Honey, "All is Not Well"

Background:
My hubby and I bought two Lasko Tower Fans over two years ago when we moved into our apartment. Having moved them around so much from room to room, and then deciding on one in the office and one in the bedroom as their permanent homes, I soon realized we also needed one in the living room.

My hubby ran to Target to get another of the same fan, but did not find this much admired model there. Instead, he returned with the Honeywell Digital Tower Fan with Ionizer.

About Honeywell:
Honeywell is one of the oldest names in home heating and cooling products. Their webpage is located at: www.honeywell.com with product descriptions at www.kaz.com.

About Honeywell Digital Tower Fan with Ionizer:
This Honeywell fan comes in black or white to blend in any room of the house. Our fan is black. It is made of hard plastic, which is platinum in color with a black and silver color grill front.

It has two height settings, which must be decided on before assembly. The first is about 33 inches with just the base and the second is about 40 inches with the pedestal and the base. We decided to use the pedestal to bring the tower up from the floor. It now stands higher than our Lasko fans. The fan is quite thin taking up only 7 inches of space with a base of 11 inches in diameter.

Assembly is relatively easy, but requires you to lay the fan on its side on the floor and use a flat screw driver to connect the two halves of the pedestal and of the base. The pedestal then needs to be attached to the base and the tower. Remote control needs to be unscrewed and batteries (included) added prior to closing case.

The fan is slightly heavy weighing 13 pounds. This may not sound like much, but it is not something you’ll want to drag from room to room on a hot summer’s day.

The cost of this fan is slightly steeper than other tower fans at $64.99 plus tax. The cost is likely due to its added features that set it apart from other fans. These include: a remote control with flashlight, LCD control panel, ionizer-setting, 3-speeds plus a breeze setting, and a programmable thermostat with 12-hour timer.

Experience:

Space:
After assembly, my hubby set this fan up in a corner of our living room; it easily fit in front of a DVD-shelf without blocking view or use of the DVDs.

Remote:
He then handed me the remote so I could play with our new toy. The remote is unusually shaped; my brother describes it as a video-game-controller and it reminds me of a football. I am use to the traditional square or rectangle-shaped remotes, but this one is awkward to hold. The remote must be held in your hand the long way with the shorter-side facing the fan.

- The options on the fan include a Flashlight on the underside, which lights up the buttons so you can see them in the middle of the night.

- Power/Fan speed. This button is a combination of the two. Press it once the fan comes on and starts at speed-3. Press it again and it goes to speed two, then one. Want to switch it back to three; you must first press it to shut it off and then press it again. One really annoying thing about this button is pressing it while aimed at the fan makes a red light flash, but this light does not ensure that the speed has changed. Usually I get up to find out it has not changed. That is right – you cannot see what setting the fan is really on unless you get up and look at the LCD at the top of the fan.

- Next there are two buttons one for Up and one for Down, which controls the temperature at which the Timer will go off. Unfortunately, you must go up to the LCD screen at the top of the fan to see what you are actually setting. On the flip-side, after programming the thermostat timer it does infact work; shutting off when the room reaches a certain time or a certain temperature. Unfortunately, the fan cannot be programmed to turn back on if the room heats up.

- Another button is for Breeze, which makes a wind like breeze, which continually starts and stops.

- The last button is for Oscillate/Ionizer. Every time the fan is shut off these features reset. That means every time you turn it back on you have to push it once for the green light that means the ionizer is turned on and then press it again to restart the oscillating. If you want to stop or start the oscillating or ionizer once the fan is on, you must point the remote right at the front of the fan. If the fan is not pointing directly in your direction, you must get up to change the setting.

The fan has all the same buttons that the remote has with the same shared features per button as the remote.

The worst thing about the fan or the remote is that say you have it oscillating at speed 2 with the ionizer on and the timer set to shut off in several hours. You decide you would rather have it at speed 3 so you must press the button to get it down to 1, then press it to off, then press it to come back on at level 3, then press it to ionize, then press it to oscillate, then get up to look at the LCD and reset the timer to when you want it to shut off.

Overall:
You may be wondering at this point is there anything I like about this fan. This fan is super quiet; even quieter than our Lasko fans. Set up next to the TV, I cannot hear the fan at all on speed 1 or 2. It also provides a nice cool breeze just like our Lasko fans. I can leave the Honeywell at setting 1 to work with the air conditioners to keep our home cool. The thermostat on the fan instantly tells me the temperature in the room (although I already have a thermometer in the room). I also like that it has an Ionizer, which seems to further help my allergies when used in a room that has an air purifier.

However, I already have an ionizer in the room on my air purifier and the Lasko fans are quiet too. For the price, the Honeywell Digital Tower Fan with Ionizer really is not worth your money or mine. After a month of it being in our house, my hubby and I have agreed to return it.

It seems like Honeywell tried to pack too much into this fan and in the wrong way. The remote control is completely useless as I have to continually get up to see the speed, thermostat, or timer setting. The fans controls are equally as difficult to use; having to push far too many buttons to get a simple request done.

One thing that would help this fan is if the up and down buttons were eliminated from the remote (as you have to get up to see the screen anyways). And oscillate and ionizer each had their own button, and if the power and speed each had their own button. This would greatly increase the use of the remote and of the fan controls.

Honeywell needs to work out the kinks before I can recommend this product.

Be Cool with:

Honeywell Tower Fan

Honeywell Window Fan