The choices for fans are endless, from pedestal, tower, desk, circulator, the list goes on! With so many choices it can be tricky to know and understand which type will suit your needs and provide the key benefits. Are you unsure what type of fan you should buy to keep cool this year? We’ve explored the key ones with our advice to help you pick.
Pedestal
The traditional and most common type of fan is the pedestal, a floor mounted fan with three feet at the base, or, sometimes, a circular plate for balance. The pedestal fan is good at moving a large amount of air within a room and normally can deliver that air through a right/left arc, sometimes up and down as well. Height of the fan head can normally be adjusted.
Noise and appearance are the two major drawbacks with pedestal fans. The new generation of DC fans do offer a lower noise level, but they tend not to offer the same height as traditional AC fans. It is best to check that a DC version will be tall enough before buying.
Pedestal fans are not going to win many style awards and this is one of the major drawbacks.
Tower Fans
These have a sleeker look to a pedestal fan and take up less floor space, but they move a lot less air, and because that air is being forced through a smaller space, they can be a lot noisier. So, you end up using them on the quietest setting and then have a smaller air flow. These are very popular in bedrooms, where there is often a lack of space and a smaller air flow can be adequate to achieve the desired results.
Not all tower fans are as tall as they seem, so again watch out for height. It’s worth double-checking that the dimensions of the fan are in line with what you require, especially in the bedroom, as you will need a tall fan to move the air above the level of the bed.
The newer DC versions offer a quieter experience, so worth exploring.
Desk/Table Fan
This is basically a pedestal fan with no legs, or a tower fan without the height. Make sure you have sufficient space on your desk.
A desk fan might not be the most aesthetically pleasing and noise may be an issue, but the air flow will be smarter than that of a pedestal fan due to the smaller blade size.
Table fans have the advantage of being small enough to position anywhere you need them, as long as they are in reach of a power socket.
Air Circulators/Whole Room Air Circulators
This category means different things to different people. In the UK the air circulator has always been the larger, commercial, usually metal encased floor mounted fan with large blades, designed to move a large amount of air in a medium to large space. Not generally used in the home or office because they will blow all of your paperwork all over the place and would make a heck of a noise!
In Asia the air circulator is much more of an all-purpose fan for use all year round in a domestic or office setting. These types of fans are now available in the UK and the rest of Europe.
They are used for a variety of purposes;
- To provide a cooling breeze as we would do in the summer.
- To push cold air from an air conditioner more evenly around the room.
- To dry laundry.
- To move air towards an air purifier
And they can be used in the winter. That’s right, a fan can be used in winter to help spread heated air more evenly around a room or to stop air from being trapped up at the ceiling.
They can do all of this because they combine a large air flow with up/down, left and right oscillation so they are moving air through a wide range of angles. The oscillation can be turned off so that you are then focusing on moving air from, or to a particular spot (as with the heating or air conditioning support).
New models like the MeacoFan 1056 use a DC motor to provide a far quieter performance with a wide range of fan speeds (12 in the case of the MeacoFan) so you can go from something that is near silent for use in the bedroom at night, to the top speed which is moving a huge volume of air around a room for you.
The new type of whole room air circulators offer far more flexibility and can cover a host of applications for you and tick all of the right boxes when it comes to noise, performance and looks.
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Products featured: MeacoFan 1056
10 Responses
Hi there, I was wondering whether 1056 desk fan would be suitable to be used on the floor of an appropriately sized room.
Yes it will because it aims air upwards as well as side to side. You can also look at the pedestal fan version which would give you more height.
Hi,
I have just bought a 1056 fan to try and push the heat back down in our loft style apartment with a really high ceiling and a mezzanine.
Do you have any advice on how to best position the fan and what settings to use (ie. up and down/side to side oscillations, speed).
Thanks.
Thomas,
Thank you for your purchase, I would be it on fan speed 12 and point it up at the ceiling to try and bounce the air off the ceiling and back down as well as oscillating left and right.
Chris
Hallo, ich habe einen Meaco Fan 1056 Dc gekauft und einen 1056 Ac erhalten. Handelt es sich dabei um das gleiche Gerät oder ist es etwas anderes, und wenn ja wo ist der Unterschied?
Hoffe Sie können mir helfen. VG Astrid
Astrid,
Thank you for your order, you have the correct machine, they accept a standard AC power supply but internally the fan motor is powered by DC.
Chris
Hi there,
I want to purchase some fans for our bedrooms as the dreaded cheap standing fans that we have are noisy and bulky.
For rooms around 12ft x 13ft which would you recommend?
Thank you
Sam,
My thoughts is that you should go for the largest fan (1056 and 1056P) because then you can always turn it down if it is too much airflow but witrh a smaller fan if the maximum capacity is not enough then you have a problem. A larger fan will also move more air for less noise.
Hope this helps.
Chris
Hi, I already have a Meaco 650 fan however, I wish to purchase another – Is the MF1056 a newer better model than the Model 650 ?
Thanks.
Nigel,
Thank you for your purchase and your message. The Meacofan 1056 is actually the original fan that has won all of the awards. The 360 and 650 came a year later.
Hope this helps.
Chris