Annie
3rd Jun 2025
Reading Time: 5 minutes
We know how tough it can be to keep cool on a budget when the heat rises. That’s why we’ve been busy testing a range of fans to find the best ones for each type of scenario to ensure you stay cool through the summer.
An electric fan costs between 2p – 12p on average per hour to run, which is far cheaper than other options such as portable air conditioning units. It’s worth spending a little more on a fan if you can, for added benefits like silent operation, timers, and eco modes to cut unnecessary operation time and save on bills long-term.
Best Fan for Prams, Cars and Awkward Spaces
Sleeping on hot summer days can be a chore when you’ve got a noisy fan blasting air at you. That’s why the Levoit Silent Tower Fan is incredibly quiet and lives up to its silent promise at lower levels. Even at mid-range operation (which is probably too strong to sleep in anyway – it’s powerful!), the noise is very quiet.
The fan has a wide rotation angle, with various settings, to ensure full cooling of the room – with up to 50m square coverage. Choose from a timer option to ensure it doesn’t run all night, while the customisable advanced sleep mode option means the fan will only operate when the room is above a certain temperature.
You can choose from a basic or smart model, depending on whether you want to integrate with an Alexa device for remote operation. Both come with a remote control, so you don’t need to get out of bed to change the settings. The smart version can also be operated from an app, meaning you can switch it on before you get home to cool your room, or off if you forget before you go out.
Lidl’s Silvercrest Bladeless Fan is back for the summer. Between 1st – 7th June, it’s also on offer at £54.99 for Lidl Plus members. This is a dupe of the much coveted, very expensive Dyson bladeless fan – and it stands up to its competitor well.
What makes this great for year-round use is that it has both cooling and heating options. So, in winter, you can quickly heat a room with a blast of warm air and in summer you can cool it down with cold. The bladeless operation makes it very safe to have around children and pets, and there is a colour-changing light in the base which provides some mood lighting if you want it.
With up to 20 speeds, a timer for auto-shutoff, and eco mode, it offers a lot of great functions of its high-price tag rival. The only trouble is, it’s hard to get hold of when it’s not in the middle of Lidl – so be quick and grab yours before it goes out of stock. (You can often find them on eBay or resale websites, but beware that warranties are not guaranteed and people often hike the price to make a profit).
Another Levoit one made our list of best fans, proving their quality. We particularly like the Quiet Pedestal Fan because it’s almost silent at lower levels, which is perfect if you need a desk fan with a gentle breeze on your face rather than a full-room cooling blast. It will, however, very easily cope with that large space requirement if you have to share it – and the choice of a short desk height or floor-standing height makes it very versatile for any space.
There are lots of options to customise it just how you like, from a timer to make sure it turns off after your chosen time, to a Turbo mode for rapid cooling. In fact, in can cool an entire, stuffy room in just one minute flat. Our tester tried this mode, with full oscilation, in a large room – and was very impressed. The fan automatically moved both horizontally and vertically, with a high fan speed, to ensure rapid cooling.
A remote control makes it easy to adjust from anywhere in the room, with easy to use buttons. You can also operate from the stand itself.
This is a powerful fan in a tiny package. It’s a compact design only six inches across, it’s really quiet except on the top speed (of three), which is to be expected. The USB feature means it’s really easy to charge – and recharge on the go, if you have a powerbank or socket access. But the battery lasts up to 17 hours, so it won’t need to be recharged often.
It folds into its own stand for travel so it fits in most day packs and weekend bags. Our tester used it overnight for a trip to London, including on a stuffy train and in a hotel with ineffective air conditioning – they were glad to have it! It oscillates or can be static, so you can use as your own personal cooling directly on you or, as our tester found, on a table to keep a couple of people cool at the same time.
Best for Prams, Cars, and Awkward Spaces – COZII Clip on Fan (RRP from £12.99)
Keeping your baby cool in summer is a big challenge sometimes. A fan with a clip on it makes it much easier to keep your little one at a reasonable temperature. And if you’re not looking for a pram fan, but need something to keep your car cool, or have no desk space for one in your office cubicle, a clip fan is very versatile. They’re also ideal if you like a fan to sleep to at night but your partner doesn’t, as it’s easy to clip to your bed headboard and angle towards yourself to stay cool.
Our tester has included this fan as they have purchased several over the years for themselves and others. The battery life is impressive, the top speed is gusty (if a smidge loud), and the flat base of the clip means it can also be stood on tables and other surfaces. The wide range of adjustability in the angle also makes it ideal for awkward spaces and corners, as it’s super adjustable. It doesn’t oscillate on its own, so it’s worth knowing this is a static fan that you have to manually adjust (but it’s very easy to do so).