10 Best Oscillating Fans 2024 in the United States

When the weather gets hot, people start to look for ways to stay comfortable. Air conditioning keeps you cool, but it can run up the energy bill. Fans are more economical and environment-friendly. But a fan can’t really remove the heat from a room--unless it works as an exhaust fan, removing hot air from a room to the outside, or causing some sort of cross-ventilation by blowing cooler air from the outside into the house. It can help people in the room feel cooler, by blowing air onto their skin and speeding up evaporation--that makes everyone feel significantly cooler. So you’ll somehow have to feel the air circulating around you for a fan to make you feel cooler.

Oscillating fans, in all their forms, have a setting to swing back and forth, or to be fixed in one location. The principle of all of them is the same, but there still is a wide variety of designs. You'll find tower fans, where a series of louvers move within the fan to produce the oscillating effect. Then there are stand or pedestal fans that have the ability to oscillate. There are also desk or table fans, that sit on a table and desk. And finally, there are wall mount fans, which you attach to a bracket on the wall.

To help you make the right choice, we have put together this buying guide including everything you need to know about oscillating fans to make a good investment. It'll help you:

• Choose the right type of oscillating fan,

• See useful tips about that type of oscillating fan,  

• Read reviews of different brands of oscillating fans, and what customers are saying,

• Select the right brand of oscillating fan, and

• Compare prices and find the best deals.

• Wall-Mount: This is a fan that is usually 12” or 16” in diameter, that attaches to a wall bracket. It has a button that you can press to make it oscillate—or you can pull out the button so that it blows in one direction. A fan placed against the wall or corner will do a better job of cooling off the room than a fan placed in the middle of the room. These types of fans are best where you have limited floor space, but want to utilize the advantages of a fan. For example, the Air King Commercial Grade Oscillating Wall Mount Fan is ideal for workshops, health clubs, stores, classrooms, offices and other areas where there is limited floor or table space.  Note: A wall-mount fan will have two methods of changing the fan speed: they will employ a rotary switch to toggle through the speeds or a pull string. The pull string might be more accessible than the rotary switch.
• Misting Fans: There are oscillating misting fans as well, in both indoors and outdoors types. Besides blowing air at you, they also scatter a spray of water, to cool you off even more. They come in hand-held, table and stand fan varieties.
• Portable Fans: Among the fans that you can move around with you, there are several types and designs. They will have a transport handle to allow you to conveniently move the fan from place to place. You can place such a fan on a table, under your desk or on a shelf.
• Floor fan: This fan has a base to allow it to sit on the floor—but it isn't as tall as a pedestal fan. It typically is tilt-adjustable, with three speeds. These will be best when you don’t have space on a table to place a fan.
• Pedestal fans: The pedestal fan is also placed on the floor, but it has a four-legged base (the “pedestal”) and a telescopic tube to vary the height. The height usually can vary between 15-48 inches. The fan blades are placed on the telescopic tube. They usually have a number of speeds and have a button to allow them to swivel. An example is the Lasko 1850 18" Remote Pedestal Fan.
• Tower fans: These fans are another modification on the blade-less fan design. They also have the motor and fan in the base, and it blows the air vertically. The stream of air is then directed by the fan's shape. Tower fans are tall and slender, which allows you to move them into tight spaces. An example would be the Lasko 2551 42" Wind Curve Platinum Cooling Fan.
• Clip Fan: This type of small fan clips onto a bookshelf or the like, and oscillates back and forth. It's good for cooling off a small area. Some of them, such as the  RoadPro (RP-1137) Oscillating Fan with Clip, can be powered by the 12V cigarette lighter in your car. That is especially handy for cooling off your car quickly on a hot day when you first get into your car until the air conditioning kicks in.
• Desktop/Table Tower Fan:  These sit on your desk, and are typically smaller and quieter. They are only intended for cooling off the people sitting near it, while not disturbing the papers on the desk. They just have two or three speed settings. An example would be the Optimus F-6212 Oscillating Antique Table Fan. These are small, space-saving models (as small as 6” in diameter), that you can pivot manually. When you turn it on, it has a section that oscillates as well, to distribute cool air.

Instead of having the fan blades rotate, some fan designs, like the Lasko Tower Fans, have internal oscillating louvers—they look like Venetian blinds or shutters (like the AC vents in your car). The fan is stationary, but the louvers swing back and forth. This also circulates the air and yet doesn’t take up any more floor space to allow for a set of rotating blades to rotate back and forth.

Based on all the consumers' reviews we've scanned, these are the top things they mentioned about their new stuff:

• Runs on batteries:  Some portable fans, such as clip-on fans, take rechargeable batteries—that makes a fan really portable. But then you'll have to consider how long can you use the fan without having to recharge the batteries.

• Noise: One consideration is the noise that the fan makes when operating. Some people complain that some fans are so loud that they interfere with having a normal conversation. The tower and blade-less fans are known to be the quietest, but it's something to consider in the other models too. For example, the Rowenta VU5551 Turbo Silence Oscillating 16-Inch Stand Fan has a noise level that ranges from 40-57 decibels. Their Rowenta VU2531 Turbo Silence Oscillating 12-Inch Table Fan is even more quiet, with its noise levels ranging from 38 to 55 decibels. This is around the same as the noise level that you’d expect in a public library: it’s “white noise” that is not so loud that it interferes with watching TV or having a conversation.

• Vibrations: Oscillating fans also have a tendency to vibrate. That might not be a big deal for a model that stands on the floor, but it will be important if you have a desk fan. The vibrating will make it hard to do work at your desk.

• Other features:  There are fans with additional features, that are optional:

  • Remote control (which runs on 2 AAA batteries, which is another concern).  The Lasko fans usually have a remote control that can be conveniently stored away in the housing of the fan itself. Their remote control will have buttons for:

    1. Power--turning the fan on or off,

    2. Speed--where you can select the fan's speed,

    3. Ionizer--to operate the ionizer to remove dust from the air,

    4. Timer--to select the amount of time to turn the fan off, and

    5. Oscillation button, which allows the louvers in the tower to vibrate back and forth.

  • Speed settings and digital controls, so that you can program the fan's strength and timing. Most of the portable fans have only three speeds. The speeds are rated in revolutions per minute(= rpm). Some fans can have as many as 10 different speeds!

  • Timer options (you can set the fan to go on for 1, 2, 4, or 8 hours at a time). These allow you to not have the fan on all the time and thereby save electricity. As we mentioned earlier, a fan is not effective in cooling off the room--it only allows you to feel cooler, as you feel the air circulating on your skin. So there’s no point in having the fan blowing if there is no one in the room to benefit from it. Some fans, such as the Lasko 2551 42" Wind Curve Platinum Cooling Fan can turn the fan off for intervals of time ranging from one ½-hour to 7½ hours.

  • Ionizers: There are fans that also function as ionizers. They employ electrostatically charged plates, to produce negatively-charged ions that are released into the air of the room. The negative ions will attract positively charged dust particles, causing the dust to precipitate out of the air. This process can also eliminate certain bacteria and viruses. The Lasko 2551 42" Wind Curve Platinum Cooling Fan has such an option.

  • Dust guard: Over time, a fan may accumulate dust, that will degrade the fan’s performance. The housing of the Hunter 90406 12" Oscillating Desk Fan is specially constructed to be able to repel dust.

• Air circulation: There is a number for quantifying the airflow from a fan. It can be measured in cubic feet per minute, abbreviated CFM. For a room that is 250 square feet in floor area and 8-foot ceilings, the room space would be a total of 2000 cubic feet. A fan with a CFM rating of 670 will be able to cool off the area in 2000/670 = 3 minutes. That is adequate. As an example, the CFM ratings of the  Air King Commercial Grade Oscillating Wall Mount Fan are 1970 for its “High” setting, 1520 for “Medium”, and 1170 for “Low”. So the fan will cool off a 2000 cubic foot area in 1-2 minutes!

• The number of blades:  Fans can have from 3 to 5 blades. The more blades that a fan has, the better it chops and oscillates the air. For example, the Rowenta VU5551 Turbo Silence Oscillating 16-Inch Stand Fan has a propeller that consists of 5 powerful blades. The blades can push air at 1695 cubic feet per minute--so its CFM rating is 1695.

• Energy consumption: Tower and blade-less fans use around 40 W, making them attractive for the conservation-minded.

• The angle of oscillation: Some fans swivel through a 90-degree angle, some through an 180-degree angle, and some even circulate the air full-circle, through 360 degrees! Many table, desk, wall-mount, or pedestal models with a rotating head also allow you to adjust the tilt of the head. This will allow you to optimize the airflow for your needs. The Ozeri Brezza III Dual Oscillating 10” High-Velocity Desk Fan does one better--it can oscillate both right-to- left and up-and-down, to circulate the air in the room in the optimal way possible.  

• The height of fan: A fan that is positioned on the floor should be tall enough to circulate the air in the room properly. For example, the Lasko 2551 Tower Fan stands 42 inches off the floor, allowing it to circulate a wide arc of air. The Lasko 1850 18" Remote Pedestal Fan has a height that can be adjusted to up to 54.5” tall--this also allows it to circulate the air in a large area.

Rowenta: was founded by Robert Weintraud in Offenbach, Germany in 1884 under the name Weintraud & Co. He first started manufacturing office supplies, lamps, and clocks.  In 1909, he shortened the company name to Rowenta. They make all sorts of household appliances: irons, vacuum cleaners, heaters, humidifiers, and fans.​

Ozeri: is a manufacturer of digital lifestyle products for the home and for vacation spots. They have their main office in San Diego, California. They make an assortment of fans, digital photo frames, lighting accessories, and kitchen utensils, as well as health equipment.  ​

Lasko:  was originally called "Lasko Metal Products", and was founded by Mr. Henry Lasko in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  They gradually expanded to household consumer products, such as small appliances, fans, humidifiers, and heaters. Lasko fans include air circulators, blower fans, box fans, desktop and table fans, pedestal fans, tower fans, window fans, and wall mount fans.​

Holmes: are makers of air filters and purifiers, humidifiers, fans, and heaters. Their fans include box fans, outdoor fans, personal fans, power fans, stand fans, table, tower, and window fans.