Much of the UK is now in an official heatwave. On Monday, Kew Gardens recorded 34.8C, beating the previous May record by two full degrees. Last night was the hottest May night on record, and my bedroom feels like the inside of a parked car in July.
My Dyson Purifying Fan was doing its best. But the noise (the constant low-frequency hum) drives me insane overnight. I couldn’t concentrate at my desk, and I definitely couldn’t sleep. So when the MeacoFan Sefte Pro 10″ showed up, I didn’t have especially high hopes.
After all, it’s a fan. A regular, bladed, old-fashioned fan. It doesn’t spray a mist of cooling water like Shark fans, it won’t project an “air blanket”, and it doesn’t have a futuristic bladeless ring like the Dyson. It’s literally just a fan. But it’s a very, very good one…
The thing that changed the game for me during the heat wave was the battery. The Sefte Pro runs cordlessly for up to 40 hours on a single charge, and I found myself doing something I’ve never done with a fan before: taking it around the house with me.
During the day, it sat in the corner of my home office. At night, I picked it up, carried it to the bedroom, and set by the door. I didn’t need to unplug it, and there is no cable trailing across the floor to trip over in the dark. Just grab it and go.
This sounds like a small thing, but I found having a large fan that can follow you around the house is genuinely more useful than having two static fans tethered to the wall.
The Sefte Pro is also really quiet. At its lowest settings, it runs from 25dB, and I find the sound of a traditional fan much more soothing than air multiplier fans.
The Sefte Pro has 12 speeds, an ECO mode, and a Night mode designed for sleeping (which turns the little LED display off).
The airflow control is pretty impressive as well. Meaco calls it ‘Air Beam Precision’, which is a slightly grand name for what is essentially very good oscillation. You get six ranges of both vertical and horizontal oscillation, so you can point it exactly where you want.
I have it oscillating both horizontally and vertically (in a wave pattern), which moved air around the room without blasting a cold jet at anyone’s face all night.
The Sefte Pro can connect to the Meaco app, and you can also use Google Assistant or Alexa to control it. I’ll be honest, I haven’t used these (a fan is one of the last things that needs an app, in my opinion). If do want to use it, however, you can adjust the direction or speed from your phone while lying in bed, without having to get up and fiddle with a remote.
There is a physical remote too, which I find much more useful, and attaches magnetically to the centre of the fan.
One more thing worth mentioning: the battery is replaceable. Anyone who’s owned a cordless fan or any battery-powered appliance knows the disappointed feeling when the battery starts degrading after a couple of years. Meaco has designed this one so you can swap the battery out, which is both better for your wallet and better for the planet. The three-year warranty adds to that peace of mind.
The table version starts at £119.99 (approx. US$160, not available in the US), with the pedestal coming in at £199.99 (approx. US$270, not available in the US), which, let’s be honest, is expensive for a fan, but, by the end of the heatwave I had genuinely started pricing up getting a second one for my child’s room.
If you want something that moves air around your home quietly, flexibly, and without making you want to throw it out a window, this is a great option.
Liked this? I tracked my stress levels when driving a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, and the results were very surprising
Read the full article here
