A Fan To See, A Breeze to Enjoy

Recently a well-respected Epinioness wrote a glowing review of her legendary Vornado fan, expressing her satisfaction with this incredible wind maker and extolling its remarkable power. Placed behind a large sandbox, this mechanical Samson can be used to sandblast brick. On its lowest speed!
Set to its highest power, the mighty Vornado can turn five story wind turbines with such force that it generates far more power than it consumes. As amazing as this king of fans may be, we sought a quiet, well-behaved fan with modest power and, of course, a modest price. After a brief search I purchased a Breeze tower fan on sale, and many weeks later we are still satisfied with its combination of satisfactory performance and features though it can’t carry dinner from kitchen to dining room on the wings of a blade driven zephyr.

Details Details

40 inch tower type fan
12 inch width and 12 inch depth
three speeds
Oscillating option feature
Remote control with a remote control holder on the fan
Features a quiet mode.
Polarized plug
Timer
LED panel
Permanently lubricated
Remote uses two triple A batteries – not included
Some assembly required
One year limited warranty (I didn’t bother mailing in the warranty card for this cheapo.)
MADE IN CHINA

Why a Tower Fan

This fan is in Mrs. Spudman’s cramped sewing room. There’s no room for a table fan and she complained that her oscillating stand fan was too big, too strong, too concentrated with pieces of delicate pattern paper lying around. She really likes the narrow footprint of this Breeze fan, and to adjust its height she sometimes places it on a wooden footstool. With its tall, narrow design the air distribution is not as concentrated as other fan types.
She’s never used the timer feature, but it might come in handy for bedroom placement. The fan is light and easily transported from room to room, though in our situation this will rarely be necessary. She’s been very satisfied with this fan.

The Fan in Action

Fresh from a bout of fan play and experimentation, and with the two-ounce fan remote at my elbow, I’ll relate my impressions before they dissipate into oblivion like a puff of smoke.
I tried using the remote to turn on the fan from Spud Central down the hall and from the other side of a wall. Apparently the remote only works when pointed directly at the fan.
The buttons on the control unit are clearly marked and readily received by the fan. I like seeing the little red lights come on and off as I push the buttons. Rather than try to explain the function of the remote and the manual control panel on the fan, allow me to provide here verbatim a sentence from the owner’s guide that I suspect may have been written and printed in China.
“ These key of remote controller may use as same as manual control switches, the functions of them are as same as control panels.” That should be crystal clear.
With the remote one can choose one of three speeds, one of two modes, normal and quiet, the oscillation function, turn the fan on and off and set a timer in half hour increments up to seven and a half hours in "15 steps".
Again I defer to the owner’s manual.” Timer Key – …Do not press the timer key when the fan will be required to operate continuously. At the moment all LED don’t light.”

Our fan only oscillates to the right and back, so our 180-degree oscillation is halved. Mrs. Spudman doesn’t mind. Maybe we got one of the oscillight models.

The sewing table chair in this room is located about five feet from the fan. The low, medium, and high-speed breezes all feel good and reach the occupant of the chair. At high speed the air stream blew a Tootsie Roll Pop wrapper off her sewing table and propelled an empty VCR tape sized box off the table also. Reading anything on the table with the fan on high is a challenging adventure, though the book or magazine will probably stay put. The mighty Vornado in this small room might cause hurricane level damage, ripping the stitches out of anything the spud seamstress is sewing or quilting.

The Aloha fan is not overly loud and the white noise of its low speed can be soothing and hypnotic. Of course, over time this may change.

Final Thoughts

The power cord is ridiculously short. You’ll need an extension unless placement is right by an outlet.
Documentation of fan and warranty is terribly sparse, but unintentionally humorous and entertaining. Luckily the fan’s operation is simple and mostly intuitive. I could find no web site for Breeze fans.
These inexpensive appliances appear to be marketed under various names, such as Hawaiian Breeze, and distributed by general merchandisers.

Mrs. Spudman found assembly to be tedious and more difficult than it had to be since it only required some snapping together of parts and a little screwing. Had I been there the ten-minute assembly probably would have been doubled in duration. This piece of instruction seems fitting, “ Orient the flange of the columns and the bottom of body.”

This inexpensive tower fan will not be mistaken for one of the higher priced name brands. For twenty-five dollars I’ll be happy to get a couple seasons out of a fan that performs better than expected. It can’t be used to pin unruly kids, pets or cranky spouses to the wall, but it cools well enough, and I’d buy it again.