Rowenta VU5550 Turbo Silence Oscillating Standing Fan - 4 Speed Adjustable with Remote Control - Quiet Cooling for Bedroom, Office & Home Use

Very quiet fan on the lowest settings. Price may be more than some are willing to spend. I deducted one star for three reasons. First, although well-built in my opinion and easy to assemble, I should think the Rowenta table fan should be around fifty or sixty bucks and this floor fan around eighty or ninety-ish. However, after having read the reviews and having had personal experience with the usual cheap floor fans on discount, I decided to spend more and hope for better results.Quiet is very important to me, so much so when I built my computer, I used ultra-quiet components and sound-insulated the case. I hate loud fans. For example, I have an older model Vornado circulator fan (280SS, which isn't made any more...a real shame), bought back when they still had the (almost) infinitely variable speed dial; it's a good fan, has lasted forever, and I like how much air it can move, but I don't like how noisy it is. In this respect, the Rowenta is clearly the most quiet I've owned, particularly on the lowest two speed settings. On the highest or on Turbo-mode, yes, it's going to be loud, but that's to be expected.The second reason I deducted a star is because the assembly instructions were very difficult to locate. I finally found them wedged between the two halves of the wire fan-cage, which was in a semi-opaque plastic bag which made the instructions even less obvious to find. The assembly instructions should be the first thing you see when you open the box.A remaining reason for the one star deduction was their not bothering to include a couple of AAA batteries for the remote. C'mon, a fan like this at a premium price ought to come with the batteries.Pros:- Well-packaged and arrived undamaged -- product box inside another sturdy brown cardboard box (probably would've sufficed for shipping, but Amazon went ahead and put this inside yet another box, along with a couple other items I'd ordered).- Really heavy and sturdy pancake-shaped base, unlikely for the fan to tip over unless you plow into it.- Good construction quality in general, although the fan blades seem flimsy...but I'm sure that's part of what helps make it more quiet than other fans. Other than that though, nothing about the fan looks cheap.- I like the goose-neck design, so that you can see the controls from any angle, even standing at the fan. Too many fans I've owned either put them on the front (meaning you'll have to crouch or bend over to see them) or else on top, in which case you can't see them unless you're looking down right at the fan.- Remote control (alas, the remote doesn't turn the swivel on/off, which would've been really nice).- Significantly less expensive than a Dyson (which, to be honest, I actually found rather loud the last time I checked them out).Cons:- Expensive. A bit more expensive, in my opinion, than the fan is worth, but I needed a quiet, decent quality pedestal fan and there weren't any others which I felt met my needs and required quality standards.- Probably doesn't move as much air as other fans, due to the attempts to make it more quiet.- For obvious reasons, I wouldn't recommend this or any other pedestal fan for homes with small children or large unruly pets, although in terms of being 'tippy', this fan is far less so than most.- Some might not like the beep the fan makes when changing settings, and there's a blue LED which could bother some (but this latter could be taken care of with some electrical tape easily enough, or even just some colored plastic).Observations & hints:- Ultra-quiet on the lowest setting (just the air movement and a little bit of a hum), pretty quiet on the 2nd (louder whoosh, and the sound I refer to as 'plane prop' just barely evident). Significantly louder at high and turbo, but not quite as noisy as most fans I've heard; still I doubt I'll be using those settings often, except maybe for a minute or two if I need an urgent cool-down after working outside.- To maximize the quietness, don't put the fan too near objects or walls which can interfere with the airflow (thus making it uneven because turbulence = noise). Also, it's not going to seem super quiet if you're right up next to it. Halfway across a room though, on low, I can barely hear it; the refrigerator is actually significantly louder.- The fan base does not have wheels, meaning it's not really intended to be portable. It sits flat on the floor on three rubber feet, under the heavy circular base. If on a hardwood or fancy stone floor, I'd recommend putting a rug or something like that under it to avoid marks or scratching due to the fan vibration.- The instructions say not to engage/disengage the swivel motion while the fan is on. Makes sense. Also makes sense never to try to move the fan or adjust the fan positioning while it is running. That's just asking for trouble. My suggestion is if planning to move the fan to another room would be to (1) unplug the fan, (2) loosen the knob attaching the fan head and assembly to the base and remove it entirely, (3) carry the base and fan head ass'y to the other room separately, and (4) reassemble in place, then plug it in.- The knob that holds the fan blade assembly to the motor shaft is reverse threaded (meaning lefty-tighty, righty-loosey, opposite the normal directions). Just something to keep in mind when assembling or disassembling the unit.Summary: If you want a good quality and nice-looking pedestal fan, one which is really rather quiet compared to its competitors, the Rowenta VU5551 is a good choice. On the other hand, if quiet isn't important to you and you want to save some money, some of the less expensive fans may suit better, but the 'you get what you pay for' maxim comes into play.First off, my friends know me as the "Crazy Fan Lady". I need to sleep with a fan and have a very narrow threshold of temperatures I can deal with. Living in Seattle, we have no air-conditioning and considering that we live in a townhouse, the upstairs gets extremely warm as the internal air-circulation is really poor. I have tried all kinds and all brands of fans and currently own three Vornados (including the 660) and the Lasko 20" Cyclone Fan. I've had fans cheap and expensive, box fans, table fans, pedestal fans and clip-on fans. The problem with most fans I've come across is two-fold: (a) They're usually pretty damn loud (b) They don't move enough air if it's not pointed directly at you.While I love the Vornado 660, I don't think it's quiet powerful enough for a 15 x 15 living room. Also, I need to put it on a stool so that it sits by the sliding door and pulls air in. I wanted a stand-alone pedestal fan that looked nice, wasn't loud (I mean, who can play video games with the sound of wind blowing in their ears; how would you ever detect the Clickers from the Last of Us?) and could blow up a storm for those especially hot days that are becoming the norm. Initially I wanted one of those vintage-y Hunter fans, but I read that they were loud and didn't really generate or circulate much air. The Rowenta was my second choice and though INSANELY over-priced (for which I docked a star), I think it was a really good buy. It's definitely very quiet on the first and second setting. The third and turbo setting gets pretty loud but not as terrible as the Lasko Cyclone and is comparable to the Vornado 660 at the highest speed. The fan is definitely more powerful than the Vornado 660 in terms of air circulation - if I place the Rowenta in front of the sliding door pointing inwards and have another fan at the end of the room redirecting the air outwards, the room gets cool pretty fast. I think the trick is the five really thin blades that seem to just slice through air and spit it out. The one other gripe I have though is that the color is actually a dark brown and not the nice silvery color shown in the picture. I'm not docking another star though, mainly because it blends in nicely with my wood furniture but it is pretty misleading. The fan otherwise has a very sleek modern look to it, and the base is EXTREMELY heavy, so it means no rickety squeaky sounds even on carpet.All in all, a really good purchase, lives up to it's Shhh-Silence name and produces good circulation.UPDATE (17 September 2013)Two months in, and I've finally concluded that this is the best fan EVER. It beats the Vornado 660 hands down in terms of silence and air circulation. I am not generally a lazy person, but I also just realized that the remote control is really useful for times when you're sitting on the couch watching a movie and suddenly it gets too cold and you don't realize that it's because there's a fan blowing because it's so quiet! I've used it almost everyday throughout summer - it doesn't get too hot in Seattle but for the days when it was about 90 degrees, the fan on the highest (not turbo) setting did a great job keeping the temperatures comfortable and did not create a sound any louder than a low hum.UPDATE (17 May 2014)The fan still going strong. I love being able to remove the grill and the blades and just running it under the tap to get it clean. I've noticed that when the blades on any fan gets gunky, performance is slowed down and you don't get as much wind power. Haven't been able to do that with my three other Vornados (didn't I say I'm the crazy fan lady?) Everyone that comes over to the house wants to know where I bought the fan, so at least we know it looks good.UPDATE (7 Oct. 2017)The fan has been going strong for 4 summers. I haven't encountered any of the rusting issues that other reviewers have even though I've washed the grills multiple times. I wonder if it's an issue of humidity/salinity. Seattle has pretty dry summers so we've managed to escape the humidity monster unscathed. I love this fan every bit as much as when I first got it, so much so that I bought the table version of this my baby's room.We used this fan in the spring/summer months, so basically 9-12 months of use in 3 years. It just stopped, I changed the fuse in the plug but that didn't work.I liked the fan, I paid $100 3 years ago, nice & quiet, too bad it isn't still working.This is by far one of the best fans I have ever purchased. Yes, it’s pricier than a lot of other brands but you pay for quality. It assembles in a couple of minutes (tip - go watch manufacturer’s setup video on YouTube). I love how the fan is quiet and how it oscillates to cover a wide area. You can also adjust the stand height. It also comes with a remote but I don’t use it, prefer using the controls built into the stand. Well worth the investment.Note - on Amazon there seems to be two different prices for the grey vs bronze color. Grey is listed slightly cheaper and it’s what I purchased however I was sent bronze. To me, the color makes no difference.I like to clean my fan blade every few weeks and taking the housing apart to remove the grills is so difficult. On the good old cheap fans you simply flip the clips up and super easy to take apart, whereas on this fan, you have to undue a tine screw with washer at the bottom of a plastic ring that wraps around grills holding them together. Talk about finicky and difficult. As soon as you unscrew it the tiny little washer falls off, the plastic ring falls off and the front grill falls off; now..........try putting it back together - I spent 20 minutes trying to get it back together - terrible and difficult to do. As far as the silent setting - yes, of course it is silent due to very low blowing air flow that you can barely feel (you have to be right beside it to feel any air)any fan would be silent with such a low setting. The only difference is that the cheaper fans only have 2 settings, not low enough for complete silence. As far as the turbo goes - I don't know why it is referred to as a turbo fan because I had a turbo fan and this one, in my opinion is not a turbo fan (on the turbo setting it is no different than another fans high setting). All-in-all this is a really overpriced fan and personally I prefer my cheap fansSolid fan, it's worth spending a bit more on an item like this, it will pay you back. Assembly requires at least a screwdriver, but is done quickly. Instructions are for multiple models, and not straight forward, although the handy person can easily figure it out. Deducting one star for not being able to control the oscillating function via remote, one would expect that in this price category. As well as the rather bulky remote, for the three buttons it has. Finally, it seems to be hard to find out the power consumption for units like this, I believe this is 70W, not bad especially if you are looking to use the AC a little less.I bought this fan four months a go it is the best fan I have ever had. It movies a lot of air quietly you can hardly hear it working . It is very well made heavy duty and quiet on sale for $140 is a great price . Some might say it's too much money but as far as I am concererned it's a great deal so I bought a second oneI would highly recommend this fan . If you are picky the only thing it needs is a spot to hold the remote on the fan so you don't lose the remote but that's not a big deal other than that it is perfect and the turbo move a lot of air while not making almost no noise can't say enough good things about this fan. Buy one today you will not be disappointed . Five star for sure.Good quality. There is a screw at the bottom of the grill which is an eyesore. I don't understand why it is there? It could have been easily hidden/ recessed so as to increase the look of the fan! Overall the fan is excellent but a bit pricey. The remote should have had a option to turn the rotation on and off. The base is solid and sturdy and the overall finish of the product is excellent (except the eyesore screw assembly at the bottom of the grill)