Our pick
This compact fan can send breezes to the far corners of a large room. It’s also relatively easy to control and clean, and it has a long-established record of reliability.
The Vornado 630 Medium Air Circulator is a simple, powerful, and reliable fan that can move huge amounts of air without making too much noise.
The vortex created by this fan circulates all of the air in a room better than an oscillating fan, without the distraction of intermittent gusts. This fan is compact, without any embellishments like a remote or a timer. But the minimalist design touches—including a readily accessible speed-control dial on the side—make the Vornado 630 easy to use, clean, and maintain.
Vornado puts out plenty of fantastic fans, and they’re backed by a five-year warranty. We have found that the 630 in particular offers the best balance of power and energy savings.
Runner-up
This impressively powerful room circulator comes with built-in Alexa capabilities, so you can voice-control the breeze.
The Vornado 660 AE Large Air Circulator comes with built-in Alexa compatibility, but the real appeal lies in the fact that it’s one of the most powerful room circulators we’ve ever tested.
Quieter and less energy-intensive than our top pick, the 660 still produces a substantial breeze you can feel from over 20 feet away—and that’s without using the almost-too-powerful turbo mode.
The onboard controls can be a little tricky to use, but we more often found ourselves relying on the built-in voice commands anyway. We would suggest this model as an excellent option for anyone who may prefer voice or phone control for mobility reasons.
Upgrade pick
This fan performs and sounds practically the same as our top pick. But it adds oscillation, a sturdy metal construction, and an attractive retro design.
The all-metal Vornado Silver Swan Alchemy is a stylish improvement over the black plastic design of many other air circulators. Its Art Deco aesthetic hearkens back to the earliest Vornado fans, from the 1940s, which were based on an experimental airplane propeller.
This model performs even better than our top pick, thanks to its oscillation ability and rigid metal fan blades, which create a pleasant but powerful breeze throughout the room, without being too loud or grating.
It’s also one of the easiest fans to clean, so you’re more likely to take care of it—which is good, since it’s a genuinely nice home-decor piece.
Also great
This fan’s high price is offset by its infinitely adjustable fan speed, energy efficiency, and a 10-year warranty.
The Vornado 610DC Energy Smart Medium Air Circulator is a great choice for people who want less noise, more energy savings, and more adjustability overall.
Its infinitely variable speed-control dial allows you to dial in the perfect power setting to match your needs, and to balance that wind with your ideal volume and energy use. It also comes with an exceedingly generous 10-year warranty.
The 610DC isn’t necessarily better at moving air than our top pick—but these features do make for a nicer experience overall, even if this fan is more expensive. Fortunately, you’ll be able to offset the price difference with the money you save in energy costs in just a few years.
Also great
This smart, energy-efficient fan is 44 inches tall and oscillates side to side as well as up and down.
The Dreo PolyFan 513S smart fan offers a lot in addition to its height advantages. Its DC-powered motor means it’s quieter and more energy-efficient than most other fans, and its oscillation abilities include three different horizontal arcs options, plus a vertical setting. The result is a fan that seems to paint the room in a multidirectional blanket of breeze.
Although we didn’t love the onboard controls, the PolyFan 513S offers plenty of other options for dialing in your perfect wind, including a remote control, smartphone app, and voice commands. It’s also incredibly easy to clean.
However, its one-year warranty is significantly shorter than those of our other picks, even with the optional 18-month extension.
Budget pick
This inexpensive fan is quiet and effective, without ever feeling cheap.
With a lot of inexpensive fans, you get what you pay for. But that’s not the case with the Dreo Fox One, which performed comparably to our top pick.
The draft it produced didn’t fill up the room with the same robust breeze you get from an air circulator like our top pick—but it came close, while costing about half the price. This fan is easier to clean than the Vornado 630, with a single screw to keep the grille in place and an easily removable blade.
The simple, effective Fox One seems better designed and more durable than other similarly priced models. And that’s a good thing, since it’s covered by only a 30-month warranty.
