Tower fan vs Standing / Pedestal fan. Which is best? - I did these tests to find out.

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[TurboSpeedWiFi]

A tower fan uses what amounts to a centrifugal blower, whereas a pedestal fan uses an axial fan design. Centrifugal blowers produce faster air velocities and tend to be quieter. Axial fans tend to move a larger volume of air (CFM) and tend to be a bit louder. Great job with the video. This is exactly the results that could be expected based on scientific principles.

[crazyamericangamer]

I’ve had both fan designs and the bigger sized standing fans are way better than the rest of the fans.

[Vanessa-]

After having 2 tower fans in the last 10 year I recommend the standing 😅fan in AZ.

[anj]

You measured wind speed, but you really need to measure volume of air that is pushed as well. You can take computer fan and measure the speed and it will be pretty high. But you will not feel anything, because volume of air is negligible.

[lemagreengreen]

New type... had the same tower fan since 1995 lol. They work well, this one must have been well made too because aside from taking it apart to clean it every couple of years and giving the top bearing some oil it has run for 28 years!

[MechPoblete]

hmnn. my concern now is cleaning and maintenance. its pretty easy to clean and maintain a traditional fan.

[nc]

And what exact was the wind speed between the two??.... buying a fan the first thing people want to know is how strong they are, how well they work - not what buttons it has... and no one actually gives a review how powerful it is and how well it works!

[iDTecKt]

You didn't mention cleaning, my tower fan simply comes away at the back so you can take it apart and wash it, its the 42inch Levoit Tower 👍

[tracywhitt]

I've had a tower fan, doesn't put out as much air, in the very hot summers it's no match for a stand fan.

[addz]

Title should be "£170 fan vs £20 fan. Which is best?"

[danielvitolo]

Tower fans are best all the way around.

Unless your looking for those huge commercial fans with massive air, tower fan all the way!

[akiru]

If it's a super hot day and your room is a sauna, which one is better?

[manicniceguy]

I keep breaking my laskos went through 3 of them in two years going to pick up a tower fan but worried about knocking it over.

[zap_collection]

Standing fans are circulating air from the center of the room. Pedestal fans pull in air from the center DOWN to the floor.

If you can conceptualize what the airflow being pulled in to the back of a standing fan, vs a pedestal fan, you can see why that matters.

The circular shape of the standing fan causes more of a vortex on the back side. It pulls air in fairly evenly in all 360°, from floor to ceiling.

Pedestal fans, on the other hand, have a rectangular intake. Now, the shape itself isn't necessarily a problem, but it does mean pedestal fans circulate air in an entirely different way than standing fans.

To understand why pedestal fans operate differently than standing fans, you need to consider the shape and size of the intake. Your basic model standing fan is typically 20" in diameter, which means the intake has a surface area of 314 Square inches.

A 32" tower fan has a rectangular intake that's typically 29" x 3", or 87 square inches of surface area. That's almost 3x LESS than the 20" standing fan.

A 42" pedestal fan comes in at 114 square inches, or roughly 1/3 that of a standing fan.

Like I said, the shape isn't necessarily a problem - it just means they operate differently.

Pedestal fans are engineered in such a way to take advantage of the smaller intake size. Rather than blowing the air straight out like a standing fan, pedestal fans (at least the good ones) use a curved piece of plastic to funnel the air before blowing it out. This curved piece further reduces the surface area of the intake, and causes that "curtain" effect that pedestal fans are known for.

The purpose of a fan is to move air, so why add a second piece that further reduces the size of the intake? I'm just guessing here, but the area of the second piece is probably less than 18-20 square inches - WAAAAY WAY less than a standing fan. So why?

Because of Bernoulli's principal. Without getting complicated, by reducing the size of the exhaust (the size of the opening the air blows out), you increase the volume of air that enters the intake. The reduced exhaust size creates an area of low pressure behind it, causing more ambient air to rush in to balance it out. By utilizing this principal, pedestal fans are able to move air with the same velocity, with less surface area than standing fans.

Not exactly an accurate comparison, but it's an good way to visualize the differences. You can think of a standing fan as a fire hose, and a pedestal fan as a garden hose.

The fire hose sprays a thick stream of water, very far. The fire hose does that by drawing in 150 gallons of water per minute.

A regular garden hose can't do that. Not even close. Turn the water on full blast, and the garden hose might spray 2-3 feet at most. Because a garden hose only draws about 12 gallons per minute. But, if you attach a nozzle to the garden hose, reducing the size of the exhaust, that same hose can spray 20-30 ft. But with a smaller, more concentrated stream.

That's the difference between standing fans and pedestal fans. Standing fans work by drawing in as much air as possible from the entire room and blowing it everywhere, creating lots of turbulence. Pedestal fans work by drawing in air primarily from the sides, rather than the entire room, and blowing it out in a thin, vertical column that doesn't really cause turbulence.

So! All of that is to say, in my opinion, pedestal fans work better for directional cooling in summer, since they are very good at capturing air from the lower half of the room and blowing it to a targeted place without disturbing the air column too much.

So if you're looking for a fan to use for a bedroom, a gaming room, somewhere that you're stationery, pedestal fans are great for cooling.

But if you're trying to circulate heat, you'll need to place the fan on a table, or find some other way to get it closer to the ceiling or it won't really work.

Standing fans work great for both cooling and heating, because aside from the turbulence they cause, which mixes the air and averages out the temperature, they can also be angled up or down! And the fan height can be adjusted vertically as well. They can be lowered, and angled up during winter to warm the room, and raised up at a slight angle to cool it down. Or, you can point them straight and adjust the height so they blow in a specific direction.

So overall, I think standing fans are the better choice for general purpose use. There's nothing wrong with pedestal fans, but they're much more purpose-built to perform better in specific situations

[driftracing]

I had a ac motor pedestal fan and on high it uses 50 watts and the airflow was not that much and then I got a dc motor pedestal fan and on highest setting it uses 25 watts and that the airflow was strong and that it uses the same power as a usb phone charger on lower settings like 7 watts and under

[crazyamericangamer]

Actually the standing fan is more efficient it’s got blades on it. It’s rotating higher volume of air

[Wgoh]

Fact: Tower fan is near impossible to clean and maintain vs Standing fan.

[lexRanay]

Why didn’t you do a 12 speed fan and the 12 speed tower?

[ishudshutup]

Nice review! I'm surprised that tower fan used less energy vs the standing fan, from my experience it's been the other way around in terms of getting good airflow. The Dreo I would say would be considered a more high end tower fan vs the stuff you can find in Walmart or Costco so perhaps that make the results better than if you had a tower fan in a cheaper price bracket to match the standing fan. Otherwise, a good in depth review that's hard to find!

[nanoscapehd]

Another advantage is that tower fans take up less space