Best Fans 2023: Bladeless, Smart, Desk & Tower Fans

If this summer is anything like the last one, investing in a fan will be money well spent. And if you buy early enough, you can get in before the temperature rises and prices shoot up. While a fan won't lower the temperature in a room the way an air conditioner will, it’ll make a huge difference to your comfort level. We’ve tested, reviewed and rated desk fans, bladeless fans, standing fans, tower, smart and hybrid fans.

People who suffer from hay fever, or struggle with dust and fumes in the air from a nearby road, will find that blowing air around their home won't help. But an air purifier will. Check out the best we’ve tested in our air purifier round-up, which includes some air purifying fans for the best of both worlds.

And, if you’re considering an air conditioner, we’ve reviewed two smaller, portable options: the Midea Comfee and the Russell Hobbs 9000BTU.

Not sure which kind of fan will suit you best? Skip past the chart and read our buying advice first. Otherwise, read on for our recommendations. We have options for all budgets.

Pros

Cons

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 this summer.

Pros

Cons

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.

Pros

Cons

If budget is no issue, this is our top pick. This stylish appliance from Dyson has three in one functionality, so you can cut down on gadget clutter in your home. Use it as a fan in summer, a heater in winter and an air purifier year-round. As a plus, it destroys formaldehyde in the air (which you’ll get if you have a fire or wood burner, or if you’re painting or renovating – as well as from cosmetics and other sources) – something that not all air purifiers do.

It can stand on a desk or on the floor and you can angle the airflow up and down for a targeted effect. It's an effective fan, although it works best for personal cooling. Point it at you while you’re working, relaxing or sleeping and it’ll keep you cool – but obviously it's not an air conditioner, so it won't lower the temperature in an entire room. Thanks to its air purifying function, you’ll get the benefit of clean air as well.

It has smart capabilities and you can use it with a home assistant or via the excellent Dyson Link app (available for both Apple and Android). It also features an LCD display, with complete air quality information. Our only caveat – beyond its price – is that it isn't the most portable of appliances, so you won't want to be moving it around too much.

Pros

Cons

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.

Pros

Cons

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.

Pros

Cons

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.

Pros

Cons

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.

Pros

Cons

The Dyson Pure Cool Me is a desk/bedside fan that up-ends Dyson's bladeless fan design for a new look that's better at focusing blasts of purified air directly at your face, rather than all around the room.

The omission of smart support is a shame, but ultimately makes sense when it comes to keeping the cost from getting too prohibitive, although the Pure Cool Me is still as expensive as you’d expect from Dyson.

Whether it's worth it for you will depend on how worried you are about air purification, and how much space you have. If you’ve got a big desk and want a fan you can point at your face without worrying about blowing anything else around, this is probably the best around.

On the other hand, if you’re more constrained for space or want a fan to cool a couple of people, or even a small room, you won't be enjoying the Pure Cool Me's strengths, and you’ll be better off looking at one of Dyson's older desk fans – or just a cheaper model from elsewhere.

Pros

Cons

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.

Looking for buying advice? Here's everything you need to know before you purchase.

The first thing to consider is the style and size of fan you want to buy. There are three main types: desk, tower, and stand.

Desk fans are smaller, designed (believe it or not) to sit comfortably on a desk. They’ll keep you cool if you’re close but may struggle to chill a whole room. It's worth noting that many desk fans are still quite large and can take up a lot of desk space. There are smaller ones, some of which are even USB-powered, but these tend to be weaker. There's always a tradeoff.

Stand or pedestal fans are pretty much desk fans on a taller stand, with the same circular design, but raised to be five or six feet tall. The fan element itself is often a bit larger, to allow for more power, meaning they’re the best type of fan to cool large rooms. The downsides are that the large fan heads can take up quite a lot of space, and they don't always look stylish enough to want on display in your living room.

Finally, tower fans tend to be a similar height to stand fans but in a slimmer design with fan elements inside the main body. Tower fans tend to be less powerful but can be smaller overall, often look more stylish, and are more likely to boast additional features like air purification (more on this below).

The next consideration is bladed or bladeless designs. Bladed fans are the standard, while bladeless fans have been popularised by Dyson. Technically they do still have blades, but they’re hidden inside the fan body.

The benefits of bladeless designs (beyond looking cool) are that they can be quieter and safer. There's no risk of hair, pets, or kids’ hands working their way between the blades. There's only one downside, but it's a biggie: bladeless models tend to cost a lot more, especially if you stick to a big brand like Dyson. You’ll have to decide if the safer, slicker design is really worth the premium.

Finally, many modern fans boast extra features beyond simply blowing air around the place. Dyson, for example, offers Hot + Cool models that work as fans in the summer and heaters in the winter, saving you from buying two pieces of kit for different seasons.

You can also buy combined air purifiers and fans, which will filter the air in your room to remove pollutants and allergens before blowing out the filtered, purified air into the room. The Dyson Pure Cool fans are the most prominent examples, but there are similar products from competitors too.

You’ll also find an increasing number of fans with basic smart features or virtual assistant support. These might let you set up schedules for turning the fans on and off, remotely controlling intensity and oscillation, or even using your voice through Alexa or the Google Assistant to cool the room.

Intelligent fans won't be app-controlled but they will feature sensors that will ensure they turn on when they sense movement, or when the room reaches a certain temperature threshold. They’re also likely to have additional functionality, including more sophisticated timers and more cooling options.

Emma is Home Tech Editor at Tech Advisor. She covers everything from kitchen appliances to smart home devices, from floor care to personal care to air care technology. She's particularly interested in environmentally conscious brands and products that save people time and money.