****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
A power outage in the height of Texas summer is just about the worst thing that can happen. During one that lasted several hours, I ended up driving across town and taking my elderly dog shopping, just to get her inside somewhere that had a/c. More recently, we've had some short power outages, lasting maybe an hour each. Still, that's enough time for my apartment to go from slightly-warmer-than-I'd-like to my-living-room-is-a-burning-hell. Looking for a back-up plan, I decided to see if battery operated fans were even a thing, and that's when I found this O2Cool fan. I was a little nervous about buying it, since a few reviewers said theirs didn't work or didn't last, but a few reviews from hurricane areas had me wanting to give it a try. So I ordered one and crossed my fingers.TL;DR: Awesome fan, works great!First off, I like the size and design. This isn't one of those tiny palm-sized USB fans; it's about a foot wide in total, with a 10" span inside for the actual fan blades. It's slightly taller than it is wide, but it's depth is pretty compact. The vented cover is sized just right for me to not accidentally slip a finger inside when I pick it up, though it does have a carrying handle if you want to play it really safe. It does come with an A/C adapter, which I guess is nice, but I don't really need. Then again, it may come in handy if one of my two regular fans goes out and I need a temporary replacement.It's kind of a battery hog in that it needs 6 D-batteries to run, but honestly, I think that's a good thing. Any less, and it'd be a much smaller, weaker fan that wouldn't last any time at all. I haven't had occasion to run it for hours and hours and hours, but according to other customers, it lasts 9+ hours on high and even longer on low. I think that will be plenty to get me through the next power outage. And about those low and high speeds... This thing has great air flow. I wouldn't want to set it up 10 feet away from me, but since it's not tied to a cord or outlet, that won't be a problem. On low speed, there's plenty of air flow, and on high speed, it's awesome. It's slightly less powerful than the 22" corded turbo fans I use on a daily basis.All in all, I'd say this is an awesome buy. I was impressed enough with the first one that I immediately ordered a second, and both work very well with both the A/C adapter and batteries. I'm stocked up on D batteries now, too, so it looks like I'm set to ride out the next power outage in comfort!Update 12/1/2108: I bought two of these fans to get me through a power outage, which hasn't happened yet. But a few weeks ago, my apartment's a/c went out in the middle of the night, and the two fans I brought into the bedroom just weren't enough. I ended up grabbing one of these battery operated fans, intending to use the included A/C cord, and set it up on my nightstand. But in my sleepy, overheated stupor, I turned it on and quickly fell asleep -- forgetting to plug it in. Six hours later, I woke up and called maintenance, and they had my a/c fixed fast. Then I went to unplug and put away this fan, only to realize I'd left it running on high for 6 hours on nothing but battery power! So yes, I can now say without a doubt that these little fans run great for at least several hours.Update: Here I am. Power outage. Texas. Summer. While my neighbors sit in their doorways trying to catch a weak breeze, my dog and I are comfortably lounging on the sofa, a fan trained on each of us, while she sleeps and I read my Kindle. This is EXACTLY the scenario I wanted to be prepared for, and these fans are everything I'd hoped for!
