Lasko Wind Curve Oscillating Tower Fan, Fresh Air Ionizer, Timer, Remote Control, Portable Electric Fan for Indoor, Bedroom and Home Office Use, 42", Silverwood 2554

I have central AC, but my home office is typically a few degrees warmer than the rest of the house. I decided to add a fan to help cool the area off, but I wanted the quietest fan that did the job. I ended up ordering the following three fans through Amazon for comparison:- Lasko 4924 Space-Saving High-Velocity 3-Speed Oscillating Blower Fan (HVB)- Honeywell Digital Tower Fan with Remote and Ionizer- Lasko 42 In. Wind Curve Tower FanI'll start with the quick summary for the TL;DR crowd. In terms of air flow, from highest to lowest, the ranking is: HVB >> Wind Curve > Honeywell. In terms of noise, from loudest to quietest: HVB > Honeywell > Wind Curve. Thus, the fan with the best air flow for the noise generated, and the one I picked, was the Lasko Wind Curve.And now for the details, for those that don't suffer from ADD. Wall of text inc.Power UsageI was able to measure power usage for each fan using a Kill-A-Watt meter. All 3 fans had 3 output settings (low/med/high), and I measured their power usage to be:HVB - 95/103/111 wattsHoneywell - 32/36/40 wattsWind Curve - 37/41/47 wattsNoiseI used an SPL meter app on my iPhone to measure how loud each fan was at each of those settings. All of the fans were tested in the same spot and the iPhone was placed on a stand about 5 ft away, in front and slightly to the side of each fan, so that wind noise didn't factor into the measurements:HVB - 59/61/64 dbHoneywell - 50/53/55 dbWind Curve - 46/49/51 dbAir FlowI don't have a way to measure each fan's output objectively, so these are my impressions:HVB - Lasko wasn't kidding when they labeled the 4924 with the acronym HVB for High Velocity Blower. When I first got it and ran it on *low*, I was thinking that this would be really good air flow for a quality fan on its *high* setting. It's by far the highest output fan here. They also described it as having a quiet motor; while this might be true, it's still the loudest of the bunch. Having the smallest vent opening of the bunch might have contributed to the noise level. Another user review I read of this fan said it feels like AC with this fan running, and that's true. If you're partially deaf, or plan on placing the fan 20 ft or more away from you, this is a good choice.Honeywell and Wind Curve - The output of these two fans are more comparable. I still feel the Wind Curve puts out a little more air flow than the Honeywell at the equivalent setting though. For some reason, even the Wind Curve feels like AC is running, if only on low. There's an uncanny cooling effect the Lasko fans have that the Honeywell doesn't. Maybe it's just better airflow at a lower noise level. If you look at the measurements above, the Wind Curve on high is only slightly louder than the Honeywell on low. I mostly ran these fans on low--as I was looking for the quietest solution--and at times, I still felt warm with the Honeywell, but the Wind Curve delivers. The Honeywell does have a filter on the back intake side, which probably hurts its air flow a bit. You can hear a *very* slight ticking sound from the Wind Curve at times, sort of like fast crickets. I haven't found it annoying and it doesn't sound like something's wearing out. It's probably only noticeable because of its low noise level.Size / Weight / AppearanceExact dimensions and weight can be found on their Amazon product pages, so I won't provide specific numbers. All of them were delivered in their product boxes, which were all somewhat beatened up from being delivered by UPS.The HVB is the shortest, but also the heaviest. Both the Honeywell and the Wind Curve are noticeably lighter than the HVB. It's shipped as a single piece and there's nothing to assemble. You take it out of the box and it's ready to go. It has a low center of gravity and stands up stably. All tower fans should be designed this way. It has horizontal flaps that can be adjusted to direct airflow up. The flaps are really small, but they seem to work decently.The Honeywell is about a foot taller than the HVB. It's shipped in 5 pcs that have to be assembled--the main body, 2 pieces that join together to form the circular base, and another 2 pcs that join together to form an "optional" pedestal that sits between the base and the body. I wouldn't really call the pedestal optional, as without it the vent opening starts about 5-6" off the ground and there are no flaps to adjust the airflow up. I found assembling the unit difficult to do by myself. It's just not easy holding these pieces so they line up while you screw them together. In fact, little plastic fragments broke off while I was assembling it. I assume they were all internal and non-essential, as the product looks fine once assembled. The manual cautions that using the pedestal makes the unit less stable, and that is true. It's the wobbliest of the bunch, but it won't tip over easily. A sturdier base and pedestal would have made this a lot less wobbly. The black plastic in the product pictures looks really nice and shiny, but not as good in person.The Wind Curve is a few inches taller than the Honeywell, making it the tallest of the bunch. It's shipped in 3 pcs--the main body and 2 pcs that join together to form its circular base. Assembling this unit still wasn't easy to do solo, but it was easier than dealing with the Honeywell and its body-pedestal-base. The base on this feels a little sturdier than the Honeywell's, and the assembled unit is less wobbly, though still not perfect. There are some horizontal flaps to direct the airflow up, but these only cover the top third of the vent. None of the online pictures I've seen for this fan do it any justice. The wood accent makes the unit look really nice in person.ControlsThe HVB only has physical controls. There's a knob that controls the fan speed, from left to right: low-mid-high-off. There's a separate push button that turns the oscillation on/off. There's no remote, no timer, and no ionization function.The Honeywell has digital controls and comes with a remote. There's an LCD window that shows the air temperature, fan speed, and timer. It has one nice ability that neither of the Laskos have, and that's the ability to turn on/off at a preset temperature, just like the HVAC system in a home. Although the controls are all digital, half of the six buttons have shared functions. There's a single button that controls the fan speed and turning the unit on/off and it cycles from: high-med-low-off. So if you want to turn the fan on and run it on low, that's 3 clicks. There's also a single button that controls oscillation and ionization, and it cycles between: oscillate only-oscillate & ionize-ionize only-neither. The third shared function button controls how the unit turns off, either by timer or temperature. The timer can be set in 1 hr increments, from 1-12 hrs I believe. Two buttons are labeled up/down, which can only be used for setting the timer or temperature. The last button is for a "breeze" feature that is unique to this fan, which essentially just varies the fan speed. There's two breeze modes, one varies the speed between the current speed and the next setting below it (high-med, med-low, low-off), and the other just varies the speed between high-med-low. I found the noise level changes from this feature to be too distracting. The remote has five of the six buttons that the unit has, lacking the button to enable the timer/temp mode. Oddly, up/down arrows exist on the remote, but are only useful if you're already in the timer/temp mode. However, if you're using the remote, chances are you can't read the display to see what the timer/temp setting is anyways. The other side of the remote has a button which controls an LED flashlight.The Wind Curve also has digital controls and comes with a remote. There are a total of 8 leds displaying the status of the fan, from left to right: 4 red leds indicate that the timer is enabled and how much time is left--representing 30 mins, 1 hr, 2 hrs, 4 hr (you add them up to get the total); 3 green leds indicating the fan speed--low, med, high; and 1 blue led indicating whether ionization is on/off. There's 5 buttons controlling the fan, the same on the unit as on the remote--power, oscillate, timer (adds 30 mins to the timer with every click), ionization, and fan speed (cycles between high-med-low). I like that there's a separate control to turn the fan on/off and the fan speed is remembered. The timer setting is a little primitive compared to the Honeywell's though, as it does take 15 clicks if you want the full duration of 7.5 hrs. All of the controls are confirmed with a beep. I think I read a review where someone complained it was too loud, but I found it really faint, even compared to the fan on low. The click of the button on the remote is louder. Although, the confirmation beep for turning the fan off is a little long--lasting about a second--and that could be shorter.OscillationAll of the fans have this feature and were quiet enough that I can't hear the difference whether on or off. The Laskos oscillation range appeared to be a little under 90 degrees. When placed in a corner, I don't think anyone would complain about the coverage. The honeywell's oscillation range was a little wider, but it oscillates in one direction a little faster than the other. Sort of like how some sprinklers operate, but the difference in speeds isn't as drastic.IonizationThe HVB lacked this feature, but I consider it a gimmick anyways. From what I've read, ionized air doesn't freshen up the air, it just impairs your sense of smell. Ionizing air cleaners also operate by charging the air and dust with one charge, and having an oppositely charged plate or filter in front of the air flow to catch the charged dust. Neither of the fans with ionization features have this plate/filter.

This fan was easy to assemble and works beautifully. Highly recommend!

Puts out lots of air! Its quiet too. Our last one like this one lasted 10+ years ab6d I used it year round

We have only had this fan now for about a week. I will come back and update my review as time passes, but I wanted to get some info out there.I have a toddler and an infant.Why I was not looking for a fan with blades:Fans with blades can be a danger, but so can the heat, so I decided on a tower style fan for our rather small apartment. Standing fans we have had in the past were easily tipped and the front metal plate or sometimes plastic was quick to pop off as it hit the floor blade still going strong. Very scary when your child is just 2 and has tipped the fan.My experience so far:*auto shut offThe first day I was quite worried as the fan had tipped (my husband the larger child in the home was playing with it) and it would not turn back on. I became very worried. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Sure enough this fan has a safety so that if it is tipped it will turn off.*durabilitySo far the baby has tackled it with his 26lb body and it has held up. It is just tall enough that my toddler can't yet push the buttons.*noiseI didn't really care if the fan was quiet or not, but it was an added bonus that it is very quiet compared to our Lasko box fan. If you aren't looking at the fan you would never know that it is rotating. Also make sure you get the screws in the right place. The diagram is poorly labeled. That may be the problem with some of the fans people are having noise with. There are more holes than there are screws and the diagram suggests that they go into holes that they really don't belong in. I will include a picture of the base so you can see.*cooling factorI was disappointed with the amount of air that it moved, and had I reviewed it on day 1 I would have only given it a 3 stars for that, but I have come to realize that while the air it moves isn't much, the air always blows out cool.I find that on hot humid summer days some fans are just blowing around the hot air. I was surprised to find that this fan seems to always have cool air. No idea how but it does.It also does a much better job cooling a room if you always have it on rotate. If not the air just kind of stagnates.*packagingI was very worried when it arrived as it was in the thin box the fan comes in rather than amazon packaging. It already had holes in it. I will be reviewing in my order the packaging as well and I suggest others do the same so they start packing it better.*ion thingTried it doesn't seem to change anything other than a blue light comes on. I have no idea what it actually does. Again bought this fan for safety reasons.*overallI am pleased and hope to buy another when funds allow.Update: It has been about a month now and while my toddler has tackled this fan with his full body weight it is still fully functioning. It has only actually crashed once of the many times hitting wood laminate floors. Now that the weather is warmer it is still blowing cooler air than any other fan in our home.Update: One year later; it is still running great and quietly. The toddler has finally stopped tackling it, but it has survived several falls over the year.Update: It is now June 2014 and we own two of these fans and both are going strong despite a toddler and autistic 6 year old who can now reach the buttons. They also survived a trip in a moving truck to our new home. We have more of an open floor plan now, so two doesn't really cut it for the kitchen/dining room/living room space. The air kind of gets lost, so what I do to help them better cool a room is put them on opposite corners and face them at each other. I plan to buy one more so I can have one in every room in the open space. It also doesn't help that our new home has very old crank windows that only open at an angle and only so far.Update 2018: nothing new to report. They all still work as before.

Great fan, looks good and very quiet.