both indoors and out – although when we tested it, we found that it was much more effective inside.

The Torras Coolify Cyber Neck Air Conditioner weighs just 17.5oz (495g) and is powered by four aerodynamic motors spinning at 7,200 rotations per minute to create airflow around your upper shoulders. Torras claims a maximum running time of 15 hours from its 6000mAh battery, but that’s on its lowest setting. Turn it up to its most powerful level and you’ll get around two hours of use from it.

It also operates as a personal heater and at maximum heat, it’ll keep going for around three hours. It has 20W fast charging and can go from flat to full in around two hours. It’s a smart device as well, and you can control it using its straightforward companion app.

But, although it’s lightweight and effective indoors, it’s far from whisper-quiet. If you have it on full blast, people around you will definitely notice it and you may find it hard to follow conversations. Still, if you need to cool down while commuting or before meetings, the Coolify is a portable and effective solution.

A fan will make you more comfortable but it can’t actually lower the temperature of the air. The Princess Smart Air Cooler can. It’s an evaporative cooler that uses water (and ice) to chill the air it blows out. It’s simple to use as well. You just fill up the water tank at the base and switch it on. Like any fan, it has several speeds, it can oscillate, there’s a night mode and timer.

There’s a full range of controls on the cooler itself and it comes with a remote – but as it’s a smart appliance, you can also control it via the accompanying app. This gives you the option to create scenes and use voice commands via Alexa or Google Assistant.

We would caution that, as it’s an electrical appliance with a tank of water in the base, it needs to be kept well away from kids and pets. You’ll also need to clean the tank regularly, and getting the tank in and out of the appliance is a bit of a hassle.

But at just 3p an hour to run, this is the cheapest way to stay cool over summer.

Although it comes in a few pieces, the Pilot Max tower fan is simple to put together. You’re really just attaching the base and plugging it in.

It’s a bladeless fan, standing 110cm/ 43in high, with a 30cm/ 12in base diameter. It comes with a remote control (and battery), so you can switch it off and on and change settings from the comfort of your sofa.

Its height is a huge advantage as the air outlet takes up a significant portion of this length (50cm), so it’s able to move a lot of air around.

The fan oscillates and you can change the angle from 30-120°, in 30° increments. It has 12 speeds, which go from a perfectly silent, light current of air to an audible (but still far from noisy) blast. At any setting, it’s impressively quiet. There’s a timer as well, which you can set for up to 12 hours.

It has four modes: normal, natural (changing airflow), sleep (it slows every 30 minutes) and auto, which adapts to the room’s ambient temperature.

The control panel is on the curved top of the fan and there’s an inset digital screen that displays settings and fan speed.

As it’s slim with a small footprint, when it’s not in use, you can push it into a corner and forget about it – the next best thing to having a combined heater/ fan.

Dreo’s tower fan comes in two models: the smart version is just $20 more and it’s compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, so you can switch it on and off with voice commands.

If you’re looking for an economical fan with a small footprint, the Levoit Classic is one to consider. It’s not the prettiest fan we’ve tested but it’s incredibly cheap to run and packs in a good number of features for its price point – it’s especially good value if you can get it for less than its listed price.

It has an easy-to-read LED display and you can change the settings via the touch controls or the included remote. There are five speed settings, an oscillation option, a timer and a number of modes to choose from: Normal, Auto, Advanced Sleep, and Turbo.

There are a couple of compromises to be made if you buy: we found the oscillation to be a bit unreliable and it’s not the quietest fan on the higher speed settings.

This powerful, two-in-one heating and cooling appliance can stand in your living room year-round. It has a small footprint for a heater/ fan of this kind (the diameter of its base is less than 25cm), although at 102cm, it’s tall. It’s attractive as well, with a slim, bladeless design that should complement most modern settings – plus a choice of black or white colourways.

It’s ready to use straight out of the box, with no assembly required. But to get the most from it, you’ll want to download the HomeWizard Climate app. Once set up (which was easy in our test), you can control it on your phone via Wi-Fi, set schedules, or set up voice commands for Google Assistant, Alexa or Siri. It also comes with a remote control.

There are 10 fan settings, four heat settings, an oscillation option and three modes: natural (which varies the airflow), normal and sleep (which gradually reduces its intensity). 

There’s also an inbuilt thermostat, which allows you to set a target temperature. When the air around the tower reaches this threshold, the heater will shut off. It’ll come back on again when the temperature dips.  

Plus, there’s a timer, which you can set in increments of one hour, for up to 24 hours.

On the minus side, the cooling fan does get noisy on higher levels – much more so than a traditional circular fan. 

Meaco’s cordless fan is only 28cm tall, with a base width of just 14cm, so you’ll be able to find a spot for it on any desk. It has four fan speeds and the current is strong for its size. Apparently, on a full charge, it can run for 14 hours on the lowest setting, although we haven’t tested it for quite that long. A subtle blue/purple light ring also illuminates in varying degrees of brightness to match the fan’s speed.

The fan is quiet and unobtrusive, particularly on the lowest setting.

The fan charges fully in 7 hours, although you can use it again in a fraction of this time – and right away, if it’s plugged in. You can adjust the angle of the fan (although not the column height, which is about 20cm from the base) and if you press and hold the button, a night light around the rim of the base illuminates.

It charges by USB (it has a micro C port and comes with a charging cable) and contains a removable lithium-ion battery, which means that you could replace the battery at the end of its life without having to discard the fan in landfill.

It’s a nice idea but given that the price of the replacement battery isn’t much less than a new fan, it seems unlikely that people would do so.

The Russell Hobbs 12-inch Scandi desk fan is a straightforward, easy to use device with a carry handle on top for portability. Best of all, it’s reasonably priced.

It’s a near full-size fan, minus the column and pedestal (it stands 46cm high and is 35cm wide) and it comes in black, white or grey, with wood-effect blades. Its retro design is more aesthetically pleasing than many of its more functional-looking competitors and it makes a useful and attractive addition to a shelf or desk.

It’s a powerful fan that you could use to cool yourself. It has three speeds that range from light to strong airflow. The lowest setting won’t disturb your sleep so you can stand it on a night table and get a good night’s rest. You can have it fixed in one spot or oscillating. It also tilts, but only by a few degrees, so its vertical range is a bit limited.

You’ll need to assemble it but that’s easy to do – although you’ll need a small, Phillips-head screwdriver to fit a single screw, which in my case took a bit of patience. Once assembled, however, the fan is sturdy.

If you’re in the market for a new fan and want to integrate it into your smart home setup, the AirGo Smart Fan is the ideal option. There are a variety of standard features available, including a mode that’ll simulate the ebb and flow of a natural breeze. Still, it’s the smart features, such as the ability to control the fan via a smartphone app and virtual assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant, that really steal the show.

As a fan, it works perfectly, with 16in blades providing consistent, powerful airflow, and it’s surprisingly quiet in operation too.

This great stand fan is a bit like a desk fan on steroids. Set-up is a tad tricky thanks to the unhelpful instructions but once working, it proves itself a good choice if you want to spend less than £100.

It has remote control and five settings that vary in speed and levels of quiet (setting 1 is sleep mode and you can barely hear it). You can also set timers of 1, 2, 4 or 8 hours and easily adjust the height.

It stands at 58.5cm at its highest setting, and this, coupled with the oscillating action, means it can effectively cool large rooms and areas whether stationary or turning.

If you want something more powerful and quiet than a desk fan but don’t want to break the bank, this is the fan for you.