With a weather warning that yet another heatwave could arrive in the UK next week, it’s time to invest in some hot weather essentials, lest we become a puddle of sweat and suncream. While homemade ice cream might take the edge off, nothing is more refreshing than a blast of cold air from an appliance. Air conditioners and air coolers are brilliant when temperatures rise. However, the best fans are typically more affordable and energy-efficient.
As for choosing which fan to buy, here at IndyBest, we’ve got you covered. We know exactly which models are actually worth your money, because we test them – rigorously – and have done so for years. Primarily, we look for high airflow power, ease of use, noise, and noteworthy features. For instance, some fans double up as air purifiers and even heaters.
Based on hours of testing, from tinkering with settings to assessing noise levels when they’re running full throttle, Vortex Air’s fan, cooler and air purifier (£164.99, Vortexair.co.uk) is yet to be beaten. It’s practically silent, bladeness, and comes with a remote control for ease of use. But whether you're after a desk fan, a high-tech model, or an attachable option for cooling on the go, keep reading for the fans that passed our tests.
How we tested
Having researched fans for years, we both know which brands make top-performing fans and selected their most up-to-date models to test. For context, both of us run hot, making us the ideal candidates for this task of reviewing the best fans.
In order to understand how well each one would perform for you in your living space, we’ve tested them within a real home environment using the following criteria:
- Speed settings: We went through each of the fan’s speed settings to see how powerful they were. We did this test multiple times in different-sized rooms to understand whether the fan provided good ventilation in both small and large spaces. We also assessed the airflow power by sitting directly next to the fan and at various distances from it.
- Size: We considered the size of each fan and where we’d recommend you use it. For example, tall tower fans are ideal for everyday use in large spaces, thanks to their height and oscillation, whereas desk fans are best suited for smaller office rooms.
- Noise level: Even if it keeps you cool as a cucumber, no one wants a noisy machine that will keep you up all night, so if a fan was noisy, it didn’t make the cut.
- Ease of use and timer: A fan that’s simple and easy to use and operate scored high points. We also favoured models that had a timer that turned the fan off after a number of hours, which is important for energy consumption. We found this to be a particularly helpful feature at bedtime.
- Energy efficiency: Fans are much more energy efficient than portable air conditioners, so we also checked energy ratings to ensure value for money over time – those that were too high did not make the cut.
- Additional features: We analysed any additional features a model has, for example, if it doubles up as an air purifier, we analysed its performance. If it also has an electric heater feature, we assessed whether it heated the room as well as the brand claimed. We favoured those that had multiple features and could be used year-round.
Why you can trust us
Between them, Zoe Griffin and Siobhan Grogan have tested just about every household appliance. Zoe has reviewed countless air treatment appliances, from the best humidifiers to electric heaters, so she knows exactly what makes for a good air treatment product. Zoe’s reviews are honest and practical, helping you to find the best products for your home. Siobhan brings years of experience reviewing everything from high-tech Dyson appliances to household essentials to this test of the best fans. She approaches every product with a keen eye for detail. Both of them have rigorously tested each fan, so you can rest assured it's worth the investment in the long run. But perhaps more importantly, they both run warm, so have a high standard when it comes to a fan's efficacy.
The best fans for 2025 are:
- Best overall – Vortex Air cleanse heater, cooler and purifier: £164.99, Vortexair.co.uk
- Best budget buy – VonHaus tower fan with aroma tray, 31in: £42.99, Therange.co.uk
- Best cordless fan – Shark FlexBreeze portable fan: £199.99, Sharkclean.co.uk
- Best rival to air conditioner – MeacoFan 1056 air circulator: £112.59, Amazon.co.uk
- Best cheap desk fan – Draper 08710 clip-on desk fan: £14.99, Amazon.co.uk
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Vortex Air cleanse heater, cooler and purifier
Best: Fan overall
Type: Bladeless fan
Noise: 35-51dB
Speed settings: 10
Oscillation: 120 degrees
Size: 94cm x 34cm x 34cm
Weight: 5.67kg
Timer: Yes
Why we love it
- Versatile
- Remote control operated
- Useful thermostat
Take note
- Quite heavy
The Vortex’s Air model is hard to beat, which is why it’s the best fan. Functioning as a heater, air purifier and (virtually silent) fan, this multi-tasking appliance is great value for money, considering it can be used year-round. Looks-wise, it’s remarkably similar to the Dyson purifier hot+cool formaldehyde (featured below), but the Vortex Air model is more than £400 cheaper. It even has the same grade HEPA-13 filter as the Dyson.
The streamlined design means it fits seamlessly into a room. Although we tested the white and silver design, it is available in eight colours to further complement your decor.
We appreciated the remote control timer, so you can adjust the settings from wherever you are in the room without having to get up and push any buttons. We found this to be particularly beneficial at nighttime when we were just dozing off, but needed the fan on us until we were fully asleep. The smart thermostat feature on the Vortex fan was also impressive and meant we could choose a temperature and have the fan switch off automatically when it had cooled the room to that level, helping to conserve energy.
The highest setting on the Vortex Air is so strong that we felt a significant drop in temperature within just two minutes after turning it on. Bladeless fans like this can often draw air in and circulate it much faster than a traditional fan, cooling a space quickly, and this model is no exception.
Having had this model for more than a year, we’ve also been able to test it during colder conditions and have found the heating functionality to work impressively fast.
Buy now £165.00, Vortexair.co.uk
VonHaus tower fan with aroma tray, 31in
Best: Budget-friendly fan
Type: Tower fan
Noise: Unspecified
Speed settings: Three
Oscillation: 70 degrees
Size: 80cm x 28cm x 28cm
Weight: 3kg
Timer: Yes
Why we love it
- Lightweight
- Aroma tray
- Affordable
Take note
- No remote control
- Looks plasticky
If you are on a budget, VonHaus’s tower fan offers excellent value for money. It offers features you find in fans at more than six times the price, such as 70-degree oscillation and an aroma tray. The latter was our favourite feature, as it hugely enhanced the cooling experience. When the air was hot and stuffy, adding some eucalyptus or peppermint oil to the tray made it a lot easier to relax, blowing a fresh scent around the room.
While tower fans are best at cooling large spaces, their looming height means they can stand out like a sore thumb in most homes, but this fan is the ideal solution. At only 31in high, the fan’s sleek, space-saving profile didn’t dominate our living space, yet still provided powerful air circulation. Its controls are conveniently positioned at a user-friendly height, making it easy to adjust between low and high fan speeds, too. We also liked the fact that it has a long cord, so we could place this model wherever we wanted in a room without having to worry about being close to a power socket.
At this price, there’s no app connectivity or voice control, but it does have a timer, so it can be set to turn off at 30-minute intervals for up to 120 minutes. It’s a little analogue, but we found that this two-hour timer came in handy at night, as we could set the fan to cool our bedroom for just long enough for us to get into a deep sleep.
Buy now £42.99, Therange.co.uk
Shark FlexBreeze portable fan
Best: Cordless fan
Type: Pedestal fan
Noise: 62dB
Speed settings: Eight
Oscillation: Up to 180 degrees
Size: 34cm x 34cm x 94cm
Weight: 5.6kg
Timer: No
Why we love it
- Converts between pedestal and desk fan
- Can be used outside
- Misting function
Take note
- Heavy
If you can’t decide if you want a desk fan to cool you as you work or a floor fan to bring down the temperature of the whole room, this convertible model by Shark is the one to pick. It can be used in 12 different ways, from corded to cordless, and can even be used outdoors. It can be placed on the floor to cool you when you’re having a picnic or extended to act as a pedestal fan when you’re sitting at the table or lounging on a deck chair. If you want to feel like you’re sitting by a pool even when you’re just on your balcony, this has a misting attachment that can be connected to a hose pipe to spray you with a light mist of cool water as well as a gentle breeze.
The battery life is excellent, offering 24 hours of cooling power on a full charge, so you can use this for a full day of sitting outdoors in the garden to get your vitamin D fix without breaking a sweat. With five cooling settings and 180-degree oscillation, it does a great job of cooling the air to each side of the unit as well as directly in front of it.
Weighing 5.6kg, it’s a sturdy, durable piece of kit that won’t fall over if you accidentally knock it. However, the downside to this is that you will need two hands when you want to move it from place to place.
It’s hardly surprising, considering how hot it is at the moment, but Shark’s fan is currently out of stock. But if you’re set on this fan, you can sign up to be notified once its back.
Buy now £149.98, Amazon.co.uk
MeacoFan 1056 air circulator
Best: Fan that rivals an air conditioner
Type: Desk fan
Noise: 20dB – 60dB
Speed settings: 12
Oscillation: 60 degrees up, 80 degrees left
Size: 34cm x 35cm x 46.5cm
Weight: 3.2kg
Timer: Yes
Why we love it
- Very effective
- Quiet
Take note
- Slightly chunky shape
When you’re dreaming of air conditioning, yet conscious of the energy consumption, MeacoFan’s air circulator is an impressive alternative. The brand claims that its unique rotation “bounces” air off the walls and ceilings to keep the entire room (and everyone in it) cool. While we were sceptical as to how well this would work, it really does. Not only is it strangely compelling to watch, but it’s also staggeringly effective, transforming even the stuffiest room in our house in a matter of minutes. Miraculously, our space even stayed cool once we’d turned the fan down.
That’s not all. Although the maximum noise level is stated as 60dB, we thought it seemed a lot quieter, thanks to the brushless DC motor, and it’s cheap to run.
The fan also has an eco mode to adjust the speed as the temperature changes, a sleep timer and even a nightlight, which would be handy if used in a child’s room.
While it’s a great desk fan, it’s certainly on the chunky side. It might not work if your WFH setup is a tiny desk in a spare room. However, it works so well that it could be worth making a little space.
Buy now £112.60, Amazon.co.uk
Duux whisper flex smart fan
Best: Quiet fan
Type: Pedestal fan
Noise: 13dB – 55dB
Speed settings: 26
Oscillation: 90 degrees horizontal, 100 degrees vertical
Size: 34cm x 34cm x 95cm
Weight: 4.5kg
Timer: Yes
Why we love it
- Easy-to-use app
- 26 speed settings
- Quiet
Take note
- Not that attractive
- Bulky
If you’re looking for a quiet fan, we’d recommend Duux’s whisper flex smart fan. It operates at just 13dB even on the highest setting. While it’s the priciest pedestal fan we’ve tested, it offers 26 different speed settings, so you can precisely control temperature levels in a room. We were really impressed by the natural breeze mode that simulated real wind. We thought it would be a gimmick, but it was noticeably different from the usual blasting air you find in most fans.
This was also the only pedestal fan we tested that oscillated upward as well as left and right, and it was the only one that came with a free app. This enabled us to control our fan from any room of the house.
The fan has 15m of wind reach, so it can cool a large kitchen just as well as a small bedroom. In night mode, the LED temperature display dims, and it can be set to run for between one to 12 hours before switching off automatically. The height is adjustable, so you can use it as a desktop fan as well as a floor fan.
Buy now £169.00, Amazon.co.uk
Beurer LV50 fresh breeze personal air fan and cooler
Best: Desk fan
Type: Personal fan
Noise: Unspecified
Speed settings: Three
Oscillation: No
Size: 14cm x 14cm x 12cm
Weight: 498g
Timer: No
Why we love it
- Fast to charge
- Refreshing humidifier function
Take note
- Very compact
If you want to recreate the feeling of office air conditioning when you’re working from home in a heatwave, the Beurer’s LV50 fan cools and humidifies the air at the same time. The warm air is drawn into the fan, passes through the cooling evaporation filter and is blown back out as cool air.
Supplied with a USB cable, it’s easy to charge the fan using your PC or laptop while you work, so you don’t have to worry about running out of battery. On a full charge, the battery lasts for four hours, so we also tested it on the bedside table overnight and found the humidifier function especially refreshing. For a very compact unit, this had everything we needed to keep cool at a very reasonable price.
However, it’s best as a desk fan. This won’t cool a whole room, but it will provide relief when working through a heatwave.
Buy now £40.66, Amazon.co.uk
Black + Decker digital tower fan
Best: Fan for bedrooms
Type: Tower fan
Noise: Unspecified
Speed settings: Three
Oscillation: 90 degrees
Size: 81cm x 31cm
Weight: 4kg
Timer: Yes
Why we love it
- Eight-hour timer option
- Oscillates 90 degrees
- Magnetic remote control for safe storage
Take note
- Black design would stand out in light coloured room
With an eight-hour timer that can be adjusted by one-hour increments, Black + Decker’s digital tower fan is perfect for bedrooms. Set it to operate for a couple of hours, which is long enough to help you reach a deep level of sleep, then it will turn off automatically, so you don’t over cool the room. It also helps keep electricity bills low, as you’re not using the fan the entire night.
There’s a remote control, which you can keep next to the bed, so you can adjust the settings while lying down and conserving energy. Even on the highest setting, it emits barely a murmur, so we had no trouble drifting off with this fan in the bedroom.
Able to oscillate 90 degrees, this fan is brilliant at moving cold air around a room. This makes a room feel less stuffy and humid. Even better, you can easily move it between rooms, thanks to an integrated carry handle. When you’re done sleeping, carry it into the kitchen for breakfast and then leave it in your home office to create a productive working environment. At 4kg, you can lift it with one hand, and it doesn’t feel too bulky in a room.
The only drawback is that this isn’t a particularly stylish fan. The black plastic will stand out like a sore thumb in most homes.
Black + Decker’s digital tower fan is out of stock at the moment, unfortunately. You can sign up to be notified once it’s back in stock, though.
Buy now £30.83, Amazon.co.uk
Winique clip-on stroller fan
Best: Fan for attaching to a pram
Type: Clip-on fan
Noise: 57dB
Speed settings: Three
Oscillation: 360 degrees
Size: 6.6cm x 13.7cm x 27.9cm
Weight: 330g
Timer: No
Why we love it
- Easy to attach to a stroller or car seat
- Sturdy
Take note
- Not very eco-friendly
Babies, toddlers, and a heatwave are a terrible combination. However, there are occasions when you need to get out of the house for everyone’s sanity. Enter this genius portable fan, which could help prevent some major meltdowns. Simply wrap the stretchy legs around the safety bar on a buggy, pram or car seat, and your kid will be cooled by a fresh breeze near their face. An added bonus is that parents can lean over and benefit from the cooling sensation whenever they need it.
For less than £20, there’s a huge amount of useful features. One is that it rotates 360 degrees to provide airflow from different directions. Another is that the flexible ‘octopus’ legs can be wound around a bar multiple times, so your baby can’t pick it up mid-ride. Don’t worry, there’s also a lot of thick plastic on the outside, so your baby will never be able to touch the blades and incur an injury. As we all know, nap time is important, the fan operates at less than 57dB, so it won’t disturb little ones while they drift off.
The only drawback is that you need to keep this charged up, so it’s not the most eco-friendly fan.
Buy now £14.99, Amazon.co.uk
Dyson purifier hot+cool formaldehyde
Best: Do-everything fan
Type: Tower fan
Noise: 62dB
Speed settings: 10
Oscillation: 350 degrees
Size: 76.4cm x 20.cm x 24.8cm
Weight: 5.5kg
Timer: No
Why we love it
- Works as a heater and air purifier too
- Fan oscillates 350 degrees
- Connects to easy-to-use app
Take note
- Pricey
This fan is almost absurd. The Dyson purifier hot+cool formaldehyde doesn’t just cool but will also heat a room and eliminate pollutants, including pollen, dust and formaldehyde. The latter is a colourless gas used in building materials and household products, such as paint and furniture, and Dyson claims that this purifier detects molecules 500 times smaller than 0.1 microns. Although this is a nice-to-have bonus, it’s likely not what will convince you to part with a considerable chunk of cash to have this in your home.
Luckily, it’s a sleek machine all around, with a super-effective heater and excellent air purifier, which ramped up whenever it detected pollutants in our home. We especially loved the fact that we could see how clean the air was on the LED screen on the front.
Cooling is also excellent, especially as the fan oscillates 350 degrees, so it works wherever you are in the room. It also works with voice services and an easy-to-use app and has a night mode, so we had no trouble sleeping when it was on.
However, as with most Dyson products, this is incredibly expensive. If you have the budget, this could be a great choice. It does things that other fans can’t even attempt. However, most of us can’t drop £600 on a fan - especially in Britain, when you’ll probably only need it a couple of weeks a year. No other fan in this round-up has quite the year-round bang for its buck, but you’ll need to be sure you’ll use all its features before blowing the budget on it.
Buy now £599.00, Boots.com
Draper 08710 clip-on desk fan
Best: Cheap desk fan
Type: Desk fan
Noise: Unspecified
Speedy settings: Two
Oscillation: N/A
Size: 198mm x 170mm x 216mm
Weight: 750g
Timer: No
Why we love it
- Affordable
- Compact size
Take note
- Not hugely powerful
Working from home has its benefits, but leaving the office air conditioning behind on a hot day is not one of them. If you just can’t avoid spending hours stuck at a computer, a desk fan is a no-brainer buy for the summer months to make life a little more bearable. As you’ll be sitting close to the fan itself, there’s no need to spend extra on fancy features, smart controls or even a huge amount of power.
This model has everything required to keep you cool, for a brilliant price. It’s easy to use and assemble with just two speeds, and it won’t even take up much room, as it’s much smaller than a traditional desk fan.
While it can stand on a solid base, we especially loved the fact that it can clip onto the side of a desk to use even less space. However, as an affordable desk fan, it’s missing most of the fancy oscillations and apps you’ll find in the more expensive fans we tested.
Buy now £17.95, Amazon.co.uk
Your questions on the best fans, answered
What is the best fan?
An exceptional all-season appliance, the Vortex air cleanse heater, purifier and fan combines a sleek design with powerful performance at great value. It cools and heats quickly, is energy efficient, thanks to a smart thermostat, and will slot seamlessly into pretty much any home. If you’re on a budget, we’d recommend the VonHaus tower fan, with its nifty aroma tray.
What features should I look for in the best fan?
How much does it cost to run a fan?
According to research by the price comparison website Uswitch, “a 120W electric fan costs approximately 2p an hour to run”, so keeping it on for 12 hours a day will cost you 24p, which works out at £1.68 per week.
At 44p per hour, portable air conditioning units are more expensive. Uswitch found that, on average, people have their units on for four hours and 18 minutes during the day and four hours and 48 minutes at night. This means it could “drive up electricity bills by £28 per week” during the warmer months. As such, a fan is a far cheaper option.
How much electricity does a fan use?
Finding out how much electricity a fan uses depends on the model you have, but you can roughly calculate it by dividing the wattage by 1,000 to give the amount of energy it uses per hour. For a 120W fan, for example, divide by 1,000, and you’ll get 0.129. If you’ll be using it for 12 hours a day, multiply 0.129 by 12 and you’ll get 1.548kW, which is about how much electricity the fan uses.
Keep extra cool this summer with our guide to the best portable air conditioners for your home
