GoKawiilis a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. He’s been a tech journalist for 20 years.
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I can’t remember the last time I got excited about a fan. Normally, I just buy whatever Vornado or Dreo model fits my budget, but that was before I started testing the battery-powered Standing Circulator Fan from SwitchBot.
As the name indicates, the SwitchBot fan is a 3D circulator — a fancy way of saying that it can tilt up, down, left, and right to push a decent amount air around a room. It looks okay, despite all the plastic, is relatively quiet, runs for hours on battery, has an integrated nightlight, transforms from a desktop to standing fan in seconds, and works on its own or as part of a smart home. There’s a lot to like here.
Over the last month, I’ve been testing the Standing Circulator Fan in a variety of scenarios at temperatures up to 34 degrees Celsius (93°F) and I’ve gotta say, I’m impressed. It’s so versatile, quiet, and portable that it’s got my whole family fighting over who gets to use it. It’s not cheap at $129.99 (though it’s currently discounted to less than $100), but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more capable fan for less.
Like many, I still associate SwitchBot with those button-pushing robots. But that’s a disservice to a company that’s branched out into everything from robovacs to doorbells and smart locks. The Standing Circulator Fan is just the latest smart home device in a burgeoning portfolio that now includes Nanoleaf’s lighting gear.
The fan head quickly attaches directly to the battery-powered base to create a desktop fan. You can also screw one or two vertical segments in-between to create a standing fan up to 100cm (39.4in) tall. Assembly takes seconds.
Here it is with both vertical segments assembled to create a 100cm (39.4in) standing fan that can oscillate all around this bedroom. The battery in the base can last through the night.
Turning it on produces a respectable amount of airflow for a relatively small unit — up to 9.15 cubic meters per minute (about 323 CFM), wind speeds of 6.1m/s (about 20ft/s), and an airflow distance of 27m (about 89 feet), according to the spec sheet — and it can oscillate up to 90 degrees horizontally and 100 degrees vertically. That makes it a medium-duty fan suitable for a bedroom or home office, but it’ll struggle to circulate air in a large living room.
It’s very quiet thanks to its DC brushless motor and fan blade design. When standing about one meter away, I measured 50dB when running at max speed, and a whisper quiet 28dB on the barely audible “Baby” preset I typically use at night.
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