3 Best Room Fans, Tested by Our Experts

A room fan can transform an unbearably hot, stuffy room into a cooler, more comfortable retreat from the heat. The perfect fan for you depends on a few factors, including the size of your space, how many people need to be cooled, and where you want to put it (floor vs. tabletop).

To find the best room fans for most people, we brought three fan types—tabletop, pedestal, and box fans—into our labs and vigorously tested them for wind speed, ease of use, noise, and energy consumption.

As for safety—another one of our concerns during testing—all of the room fan models we tested are designed with guards that offer good protection from fingers reaching the blades, and their plugs are polarized. Seven out of the nine fans in our tests have Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and/or Intertek certifications. When a fan has UL certification, it has been independently tested to meet go-to-market entry requirements for safety and performance. An Intertek certification shows that the product has undergone third-party testing by Intertek for “total quality assurance,” including safety.

Consumer Reports’ test project leader José Amézquita evaluated nine of the most popular room fans from brands like Amazon Basics, Lasko, and Vornado, and narrowed them down to our three favorites—one in each category of fans. These three will keep you coolest and won’t interrupt your workflow.