When it comes to keeping these units clean, all of them have removable grills that can be rinsed or wiped, allowing easy access to the blades to keep them dust-free. The Honeywell Double Blade, Pelonis 18″ 3-Speed Oscillating, and Black+Decker 16″ make it even easier, with simple clasps that can be twisted to the side with your thumb for removal. The Comfort Zone, Lasko S16612, and Lasko Cyclone grills can be popped on and off, as they utilize plastic tabs to stay in place.
Of all the models we tested, this one operates at the lowest pitch, sounding more like a hum than the traditional whirring of a fan. Though it can’t point down, it can be angled nearly vertically to bounce air off the ceiling and blow it effectively around an entire Lasko Box Fan room. It’s the only one with the cord coming out of the bottom of the stand, as well, rather than dangling off the base of the motor halfway up the stand. It’s easily felt from across a room, though only if you’re standing directly in its tunnel-like path.
Turn on the oscillation feature to distribute air through a wide area, ideal for circulating the air in large spaces. The controls on the fan’s base are awkwardly located partially behind the bottom of the blade cage. It chirps loudly with every setting change, and the light on the base never Lasko Box Fan turns off — though it’s just one small red dot, which is less intrusive than many others. The remote caddy must be removed from the stand to put the head all the way down, and you can’t control the oscillation function with the remote, only with the traditional knob on top of the motor.
Despite being the smallest of our tested fans, the Vornado 683 Medium is also among the most powerful. Though this certainly helps you cool off when pointed directly at your face, it’s also fairly alen breathesmart effective as an air circulator when positioned just right in larger spaces. Instead of a solid base, this lightweight model has five sturdy legs that give it a small but stable footprint.
Weighing just 13.85 lbs., the lightweight frame offers easy portability so you can quickly carry this fan into rooms where you need it most. Just about every pedestal fan we tested oscillates roughly 90 degrees with the exception of the Vornado 683, which doesn’t oscillate at all but can be twisted on its stand to face any direction. However, the Vornado offers one of the widest pivot ranges, at nearly 90 degrees, whereas most others are closer to degrees at most. Pedestal fans have a reputation for being ungainly and large — but how ungainly and how large? We measured the dimensions of every fan, checked to see how much their heights are adjustable, and considered their base size and the blade housing size. Of course, since larger fans are often more powerful, we considered other values of their sizes when calculating scores in this metric.