10 Best Oscillating Fan in 2020

An oscillating fan is one of the simplest cooling appliances you can buy, giving you all the power of a regular fan but turning slightly to spread the air around in more than just one direction. Even a small amount of oscillation can be enough to add far more comfort and cooling to a room, and the inclusion of an oscillation system usually means that there are other features built into the design as well. Unfortunately, just like regular fans, finding the best oscillating fan on the market isn’t easy considering how many different products you have to look for.

Below are ten of the best oscillating fan models on the market, along with some advice on how to find the best option for you.

View the Best Oscillating Fan, Below.

• Lasko Wind Curve Portable Oscillating Tower
• Rowenta 1830005455 Oscillating Fan
• Holmes Blizzard Oscillating Table Fan
• Honeywell HYF290B QuietSet Tower Fan
• AmazonBasics Oscillating Dual Blade Pedestal Fan
• PELONIS FZ10-19JR Quiet Oscillating Tower Fan
• Lasko 1820 Adjustable Pedestal Fan
• Lasko 2535 Pedestal Tower Fan
• Hurricane 736565 Fan
• Seville Classics UltraSlimline Oscillating Tower Fan

1. Lasko Wind Curve Portable Oscillating Tower

This oscillating fan is quiet but still manages to offer plenty of power and make sure that you stay cool for longer. The built-in timer can let it automatically shut off after a set period of time, letting you choose anything from 30 minutes to 7.5 hours while swapping between three speed settings as needed. The built-in ionizer inside the fan also provides much better protection from dust, allergens, bacteria, and smoke by removing it from the air that it is blowing around, naturally freshening the air and making it easier to breathe comfortably. Thanks to the tower design, the fan is also much easier to place in almost any room, especially if you have limited space.

This tower fan is simple but effective, giving you extremely helpful remote control features while still being easy to use in a small space.

2. Rowenta 1830005455 Oscillating Fan

This four-speed pedestal fan is surprisingly quiet, offering a noise range of between 40 and 57 dB. The oscillating head turns up to 90 degrees - not only left and right, but also up and down - to keep air flowing and freshen up an entire room very quickly. Not only that, but you can also adjust the height to change the angles it is working at, and the built-in carrying handle makes it much easier to move around at any time. At full speed, the fan moves fresh air at up to 2436 ft. per minute using a five-bladed propeller, more than most conventional fans can manage.

This fan offers some of the best features in terms of rotation angles, giving you more control over where the air is blown.

3. Holmes Blizzard Oscillating Table Fan

This table fan uses a portable design that can cover a wide area without adding any extra bulk or weight, making it great for small rooms up to around 155 square feet large. The dual-speed settings and easy-to-tilt head give you more flexibility over the force and direction of the air, and you can remove the front grill to make cleaning much easier. The smaller size and improved construction make it much quieter and more appropriate for use on a table, in a bedroom, or even on your workplace desk. Since the speed is low regardless of the setting used, it is also far less distracting and annoying overall.

Lightweight and convenient, this fan is great for moving cool air around a smaller space, even if it is just your own desk.

4. Honeywell HYF290B QuietSet Tower Fan

This tower fan offers eight different speed settings that you can switch between at a moment's notice, either through the control panel on top of the unit or the remote control that comes with it. Quiet Set technology reduces the overall volume of the fan when it is operating, and the overall design is meant to reduce energy costs compared to other tower fans of a similar size. Optional settings around the digital display include oscillation controls, a breeze mode, and a 12-hour automatic shut off timer, all of which can be adjusted in seconds. To help you move the fan around, it also has a reach-through carrying handle built into its base.

This is an excellent choice of tower fan for covering a whole room, giving you multiple speed options and a range of other adjustable features.

5. AmazonBasics Oscillating Dual Blade Pedestal Fan

The dual blades of this pedestal fan improve its ability to circulate air throughout large rooms without adding any extra bulk to the design, meaning that all of its three-speed settings can work equally well. You can adjust the neck of the fan to quickly change its height and toggle the oscillation at any time, meaning that you have full control over the exact angle and height that the air is being blown around at. Alongside this are controls for the automatic shut-off system and the current mode, all of which can be adjusted through a remote control for added convenience.

Multiple speed choices, two main fan settings, and the ability to adjust the height and angle of the fan makes it incredibly versatile in almost any room or situation.

6. PELONIS FZ10-19JR Quiet Oscillating Tower Fan

This tall tower fan offers three distinct fan speeds and a built-in seven-hour timer to give you more control over how it is used, as well as three individual modes (natural, normal, and sleep) that each change the way the unit moves air through a room. Making only 48 dB of noise on average, it is much quieter than other fans, and you can adjust the settings either through the LED display or a remote control. A compact grid design reduces the chance of children or pets getting hurt by the fan blades, and the 60 degrees of oscillation give you a good level of ventilation to work with.

This oscillating fan is simple and effective, giving you a range of useful control settings while still being both quiet and easy to adjust.

7. Lasko 1820 Adjustable Pedestal Fan

This tall pedestal fan offers three separate running speeds that are all comfortably quiet, using a wide oscillation angle to spread air as far as possible across a whole room. You can easily adjust the height from 54.5 inches down to 38 inches, letting you choose how tall you want the fan to be while it is working - you also have the option of tilting the fan head back to angle the flow of air upwards. It also comes on a sturdy base that prevents it from tipping over easily and doesn't require any tools to set up. The entire unit is lightweight and can easily be moved around as needed, too.

This fan can be adjusted in multiple ways to help you get the best possible flow of air, all while being simple and efficient enough to use in a variety of rooms and spaces.

8. Lasko 2535 Pedestal Tower Fan

The design of this fan combines the stand of a pedestal fan with the body of a tower fan, giving you the best features of both while minimizing the downsides. This includes an adjustable height (from 41 inches to 52 inches), a timed sleep mode system, a built-in carrying handle, and a fused safety plug to provide much better protection. Not only that, but the oscillation features let you choose whether the air gets moved upwards or downwards at three different speeds. You can adjust the entire unit directly or through the associated remote, with either option being just as easy and ergonomic as the other.

This is a fan that is worth using if you need specific features, including things like a sleep timer or the ability to change the angle of the airflow.

9. Hurricane 736565 Fan

The figure-8 pattern produced by this fan allows for more effective circulation of air in a larger living room or similar area, and you can program in your own motion patterns to make the fan move around in whichever way you specify. You also have options for increment timers, oscillating angle controls, and various different speeds - these can be handled through the simple five-button remote. The improvements to noise reduction and oscillation make it ideal for spreading air through a large room, and the frame used around the fan blade has been coated in vinyl to make it more resistant to bumps and bashes.

People who prefer to have precise controls will find this fan useful, especially in warmer weather or areas without a breeze.

10. Seville Classics UltraSlimline Oscillating Tower Fan

This tall and slim tower fan provides excellent circulation while taking up minimal space, making it perfect for a smaller living room or office that doesn't have much free room for a larger design. There are four speeds (eco, low, medium, and high) to let you choose how fast the fan blades run, and the oscillating body can rotate by up to 75 degrees to easily cover a whole room. You can also use three different modes (sleep, natural and calming) to change the kind of air being blown around: all of these settings are accessible from the LED panel on top or the included remote.

The small floor space and wide coverage of this tower fan make it perfect for larger, more open rooms that would look strange with a larger floor fan.

Oscillating Fan Buyer’s Guide

Buying an oscillating fan – or any kind of fan – can be more difficult than it might first seem. A fan is a comfort feature, after all, so you ideally want to try and find one that can give you as much comfort as possible. This is even more important if you are going to use it in the workplace, at a home office, or in your bedroom, since these are all places where discomfort can be much more disruptive and might lead to performance and/or health problems if left unchecked. Specifically looking for a fan that oscillates can make this even more difficult, since you are adding even more details to a search that can already take a while.

Oscillation Angle

Oscillating fans rotate, but not all of them rotate in the exact same way. Some will manage a full ninety degrees or more, while others will only move in a thirty-degree range: it all comes down to the way the fan is designed and how all of the internal parts work, and it is not something that you can create a DIY solution to. Any fan that oscillates will help with airflow and circulation, but that doesn’t mean that they will all work perfectly in every situation.

For example, if you are in a larger space (such as a bedroom) and have the fan up against one of the walls, thirty degrees is only going to cover a small part of the room. If the fan faces your desk, that might be fine, but if you want it to cover the whole room, then you will usually want to look for designs that can rotate further. On the other hand, if you are using your fan in the workplace, a smaller range can stop it from annoying your co-workers or blowing documents and papers around.

Always be smart about your fan placement where the angle is involved, too. Smaller oscillation ranges can be used effectively if the fan is placed in the corner of the room since it can spread the air out further and won’t be missing as much of the space – if you put the same fan in the middle of the room, it might struggle to even cover half properly.

Noise

Oscillating fans are still like regular fans in terms of how noisy they can be, and no floor fan is going to be completely silent. The noise inside a fan is caused by both the motors and the design of the fans themselves, as well as the current speeds they are operating at: even two fans that look nearly identical may be completely different in terms of the noise they make. Most of the time, you will want to buy a quiet fan, especially for use in an office, bedroom, or other areas where concentration is important. If you share that space with multiple people, a quiet fan is all but mandatory if you want to avoid irritating them.

A quiet fan, regardless of its design or type, is going to be much easier to use while sleeping. Many people end up buying fans for sleeping in hot weather, then realize that it is too loud to sleep comfortably. Keep in mind that oscillating fans can eventually wear down, which might result in small grinding or grating noises as they turn: even the quietest fan can end up with this problem if it isn’t cleaned and maintained correctly.

However, not everybody wants quiet fans all the time. Some people may see the noise level as one of the fan’s features since it can drown out background noise and isolate them from what is going on around them. This is most common in home offices or other spaces where a person is working on their own, so don’t be afraid to go for a somewhat loud floor fan if you prefer it that way. Just be wary of anybody around you that you might annoy.

Design

Each fan design offers something slightly different at a basic level, and getting used to them can help a lot when you are trying to choose between them. Tower fans are usually all one rotating body on a small base: compared to a regular floor fan, tower fans use the entire height of their body as the fans. Tower fan designs are also usually more likely to have both a remote control and a settings panel on top, since they are usually flat (or sloped) on top instead of rounded like your average floor fan.

A pedestal fan usually offers adjustable heights through the pedestal they use as a body, but still has the regular head of a normal fan. These are some of the most common and offer quite a lot of versatility, since you may be able to angle the head to change where the air goes.

There are far more than just pedestal fan and tower fan designs out there, though. This includes designs like the air multiplier: an air multiplier is a bladeless ‘ring’ that flows air through its own stand, acting as a literal air multiplier by using that small amount of air to force more forward. Something like an air multiplier may appeal to you, but many of these designs (including the typical air multiplier itself) are going to be quite niche or specific.

Speeds

Most oscillating fan designs offer multiple speeds to give you a higher level of versatility and customization. A pedestal fan, for example, might have three speeds that increase how much air is being moved at once by speeding up the fan blades. Another oscillating fan might have as many as eight, or even more. These aren’t necessary, but they can still be really useful. There isn’t a “best way” to focus on fan speeds: the entire point of optional speeds is that they give you an easy way to change how fast a fan operates if it is too fast or slow for you – other than that, there isn’t much else to say.

Are Oscillating Fans Better?

There are very few downsides to using an oscillating fan. Even if you trade short-term power for the extra rotation, it may keep you more comfortable and freshen the air faster. Since most oscillating fan designs don’t have to rotate at all times, they can easily replace even the best stationary fan if you find the right design. Of course, this all comes down to the individual statistics: one standard fan may beat another oscillating design in terms of power efficiency or airspeeds, but this changes based on the fan designs you are comparing.

What is the Best Fan on the Market?

There isn’t a single best option when it comes to fan designs. The best fan for somebody who needs extra cooling while sleeping could be one with a sleep timer, while the best fan for another person may be one that has a long power cord. To some people, a low price might even be the main feature they are looking for in their ‘best’ fan. The best fan for you is a personal choice since every person has their own idea of what would be best and which features would suit them best in certain situations.

This can affect brands, too: if you look at every fan Lasko produce, you might decide that a particular fan Lasko offer is the best fan for you. However, if you compare the fan Lasko produce to another brand, you might realize that the original ‘best fan’ was missing a key feature that you didn’t think about. It is important to remember that each fan brand may have their own particular designs and selling points you could focus on, whether it is a low price, a sleep timer, or just an extended power cord.

Conclusion

If you are still on the hunt for the best fan you can find, don’t shy away from taking your time and doing proper research. There are thousands of fans available on the internet, and each of them will be the best choice for at least one person, so there’s guaranteed to be a fan out there that you will like. Keep looking and don’t settle for a fan you know won’t help you since the point of any fan is to keep you feeling comfortable as often as possible. The wrong fan leads to much less comfort, and nobody wants to make themselves less comfortable because they got impatient.

Expert Tip

The best fans are often the ones that keep you comfortable above all else. Just because a fan isn’t fancy or doesn’t have a certain high-tech feature doesn’t mean that it is a bad choice.

Did You Know?

Fans are heavily affected by distance and positioning. If your fan feels too weak, move it closer: not only does this save money on having to buy a new fan, but it shows that you can solve a lot of fan problems by simply moving it somewhere else.