The ever-present SwitchBot fan is worth fighting for

I can’t remember the last time I felt this 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 device. SwitchBot Standing Circular Fan.

As the name indicates, the SwitchBot fan is a 3D rotating device – which is a fancy way of saying that it can tilt up, down, left and right to push the right amount of air around a room. It looks good, despite all the plastic, is relatively quiet, runs for hours on battery, has a built-in nightlight, goes from 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 past month, I’ve been testing the standing circulation fan in a variety of scenarios in temperatures up to 34°C (93°F) and I have to say I’m impressed. It’s so versatile, quiet, and portable that it has my whole family fighting over who gets to use it. It’s not cheap at $129.99 (although it’s currently discounted to under $100), but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more capable fan for less.

Like many, I still associate the SwitchBot with these Robots that push buttons. But that’s a disservice to a company that has branched out into everything from robots to doorbells and smart locks. The Standing Circulator Fan is the latest smart home device in a burgeoning lineup Now includes Nanoleaf lighting equipment.

The fan head quickly attaches directly to the battery-powered base to create a desktop fan. You can also attach one or two vertical sections between them to create a standing fan up to 100cm (39.4in) long. Assembly takes seconds.

Operating it produces a respectable amount of airflow for a relatively small unit — up to 9.15 cubic meters per minute (about 323 feet per minute), a wind speed of 6.1 meters per second (about 20 feet per second), and an airflow distance of 27 meters (about 89 feet), according to the spec sheet — and it can oscillate up to 90 degrees horizontally and 100 degrees vertically. This makes it a medium-duty fan suitable for a bedroom or home office, but it will have difficulty circulating air in a large living room.

It is very quiet thanks to the brushless DC motor and fan blade design. When I was standing about a meter away, I measured 50dB when running at full speed, and a quiet 28dB on the barely audible “Baby” preset that I typically use at night.

The fan can be controlled from the app, via the touch controls built into the base, or using the included remote that magnetically attaches to the back of the fan. It can also be voice controlled through Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri when paired with one of Matter’s compatible SwitchBot hubs. Unfortunately, Matter only lets you turn it on and off, and doesn’t let you adjust any settings, but it’s still useful for automations and scheduled events. “Hey Siri, turn on the perpetual fan,” is something I repeat several times each week.

One of the reasons the SwitchBot is so attractive is its USB-C rechargeable battery. This makes this standing fan usable anywhere, without the need for an AC outlet (but you can always plug it in). It helped keep me cool on the outside porch, for example, on a particularly hot and quiet day.

The battery lasted for 1 hour and 45 minutes with every feature maxed out. This means that the night light is set to bright and the fan is set to high while rotating through its full range of motion. Battery life can be significantly extended by reconnecting to objects. In my testing, it easily lasted through the night when set to child mode and the SwitchBot claims more than four days of continuous operation when the rechargeable base is connected to a standard 10,000 mAh USB-C power bank.

My family of five is equipped with a few $55 Vornado 533 Fans in bedrooms. It’s less than half the list price of this SwitchBot, but it runs noisier despite producing roughly the same airflow. Everyone prefers the sweeping 3D air pattern produced by the ultra-portable SwitchBot. This means more than just a few disagreements over who can use it, especially on warm nights.

For the past few weeks, a fan has found a home at the foot of my bed, where it creates an oscillating air current above my head to distribute the resulting plume of carbon dioxide to my wife and me. It keeps us calm and keeps mosquitoes guessing about our whereabouts. My wife is a magnet for mosquitoes, and so far we have avoided having to break down the netting that would otherwise hang intrusively over our bed.

SwitchBot’s permanent rotating fan Lists for $129.99 but is regularly on sale for under $100. It lacks the heavy-duty air circulation of something like a $149.99 Drew Polivan 704Sbut it packs a punch into a battery-powered unit that is extremely portable, quiet, and highly adaptable and can be integrated into a wide range of smart homes.

All photos by Thomas Riker/The Verge