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| "Excuse my dust", which also happens to be a good example of how much use this thing gets. |
For a period last summer, I was
obsessed with the idea of an air circulating fan. It was because the
idea was fairly new to me…even though they’ve been around for
years, I never really paid enough attention to realize that there
were different types of "propellered air blowers": I had always assumed a fan was just a fan.
But then, after buying a couple for our
hot room that ended up doing nothing but blowing hot air around, I
heard about air circulators, and my interest was piqued. So what are
the differences between the two types of fans? Basically, a regular
fan just “grabs” the air that immediately surrounds it and throws it back
around the room at roughly the same temperature it was going in. This can be great if you need to cool off in
moderate temperatures, but again, not so great if the air in the room
is already warm and you want to cool off.
And that’s where the air circulator
comes in. The idea is that, rather than just sucking in air around
it, it attempts to get all the air within the room constantly moving,
allowing it to cool rooms down by a couple of degrees without the
need for A/C or any other fancy, expensive devices. Now, obviously,
this idea is all relative to room size, so if you're using a teeny
circulator for a large room, it's not going to make a noticeable
difference; our rooms are small, though, so even the most basic models
We had previously purchased the most
popular inexpensive name brand one we could find. That seemed to work
for my wife’s side of the bed, as she basically uses it as a fan
and focuses it on herself, but didn't really do much to cool off the rest of the room. Meanwhile, the old pedestal fan that I was using, just wasn’t
getting the job done—I would still frequently wake up sweaty and,
even when the fan was at its maximum setting and blowing directly on
me—would be in a constant state of discomfort, as if my body was
trained to ignore its output.
Then we saw that Aldi was carrying a small circulator for just $9.99 through their Easy Home brand, that was roughly the
same size as the one my wife used. It was $5 cheaper, too, which made
it an even more enticing deal—my brain had barely even registered
the pricing information before I was already at the store, ready to
buy one.
Unfortunately, this thing “blows” in just about
every bad way possible. It looks kinda stupid, for starters, not
having nearly the same depth that most air circulators have. The
speed of the blades vary tremendously, no matter what setting it's
on: I keep it on the lowest setting and one moment it will be almost quiet, then the next minute it sounds like it's shifting power gears on its own. This weird fluctuation continues for several minutes before it seems to just permanently set itself to a higher setting. As tempted as I am to just
write it off as “normal function”, and pretend it's just working
twice as hard to make sure the room stays cool, I'm a little skeptical; I don't notice this happen, and the way it sounds
suggests a fan that’s glitching out, as opposed to one that knows
that it’s doing.
Speaking of glitches, ever since its
first use, it starts off with this weird “clicking” sound that
tends to last for about half an hour before it either goes away, or
we get so used to the annoying fucking noise that our brains adapt to
just block it out.
As for whether or
not it works, I will say it’s usually better than not having a fan
at all, and it also works way better than the pedestal fan I
replaced, so that has to account for something. The $9.99 price tag
also makes it all too enticing. But between the excess noises and
loud function, I just can't recommend it, especially when there are
other (name) brands in the same general price range that are much
quieter, even on higher settings. Between the appearance and noises,
it sounds like it's going to fall apart at any moment.
Overall: 4/10. Save your money and go
with the name brands on this one. While I suppose it technically does
work, at least better than the pedestal fan we replaced it with, it
comes with a huge caveat that the $5 price difference doesn't
justify: it's loud. No matter what setting it's on, it seems to
randomly jump between speeds frequently, which is rather jarring when
you're trying to fall asleep at night. But even more troubling is the
random “clicking” sound that continuously runs for about 20-30
minutes after it starts up; if we're lucky, it stops then, but is prone to starting back up again whenever it feels like it. This not only adds to the cacophony, but gives it the feeling that it could break apart or suddenly die at any given moment. And that's not a desired
trait in any product, even if it is only $10.
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