****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I have a couple of the larger Vornado fans. The idea with the big Vornados is the blades are designed to create a tightly focused, intense stream of air that then moves a long way without coming apart. Basically, you can put a big Vornado on the floor, aim it up at the middle of the ceiling, and the effect is very similar to having a ceiling fan in that room. When that tight, coherent stream of air hits the ceiling it basically explodes out in all directions and pushes the air back down all around the room, with the effect feeling very similar to a ceiling fan. For a room where you can't or don't want a ceiling fan, the Vornado fans are a great choice.Now imagine that same basic design has been shrunk down into a slightly smaller package, without the ability to aim it at the ceiling. That's what you get here.This fan is enormously POWERFUL for its size, with the same kind of tightly focused, intense power you get from the bigger Vornado fans. In fact, in a smaller room, if you turned it all the way up and figured out some way to point it at the ceiling, you could probably get that same kind of pseudo-ceiling fan effect. That's how much oomph it has.I bought it to take into work and set it on my desk a few feet away from me. Turned it on low. Wow, too much. Then I moved it back, then I moved it back again. It is now about 5 feet away and even on its lowest setting, it gives off a very nice breeze. It is very quiet on the lowest setting, still pretty quiet on medium. High is noticeably louder, but it moves so much air on the lower settings, I cannot imagine I'll need to run it on high much at all anyway.It seems fairly solidly put together, with the switch, the case and the base and so forth exuding the feeling that they aren't likely to fall apart anytime soon. It is not overly large and the simple, clean design is very unobtrusive for an office environment.The knob to turn it on and set the speed is somewhat awkwardly placed on the back in the upper right hand corner. It is easily reached from behind the fan, but when the fan is tucked into the corner, it isn't the greatest. You also turn it on by moving from off to high, then medium, then low. It would be better if it went the other way, since I cannot imagine there are many people who want a little fan like this to regularly run on high given its power. The power cord could be a little longer as well, but it isn't horrible. The fan does point up slightly when resting on a flat surface, so as the distance from the fan grows, the point of maximum airflow rises. That is good if you want to put it on the floor in a larger room and have it blow on you while sitting on the couch a good distance away, but could make optimum placement more complicated in some tight spaces, since the fan itself is not adjustable in any way, you decide where the air goes by positioning the fan itself. This isn't a problem for me but it could be for some.If you are looking for a small, non-adjustable fan with a lot of power, it is hard to go wrong here. I cannot believe how much more power this thing has than the cheap, basic desk fan it is replacing. If you don't need an adjustable head or oscillator, this is a quality product.
