Vornado 610 Whole Room Air Circulator Fan with 3 Speeds, Black, Medium

I recently moved into a beautiful old house with no central air or heat. I was dreading the stifling summer heat I suffered through last year with the fan I found in the basement, but not this year. I broke down and bought myself a Vornado! Let me preface this by saying that I don't buy anything but Vornado. This fan does not disappoint. It's quiet, tough as nails, it's CLEANABLE, and it lasts for years. But beyond that, the air flow is so good, it's almost TOO MUCH AIR for me. Which is crazy, because in a house with no central air, there's no such thing as too much air. It's so good that I'm getting a standing Vornado for my screened-in porch so I can enjoy the outdoors without roasting to death. It's not a small desk fan but it's not too big either. It fits comfortably on my night table.I unboxed it and turned it on high like I usually do with every other fan, and it blasted me out of the room. Seriously, I WAS FREEZING! I had to turn it on low to find the sweet spot. It's just April, so it's wonderful to know I've got room to grow with this fan as the summer heat approaches. It's whisper quiet on the low setting. Best of all, even on low, it's bouncing air off my walls and creating a lovely cross-breeze. You feel cool circulating air everywhere in the room! All I'll need come August is a burst of cold air from the window-unit air conditioner, and combined with my blackout curtains, this fan will keep my bedroom cold. I'm SO looking forward to my lower energy bills. The fan is pricy, to be sure. It's a Vornado. But when you turn it on I guarantee, you WILL know where that money went. If you need a good fan, buy THIS ONE! Don't wait. It's worth every single penny.

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.

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 ;)