Levoit Pedestal Air Circulator Fan review: Take the heat out of summer days

When temperatures soar and the mercury rises, you can rely on a pedestal fan to tame the summer heat and make life a little more comfortable. The Levoit Pedestal Air Circulator Fan sees Levoit tackle the premium end of the market, going up against favourites like the Meaco Sefte 10in and the Duux Whisper Flex, though at a slightly lower price.

Like the Whisper Flex, it has a clever two-part design that enables it to double as a full-sized pedestal fan or a shorter floor fan. Like the Meaco Sefte, it promises a huge amount of airflow without making much of a racket. It takes a lot to hold up to such strong competition – so does Levoit’s latest fan prove worthy?

Levoit Pedestal Air Circulator Fan review: What do you get for the money?

The Levoit is a 110cm tall pedestal fan, with a 9in blade capable of pushing air through at speeds of up to 7.5m/sec. It uses an energy-efficient DC motor to keep noise levels low, and offers 90-degrees of horizontal oscillation and 120-degrees of vertical oscillation, giving you plenty of coverage even in larger spaces. It does all this for just £120.

Like the Duux Whisper Flex, the fan head sits on top of a two-part stem, meaning you can use it at its full 110cm height or at a lower 70cm height, where it’s closer to the floor. The fan head comes pre-assembled – not something you can take for granted – and screws into the larger section of the stem, with the touch controls and power input installed.

This then screws into the slimmer, second section, which itself attaches to a heavy circular base. Everything is made from robust, matte white plastics and it all feels very solid once it’s put together, with the head oscillating smoothly upwards and downwards and/or from side to side. It doesn’t feel quite as premium as the Duux Whisper Flex or Whisper Essence, but it’s far from feeling like a budget knock-off.

You’ll find basic controls on a slim panel at the front, which also displays the current speed and, in the Eco mode, temperature. There’s space on the rear of the fan for a magnetically-mounted circular remote control, which gives you full control over mode and oscillation, along with speed up and speed down buttons.

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Levoit Pedestal Air Circulator Fan review: What features and settings does it have?

The Pedestal Air Circulator Fan has 12 speed settings and four modes: Normal, Turbo, Eco and Sleep. Eco mode is really useful, adjusting the fan speed from 1 to 12 depending on the current temperature. It is preset in order to keep noise levels as low as possible, with the 11 and 12 speeds only kicking in once the ambient temperature hits over 30°C. However, you can tweak it manually and from there on, the fan will adjust speed every time the temperature increases or decreases by one degree. Sleep mode does a similar trick, but at lower speed settings and without the display turned on. Turbo, meanwhile, gives a slight speed boost and turns horizontal and vertical oscillation on.

On top of all this, you have adjustable oscillation levels, where you can cycle between 120, 90, 60 and 30 degrees of vertical oscillation and 90, 60 and 30 degrees of horizontal oscillation. There’s also a timer, switching the fan off after one to 12 hours, though there’s no way to set the fan to turn on after a specific period from standby.

Levoit Pedestal Air Circulator Fan review: How well does it perform?

It never reached the fan’s claimed maximum air speed of 7.5m/sec, but at a distance of 1m I measured speeds of 4.6m/sec; the fastest I’ve tested outside Meaco’s superpowered Sefte models. That’s more than enough to whack you with a mighty wind, ruffle magazines and scatter loose paperwork from a desk, and can give you effective cooling from the other side of a large living room. And if you’d rather dial things back a bit, you can have a 3.4m/sec airflow on setting 8 and 3.0m/sec at 6. Even at the lowest settings, you can expect 1.3 to 1.5m/sec.

What’s more, it’s really quiet at those settings putting out 36.3dBA at medium speeds and a whisper-quiet 27.9dBA at the lowest. With the fan on 4, I could hear a slight noise as the blades rotated, but nothing that would disturb my slumber. In fact, ambient noises around the house were easily more noticeable. It’s about as close to silent as fans get.

Finally, Levoit has aced energy efficiency with this one. At full tilt it gobbles 24.4W, but on its lowest setting it uses a 1.7W trickle of power.

Levoit Pedestal Air Circulator Fan review: Is there anything we didn’t like?

What grumbles I have mostly relate to the controls. Firstly, there’s no button to switch mode on the fan itself; you can only do so using the remote control. Secondly, there’s only a single speed button on the panel, so you have to cycle through the 12 available speeds.

I’m also not a huge fan of the remote, which is small, light and easy to lose, with cheap-feeling membrane buttons. It’s alright, but a bit disappointing for a premium model.

Levoit Pedestal Air Circulator Fan review: Should you buy it?

This is a tough market to crack with some extremely strong competition, but the Pedestal Air Circulator Fan is primed to do it. It’s not quite as powerful as Meaco’s mighty Sefte, but it’s powerful enough for most sensible purposes, while being quiet, adjustable and easy to live with.

Sitting with it running on a hot summer day is a pleasant experience. The fan quietly gets on with its job, so I can get on quietly with mine. I’ve also found it handy for bringing cool air in to chill a boiling bedroom and for enjoying a quick snooze on a muggy evening. It’s hard to say whether it’s better or worse than the brilliant Duux Whisper Flex, but it’s definitely a great alternative and it even holds up well on value against Duux’s entry-level Whisper Essence fan. Either way, it’s easy to recommend.