VonHaus 2500956 40in Tower Fan review: Big on airflow, big on value

The VonHaus 2500956 40in Tower Fan is a budget tower fan that’s anything but basic, with enough size and power to handle larger spaces, and a surprisingly decent set of features for the money. Like most tower fans, its compact footprint makes it an easy fit in many rooms, and its white and black design even looks relatively stylish.

All the same, many cheaper tower fans struggle when it comes to actual performance, not to mention build quality and noise. Is the 2500956 a cut above the average, or does it fail to make the grade? I’ve been testing it over a warm week in July, and here’s my verdict.

VonHaus 2500956 40in Tower Fan review: What do you get for the money? 

The VonHaus 2500956 has a list price of £70 but was available for just £45 at the time of writing. That outlay gets you a 40in/1.01m tall tower fan based on a 40W DC motor, designed for rooms of up to 15m² in size. It sits on a two-part base that’s 31cm in diameter, with touch controls on the front panel below a monochrome LED display. Power comes through a captive 1.45m cable, and the fan is bundled with a basic credit-card-sized remote control.

At a distance it does a good impression of a premium tower fan, but up close the ABS plastics don’t feel particularly solid or expensive, and there’s some wobble as it oscillates left and right or when you tap on the touch controls. Still, that’s hardly unusual for a tower fan at this price point.

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VonHaus 2500956 40in Tower Fan review: What features and settings does it have? 

The fan has eight speed settings, along with a Sleep mode and a Natural mode. The latter shifts between weak, medium and strong air speeds to mimic the feel of a natural breeze, and you can adjust it to one of three speed settings for comfort. Personally, I’d stick to the lowest setting, as the abrupt switch from a medium-strength draft to a mighty gust can be disconcerting on the higher settings.

Sleep mode, meanwhile, is a little odd. With most tower fans, this mode dims any displays and indicators, then starts at a medium-to-high speed setting that steadily drops lower over a couple of hours. VonHaus’s implementation works more like the natural mode, cycling between weak, medium and strong speeds. Again, I found that abrupt shifts in speed didn’t do much to help me drop off. In fact, they sometimes nudged me awake when snoozing lightly.

As the display dims automatically even in the standard mode, you’re better off just switching the fan to a slow speed and setting the off timer if you want to sleep.

While we’re on the subject, the timer works to turn the fan on in 1-8 hours’ time, if activated while the fan is off, or vice versa if activated while the fan is on. If you want more detailed on/off scheduling options, you’ll need a more expensive and feature-rich cooler.

VonHaus 2500956 40in Tower Fan review: How well does it perform? 

Even some quite expensive tower fans struggle to deliver an effective airflow, but this is one area where the VonHaus delivers the goods. I measured maximum air speeds from a 1m distance at 3.1m/sec, putting the 2500956 close in performance to some of the best tower fans I’ve tested, including the Levoit 36-inch Tower Fan. And while it’s fairly noisy at that setting, dishing out 45.6dBA, switching down to a medium speed setting drops the noise level to 39.5dB while maintaining a respectable 1.6m/sec wind speed.

At the lower settings you can go even quieter – on the slowest fan speed, I measured noise levels of just 29.2dB. However, there was very little air flow, with air speeds of only 1.2m/sec from one metre away.

Running costs are higher than for some tower fans, but still comparatively frugal. We’re talking around 36.6W at maximum power or 15.2W on the lowest speed; less than the Princess Smart Compact Tower Fan and the Levoit 36-inch Tower Fan, but more than the John Lewis 42-inch Tower Fan and the Ansio 1052.

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VonHaus 2500956 40in Tower Fan review: Is there anything we didn’t like?

Apart from the wobble and the flawed Sleep and Natural modes, my only real complaint is the limited 45-degree oscillation, which restricts the area that the fan can cover. It’s a better fan if you want airflow for a bed or sofa than for spreading it around a living room.

VonHaus 2500956 40in Tower Fan review: Should you buy it? 

I’d definitely consider it if you’re in the market for a budget tower fan. Even if its modes aren’t actually that useful, the VonHaus is a step up in performance from most other budget tower fans, while also running quieter at its lower speed settings.

You’ll need to head further up the price scale if you want premium materials and features, but VonHaus’s 40-incher gives you plenty of airflow at a very affordable price.