Travelon 3-Speed Portable Folding Hand Fan - Compact & Lightweight White Personal Fan for Travel, Office, and Outdoor Use - Perfect for Camping, Beach, and Summer Activities

We sometimes attend a crowded party where everyone sits around sweating saying it's so hot but nobody brings a fan. My wife took to bringing a folding accordion fan so I thought, wouldn't a powered fan be better? A bunch of people asked where they could get one when we used them last night. One guy said "What's this?" as he stuck his finger in the blades (duh?) and went ow, but he wasn't really hurt. The blades are clear vinyl - hard enough to push air but soft enough to not cut. I think making the blades clear was not the best design choice because when they're spinning it almost looks like there's nothing there, but you can tell there's _something_ there, which I guess makes people think they should put their finger in to check? My wife actually thought it was one of those bladeless Dyson fans at first glance.Putting the button where it disappears when the fan is folded was not a great idea. It means you have to unfold the fan partly to turn it off or change speeds, which will wear out the hinge faster so eventually it won't stay up. They should have put the button on the other side. Even if you couldn't see it, it's easy to feel.My wife had the problem others describe of the button slipping off to the side if you press it too hard so it can't spring back out again. It's on a spring and if you push it too deep its edge can slip out of the hole it's in, but it doesn't appear the button can slip so far to the side that it gets lost or the spring pops out. If it only slips a little (so you can see more than half the button) it's easy to use a dry finger to pull it back into place with friction. If you don't pull it back into place but just keep pressing it harder, it can slip so far off to the side that it gets jammed in and can't easily be fixed. I'm not actually sure how my wife got it into that state as I wasn't watching, but the button was less than half visible. I pressed the tip of a pocket knife blade into the ring of plastic that runs around the edge of the part of the button you can normally see and pulled as hard as I dared before I figured the tip would break out of the divot it made but the button would not move far. I spent about 15 minutes on it and gave up. When we got home I removed the two screws nearest the button and loosened (about half way) the four screws nearest those two screws. This let the case expand enough that I could press a sharp metal pick into the divot left by my pocket knife and pull the button back into place without too much force. The divot is hidden once the button is back in place. I wondered if I had so much trouble because the button has something like a square hole that has to fit onto a square button and the square hole had rotated out of alignment, but once the button was back in place it actually spun freely until I put the screws back in, so apparently there's no alignment necessary. I still don't understand why my wife keeps pushing the button out of place. I only did it once myself and I had to push unnaturally hard. We exchanged fans but it made no difference so it's just a design flaw in every fan and I'm not sure why some people have a harder time with it than others.I think anyone who says the fan isn't strong enough must have gotten a bad one. On setting 3 it blows air I can feel on a dry face from over 3 feet away, which is enough for night table use. I don't think you can expect much more power from a tiny fan like this because there's only so much air its tiny blades can scoop up. Having it up on your chest as close as possible to the face is enough to keep you cool at setting 1 with maybe a period on setting 2 to start with if you're really overheated. The fan is plenty quiet on setting 1, and even setting 2 or maybe 3 is not intrusive in a room with lots of people talking.The biggest problem I had was a lady's hair got caught in it when I leaned too close behind her to watch a video over her shoulder. Her hair spun around the spindle, at which point the fan would no longer move. I turned it off to avoid straining the motor and pulled some of the hair out with a pocket knife tweezers but mostly it just broke off instead of coming out. At that point it worked on speed 2 and 3 but not 1. Back at home I removed the 4 screws around the fan blade guard ring. This lets you split the ring around the blades in half, but you can't pull it apart completely without taking more of the fan apart. You can separate the top edge (opposite the base of the fan) enough to slide tools in, like a tweezers, and pull the hair. After spending way too much time with tweezers making no noticeable progress, I ran a long box cutter blade back and forth against the hair snarl as I turned the blades. That still wasn't cutting it well so I tried a hacksaw blade, being gentle enough that I wouldn't cut into the thin metal spindle. I think that worked best but it may have been a combination of hacksaw and box cutter that broke the hair up into enough segments to free it. I tried running the fan hoping centrifugal force would fling the hair off, which it did a little, but not much. I had to use a pointy metal pick (like what dentists use to scrape plaque off teeth) to tease the hair out enough that I could grab it with the tweezers, which still took a long time. Long story short - DO NOT GET HAIR NEAR THE FAN or you will face an hour of getting the hair out. I think the fan is more wobbly now that the hair is gone, probably because I was wedging larger tweezers and needle nose pliers in there that were too big for the space until I found smaller tools.I run the fan on Carried this in my purse for the last five years for any unexpected hot flashes or lack of AC. Unfortunately I dropped it on the edge of stone steps and it broke last month. Buying another one ASAP as I can't live without the fan power and adjustable angles. I've tried the USB chargeable fans and they don't compare.UPDATE: 8/6/13 - A WORD OF CAUTION: Be very careful with this fan if you medium to long hair. I was using it outside and a breeze came up and it sucked my hair into the fan. The fan stopped but I could not get my hair out so now I'm missing a section of hair that really shows. I would suggest wearing this lower on your body and putting your hair back in a ponytail if using outside when it's windy. I tried to get the hair out of the fan but could only get a small amount so it quit working. I will get another one but be much more cautious this time! :)***************This little fan really puts out the air! It has three speeds and they all work great at cooling me down. The only slight issue is it is a bit loud when you get to the medium and high settings. It takes 4AA batteries but I haven't used it long enough yet to see how long they last. I have hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) of the face and scalp and the summertime can be brutal for me. I purchased it mainly because I started having hot flashes but I've found another great use for it. I only have an attic fan in my home so it gets pretty hot in here when it's in the upper 90's. Combine that with my excessive sweating and its miserable! As you can imagine after taking a shower its difficult to apply my makeup because my face and scalp are sweating so much. I have a standing fan that I always use but it's not enough. I thought I would hang this around my neck and see if it would help. It worked great! It kept my face and scalp dry so I had no problems applying my makeup in the high heat. I would definitely recommend this to anyone going on a trip to somewhere very warm. Sometimes they only have a single air conditioner in hotels and it doesn't cool off the bathroom area which makes it hard to dry your hair or put on makeup because you're sweating too much. This is a great little fan that I I've already found more uses for than I imagined!It's an amazing little fan for any use! I use my constantly outdoors or if I have a tropical moment in my easy chair. No disappointment here!I bought this to take on holiday, I already have one in the house so I know how good it is. It's handy to have for a very hot country as it's quite powerful, too big to put in a small handbag though but very handy for using during the hot nightsThis is the third one of these I’ve bought. Not because they break bout because I keep giving them away. Brilliant!I have used travelon fan and other products beforebut this time i will say it was waste of my precious money..The fan only rotates litrelly nothing happens no hawa no wind coming out of the product its like a very expensive toy.Si eres un como un horno viviente como yo, este ventilador probablemente es la mejor compra que jamás harás para tu supremo confort personal. Poder traerlo colgado del cuello significa que efectivamente tienes un aire acondicionado a donde sea que vayas.Es ligero y práctico. Puede ajustarse al tamaño del cuello para tenerlo tan cerca como quieras y sus 3 velocidades van de una brisa cómoda a un viento refrescante. Las primeras 2 velocidades son silenciosas pero la tercera ya es más ruidosa, no incomoda pero ruidosa.En verdad es la mejor compra que harás en tu vida si eres de aquellos que se derrite cada canícula con el calor.Great little battery operated fan! It has 3 speeds but the first speed isn't very speedy. It does move if you place it on a table. The blade is also safe and will not cut your fingers. Hanging it around your neck is not awkward at all.