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The best desk fans of 2019 Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

The Best Desk Fans of 2024

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The best desk fans of 2019 Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

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Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.

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Editor's Choice Product image of Vornado Pivot Personal Air Circulator
Best Overall

Vornado Pivot Personal Air Circulator

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The Vornado fan offers what most are looking for in desk fans, with three speeds, ranging from powerful to moderate. Read More

Pros

  • Three speeds
  • Affordable

Cons

  • None that we could find
2
Editor's Choice Product image of Iris Woozoo SC15

Iris Woozoo SC15

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The Iris Woozoo fan not only has five different speed settings, it has a breeze mode. A bonus: It comes with a remote. Read More

Pros

  • Good powerful airflow
  • Breeze feature
  • Remote control

Cons

  • Most settings are fairly noisy
  • Less portable than other desk fans
3
Product image of TTKTK Desk Fan

TTKTK Desk Fan

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Although it may not look it, this fan puts out an impressive amount of power and volume. It comes with adjustable speed levels and angles. Read More

Pros

  • High speed
  • Adjustable angle

Cons

  • Cheap components
  • Loud
4
Product image of EasyAcc Desk Mini Fan

EasyAcc Desk Mini Fan

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This fan's flat design makes it small, lightweight, and portable, without sacrificing power. Its dial can be set freely, offering a range of speeds. Read More

Pros

  • Small
  • Portable
  • Powerful

Cons

  • No wall adapter
5
Product image of Lasko 4916 Wind Tower Fan

Lasko 4916 Wind Tower Fan

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This tower fan is designed to be twistable and oscillating, making it best for multiple users. It generates impressive power and lots of volume. Read More

Pros

  • Adjustable
  • Oscillating
  • Powerful

Cons

  • Loud
  • Best Overall Vornado Pivot Personal Air Circulator
  • Other Desk Fans We Tested
  • How We Test Desk Fans
  • What You Should Consider Before Buying A Desk Fan
  • More Articles You Might Enjoy

Your desktop fan can be a constant workday companion, or provide you with white noise and a comfortable breeze as you fall asleep. But whether you want a desk fan for your home or your office, finding the perfect one can be tough.

We brought a range of top fans into our labs for testing, and found that the Vornado Pivot Personal Air Circulator (available at Amazon for $19.88) is the best overall desk fan, offering the perfect mixture of wind speed, quiet operation, variable settings, and aesthetics. While it is our favorite overall, there are a lot of great picks on this list you may like even better.

The Vornado Pivot sitting on an office desk.
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

The Vornado Pivot was the best overall desk fan, with a small footprint and settings that offer a good mix of strong breeze and quiet operation

Best Overall
Vornado Pivot Personal Air Circulator
  • Dimensions: 5.1 x 5.8 x 6 inches (depth x width x height)
  • Speeds: 3

It should come as no surprise that Vornado’s small desk fan blows away its competition, since the company also topped our review of full-size fans.

The Pivot Personal Air Circulator manages to check all the boxes of what makes a personal fan great. This fan is powerful—its top setting creates the strongest breeze of the bunch, and when you need to keep noise to a minimum, its two lower settings are each appropriate for an open-office environment.

At around $20, the Pivot offers a lot of power for its price.The Pivot also comes with Vornado’s five-year warranty—a process that online reviewers claim is straightforward and easy to complete.

Pros

  • Three speeds

  • Affordable

Cons

  • None that we could find

$19.88 from Amazon

$24.99 from Walmart

Other Desk Fans We Tested

Product image of Iris Woozoo SC15
Iris Woozoo SC15
  • Dimensions: 8.27 x 8.27 x 11.42 inches (depth x width x height)
  • Speeds: 5

The Iris USA Woozoo SC15 globe fan isn’t the quietest fan on this list, but it does offer a great range of functionality. In addition to its five different speed settings, timed mode, and oscillation, it also has a breeze mode, which attempts to mimic a natural pattern of wind by smoothly cycling through different speed settings. Whether this mode is serenely calming or distracting is up to the user, but we like its inclusion as an option regardless.

Unlike many other desk fans, this one comes with a remote control. The remote has a nice layout with clear labeling and responsive buttons for all of the fan’s functions. While it oscillates, we did not find that the side to side movement in desk fans is particularly meaningful. Still, its small footprint and high power make it an excellent addition to any desk.

Pros

  • Good powerful airflow

  • Breeze feature

  • Remote control

Cons

  • Most settings are fairly noisy

  • Less portable than other desk fans

$74.99 from Amazon

$69.89 from Walmart
Product image of TTKTK Desk Fan
TTKTK Desk Fan
  • Dimensions: 5.71 x 7.09 x 6.3 inches (depth x width x height)
  • Speeds: 3

The TTKTK Desk Fan surprised us. Looking at its wood-patterned plastic exterior, a mix of cheap and decent-looking components, and a dial with six positions yet only three different speeds, we thought this would be a dud.

However, it produced impressive wind speed. It also creates a lot of noise, but its lower speeds offer a better breeze-to-noise ratio for office settings. We also like its vertical adjustability, which allows you to angle it appropriately wherever you set it.

Pros

  • High speed

  • Adjustable angle

Cons

  • Cheap components

  • Loud

Buy now at Amazon
Product image of EasyAcc Desk Mini Fan
EasyAcc Desk Mini Fan
  • Dimensions: 5.6 x 8 x 1.7 inches (foldable) (depth x width x height)
  • Speeds: Controlled by dimmer switch

We were surprised at the wind speed we measured from this incredibly lightweight, battery-powered fan. At its highest speed, it competed with our top performers, while its lowest settings provided decent wind without much noise.

Aside from its flat form factor and battery-powered portability, the EasyAcc Desk Fan is notable for being the most customizable—its dial operates like a dimmer switch, allowing you to finely adjust its speed.

Pros

  • Small

  • Portable

  • Powerful

Cons

  • No wall adapter

Buy now at Amazon
Product image of Lasko 4916 Wind Tower Fan
Lasko 4916 Wind Tower Fan
  • Dimensions: 6 x 6 x 14 inches (depth x width x height)
  • Speeds: 3

The Lasko Platinum is a small tower fan with an interesting design, full of curves and asymmetry. You can twist the top and bottom halves independently to help share the breeze with a friend, and it can oscillate to cover an even wider area.

It has fewer settings than some other fans on this list, but it covers its bases well enough, providing everything from a decently high wind speed to a moderate, quiet breeze. Still, this fan is on the louder side on most settings.

Pros

  • Adjustable

  • Oscillating

  • Powerful

Cons

  • Loud

Buy now at Amazon

$34.92 from Home Depot

$34.99 from Walmart
Product image of Holmes HNF0410A-BM Mini High Velocity Fan
Holmes HNF0410A-BM Mini High Velocity Fan
  • Dimensions: 4.7 x 4.7 x 4.5 inches (depth x width x height)
  • Speeds: 1

This tiny fan doesn’t offer much more than an on/off switch, an adjustable tilt head, and 10 mph winds. We like its design, which looks like a miniature version of an industrial floor fan. It's also quite small—it’s impressive how much wind you get out of its relatively quiet, 4-inch fan blade.

The one downside is that it creates some minor vibrations, possibly enough to rattle a coffee mug full of pens. Otherwise, this is a small, simple, inexpensive desk fan that will likely meet most people’s needs.

Pros

  • Small

  • Powerful

  • Affordable

Cons

  • Creates vibrations

$19.06 from Amazon

$19.06 from Walmart
Product image of Honeywell HTF210B QuietSet Mini Tower Table Fan
Honeywell HTF210B QuietSet Mini Tower Table Fan
  • Dimensions: 4.72 x 4.72 x 12.99 inches (depth x width x height)
  • Speeds: 4

Right out of the box, we were confused about this fan. It features a tower design with a single, small fan centered vertically inside. There’s quite a lot of space between the controls, the fan, and the top, leaving us wondering why it’s so tall.

This fan didn’t put up a particularly impressive performance. It seems to be aimed at consumers who want a quiet desk fan with plenty of options, but neither its wind speed nor its quietness impressed us. It does have some features we don’t see on all other models, like a timer mode, but they don’t make up for its lack of performance. There are better fans.

Pros

  • Time mode

Cons

  • Low speeds

  • Loud

  • Odd design

$32.69 from Amazon

$32.69 from Walmart

How We Test Desk Fans

The Tester

Hello! I'm Mark Brezinski, and I've been testing and reviewing consumer tech for over a decade. At Reviewed, I’ve developed testing for dozens of different categories, from smart phones to headphones and more.

The Tests

Desk fans may be smaller, but we put them through the same rigorous testing in our labs as floor fans and tower fans. In a closed-off testing area, we measure wind speeds produced by the fans at seven different points to calculate the volume of air being moved.

While a fan’s ability to create a cooling breeze is its primary function, we also tested other aspects of each fan’s performance, including noise level, energy efficiency, and ease of use.

What You Should Consider Before Buying A Desk Fan

Size

Desk fans and table fans are designed to take up less space, but they come in a variety of sizes. The fans we tested ranged from tiny—less than 5 inches tall and about as wide and deep—to more formidable options. If you plan on using the fan on your desk, make sure you still have space for everything else you need.

Noise output

Desk fans may be small in size, but they can create a lot of noise, which could be a problem in an office setting. Look for something that isn’t so loud that it will annoy coworkers. Also, look for a fan quiet enough that you don’t have to turn it off while you make phone calls or participate in Zoom meetings.

Speed settings

The more settings a desk fan has, the more customizable the airflow. A fan with more than just low and high settings will allow you to better pick the breeze level that you desire. Also, a fan on its highest setting might be too loud for an office, but the best desk fans can still create plenty of air movement at lower speeds, which typically come with less noise too.

Meet the tester

Mark Brezinski

Mark Brezinski

Senior Writer

@markbrezinski

Mark Brezinski works on the Home Team, reviewing refrigerators, minifridges, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers, and fans.

See all of Mark Brezinski's reviews

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