The best tower fans in 2020 (and four you should skip)

What we were looking for

Tower fans are a little tricky to test, especially when you’re working from home without access to a lab environment. Unlike air conditioners, they don’t generate their own cold air — instead, they take whatever air is nearby and recirculate it throughout the room. That breeze-like effect feels great on a hot, stuffy day, but it isn’t something you can easily track with a temperature probe.

What you really need is a wind tunnel, or some other means of effectively quantifying the amount of air each one is capable of moving. We’ve run tests like that before at CNET Appliances HQ and we’ll plan to do so once again once we’re back in the office. Expect an update to this post when that time comes.

For now, I started by focusing on each fan’s design and features. I also ran noise tests in the quietest part of my home to get a good sense of which ran runs the noisiest. Most tower fans come with a remote and most of those remotes are cheap and bulky, but some tower fans do a better job than others of docking those remotes when they aren’t in use. The wide variety of designs gave me lots to think about, too — tower fans are large and conspicuous enough that it’s worth it to look for one that isn’t too ugly or bulky.

On the feature front, I took a close look at how much control each fan offered over the way in which it puts out air. Just about every tower fan offers a low, medium and high setting, but some go further with a greater number of speed settings in between those basics for more granular control over the force of the breeze. Others offer artificial wind modes that flutter the breeze for a more natural effect. Some include ambient temperature readings on the display, or auto-pilot modes that only kick in when the temperature hits a certain threshold. Wherever I found features like that, I tested them and took them into account.

I wasn’t a fan of these:

Lasko Wind Curve T42905 Oscillating Tower Fan

I loved the sleek silhouette and wood grain accents of this Lasko model. It was also the third quietest fan that I tested, measuring in just a few decibels noisier than Honeywell. It also features Bluetooth, which lets you control the fan via an app on your phone.

The problem is that the app is all you get as far as remote controls are concerned. That isn’t ideal for a shared space, as the fan can only connect with one device at a time. If someone else pairs with the fan, your connection gets cut. That might be forgivable if the app offered advanced features like voice controls or the ability to set a custom schedule, but it doesn’t. You can turn it on and off, turn oscillation on and off, adjust among three speed settings or start the sleep timer — the same controls as you’ll find on the fan itself. While it doesn’t ask for any permissions aside from Bluetooth access, the app doesn’t seem to offer a privacy policy at all. All of that makes this one easy to skip at $80.

Pelonis FZ10-10JRH Oscillating Pedestal Tower Fan

Pelonis makes a number of tower fans, including this 40-inch white-bodied model, which shows up on Amazon and at Walmart for a little over $50. It did a decent enough job in my tests, but I came away unimpressed with the ugly design — particularly the slightly wobbly base and the strange, seemingly random array of unnecessary LEDs on the front. Good luck with the warranty, too — Pelonis doesn’t specify how long it is anywhere that I could find in the manual or online. You won’t find much by way of features — just three speed settings, oscillation, and a sleep timer which lets you schedule an auto-shutoff up to 8 hours in advance. That makes for a very simple, four-button remote, but it’s still about as bulky as a TV remote (and the batteries don’t come included).

With a reading of 46 decibels at its highest speed from 30 inches away, the Pelonis was a middle-of-the-pack performer in terms of noise. The 41-watt power draw is a little less than average for a fan of this size, which might add some appeal for energy-conscious shoppers. The price isn’t unfair, but all things considered, I think you can do better.

Vornado V-Flow Air Circulator Tower Fan

The Vornado V-Flow tower fan features a neat-looking build that twists the fan’s grill around the cylindrical base. It’s one of the best-looking tower fans I tested — but it doesn’t oscillate like a traditional tower fan, relying instead on that twisty design to move a wider field of air throughout the room.

It worked well enough in my tests when I had it aimed at me, but coverage varied at those side angles, where the airstream is positioned lower or higher due to that diagonal grill. The bigger issue was that the Vornado V-Flow was the noisiest fan I tested, ringing in at 50 decibels on the highest of its three speeds from a distance of 30 inches. On top of that, my remote wouldn’t work, which echoes frustrations I’ve seen from user reviews at retailers where the V-Flow is sold. That, plus a lack of features beyond the usual sleep timer, has me saying no thanks to Vornado’s $70 price tag here (and I’d probably skip it during a sale, too). That’s a shame, as Vornado’s 5-year warranty was the best among all of the fans I looked at for this roundup, and more than twice as long as you get with the $550 Dyson TP04.

AmazonBasics Oscillating 3-Speed Tower Fan

Amazon continues to sell a growing variety of products under its AmazonBasics brand and these days that includes a tower fan. Like the name suggests, it isn’t anything too fancy. The remote batteries don’t come included, but you at least get a couple of natural wind settings on top of the typical low, medium and high speed settings.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good experience testing this fan out. For starters, my remote stopped working shortly after I began my tests and the fan itself came out of its flimsy base after hauling the thing back and forth between my bedroom and living room a few times. The 35W power draw was the lowest of all the fans I tested, but I felt that lack of power in the form of an underwhelming stream of air, even at the highest setting. At $60, this tower fan might be selling for twice as much as it’s worth.

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