Table of Contents
Pedestal fan vs Tower fan Overview
Pedestal fans advantages
- Air flow is directional both horizontally and vertically
- Can be purchased as fold away units that can be stored easily.
Pedestal fan disadvantages
- They have a large base so they take up more room than a tower fan.
- Traditional circular fans that are more open and less safe for children.
Tower fan advantages
- Blades are hidden and are very safe even for small children
- Create a larger area of wind because of the length of the fan.
- Smaller and easier to store.
- Lend themselves more to being combined with a heater and an air purifier.
Tower fan disadvantages
- Are not adjustable vertically.
- Do not create as much air flow above the 40 inch height Mark.
A fan is one of those products that doesn’t seem too exciting to go on about really.
Everybody uses a fan from time to time and they are kind of just in the backdrop until you need to turn it on.
But if you haven’t taken any time to look at what’s been going on in the fan world lately,
you may be shocked or at least surprised by the amount of innovation that has been happening out there.
I’m probably just old, but some of these new styles of fans are really cool. Pun intended.
And I might get a little long-winded talking about them. Haha
Pedestal fans
A Pedestal is a word that describes the column that a statue sits on in the art world. It’s also called a plinth. Imagine a bust of George Washington sitting on a Roman style column. That’s a pedestal.
In the fan world, it’s an elongated adjustable stand that gives you the ability to raise a fan up and down vertically.
For instance, a cyclone pedestal fan by Lasko can raise up and down anywhere from 38″ up to 54 and a half inches.
Which is pretty much the norm.
The typical pedestal fan is a circular fan on top of a stand that oscillates 90° horizontally.
And it has the added advantage of being adjustable up and down vertically about 30° so that the fan direction can be targeted even further.
Pedestal fans, because of their adjustability, are very useful and convenient.
But they do have a huge built-in disadvantage in that the larger the fan blade size, the larger the base at the bottom of the pedestal has to be to support the fan.
So naturally they are going to pick up a little more space.
But this is where some of the innovation I was talking about earlier is starting to shine through in the market.
Lately when you think about a pedestal fan, a circular fan on top of a stand with a large circular base is what comes to mind.
But technically as long as there’s a pedestal to place the fan on top of,
You can use a variety of different styles of fans on top of a Stand and still call it a pedestal fan.
For example take a look at the Everdure pedestal fan.
This fan has a look that resembles portable lighting on a Hollywood TV set.
The canister design looks really sharp but it also encloses the blades so that getting your fingers into the fan blades becomes impossible.
Very cool.
It also creates a more slender fan design that uses less space.
Fold away pedestal fan
Another cool innovation in pedestal fans is the ability to fold the fan up and use it as a travel fan.
Tripole is an example of such a fan.
And its fold away position only takes up 12″ x 6.5″.
No more having the fan in the middle of the floor because there is nowhere to put it.
The adjustability on this fan is insane.
It oscillates 70° horizontal and is adjustable 200° vertically. Essentially you can point the fan in any direction from one stationary spot.
This fan is also battery operated (optional). And can run 5 and 1/2 hours on a single charge. Great for camping.
Hybrid Pedestal Fan
Hmm..
What’s the point?
Because of the smaller fan size, you can get about a foot taller than pedestal fans.
Tower fans generally fall in the 40 to 45″ height range. Which means that there’s not much direct cooling going on above that height.
Being able to adjust a tower fan up and down on a stand is actually a very usable feature.
For instance, if you have a very tall bed, a tower fan can be a little too short to blow any air directly on you.
But being able to adjust the height of said fan would make all the difference.
The obvious downside here is that even though it does oscillate horizontally, it can’t be adjusted vertically.
Tower Fans
This is a good spot to switch over and talk about some tower fans.
Tower fans are cylinder looking fans in which the blades are hidden. Because of this fact, there’s very little risk that anyone would ever get their fingers into the fan blades. Even a very small child.
And because even at the base they only come in around 12 in, they take up very little space.
The design of a tower fan lens itself is combined with a heater and as we get into some of the more innovative designs for tower fans, you’ll see that many of them lend themselves to being an excellent air purifier besides.
The blade design on a traditional tower fan (this Lasko, for example) creates more airflow than a pedestal fan. The effect is more of a line of air; the cover has much more space directly in front of the fan than a pedestal fan.
And if there has been some outstanding innovation in the pedestal fan arena,
Innovations in the tower fan category are nothing short of amazing.
Bladeless Tower Fans
Bladeless fans are pretty much the future of tower fans. Since Dyson came out with the Air Multiplier over a decade ago, it has seemed to spark the imagination of what could be done with a tower fan.
This tower fan is a fully working HEPA filter as well as a powerful fan.
In the appliance world, when you start to combine different technologies, you don’t always get the best from either technology.
Not so with the Airmate tower fan and air purifier.
The bladeless design of the Airmate pulls air into the fan and then redistributes it to get a much wider airflow than the standard tower fan.
And since the air is already being pulled into the machine as a means of creating air flow,
The logical next step is to clean the air in the process by filtering it through a HEPA filter.
This combination makes for one of the best fan designs and one of the best air purifier designs.
It also has a very cool, futuristic look. A little bit of Stormtrooper in the white version or Mando in the grey version. (Yep, those are Star Wars references)
The noise level on this fan is exceptionally low also. The majority of people say that you cannot even hear it working on the low setting.
This fan really begs the question of why you would ever go back to an old school floor fan. It’s that innovative.
Yeah… but does it have a heater function?
Just when I thought I had seen the most modern tower fan, I found one that exceeded the capabilities of anything else I have seen.
The Modere tower fan is a three-in-1, fan, heater, and air purifier.
This fan has an answer to one of the biggest drawbacks that most Tower fans have.
And that is that they do not adjust vertically.
The bladeless design on this fan does give you the option of adjusting it vertically.
That in itself separates this fan from the pack.
But that is only the beginning.
This fan is also a fully functional space heater and air purifier.
The air purifier uses a pre filter for larger debris, a HEPA h13 filter for particles as small as 001 microns. And a UV light to sterilize the filter and fan as the air is moving through it.
The heater can be adjusted up to 86°. And it has the standard tip over protection that turns the unit off if it is knocked over.
And it is all connected via Wi-Fi. Which means it can be voice controlled with Alexa or controlled with a touchscreen via the downloadable app. But it also has a remote control and on board buttons.
It’s kind of hard to talk about innovations in any type of appliance without talking about Dyson.
Yes, Dyson products tend to be expensive. But the above fans probably would not exist if Dyson never came out with the original Air Multiplier.
The Dyson cool link hpo2 is the original air multiplying technology combined with a heater and air purifier.
Though the fan is nothing short of amazing, there is no question that it is being copied by other fan manufacturers.
The bladeless design not only increases air flow exponentially, it makes fan blade safety a non-issue. The unique airflow technology combines it with an air purifier, also a no-brainer.
The real dazzling component of this combination fan, heater, and air purifier is the air purifier.
This air purifier has censoring technology that automatically adjusts the air flow to remove indoor air pollutants as needed.
Pretty wild..
The filtering on this air purifier also includes a carbon filter to remove gases and odors.
Dyson is not only the most innovative, they also pour in the most features to ensure that you get your money’s worth. Wi-Fi, directional speeds, ultra quiet, you name it.
Summary
Comparing a pedestal fan to a tower fan comes down to a couple of unique benefits and advantages that each have over the other.
Pedestal fans are fully oscillating fans that have the added advantage of being able to adjust them not only up and down on the stand, but the blade direction can be adjusted vertically also.
Tower fans are not adjustable vertically but they do tend to create more airflow because of their long fan blade design.
Tower fans do have an advantage over pedestal fans in that the blades are closed in and there is much less risk of ever getting your fingers into the blades.
Even when we’re talking about small children.
And also, innovations in the tower fan world have begun to blaze a new trail in what a fan really is and what it can actually do.
Bladeless designs or able to create a whole different level of airflow than previously known.
They are also able to incorporate fully functional air purifiers and heaters without diminishing any of the technologies that are combined.
Bladeless fans are absolutely safe and take the possibility of one of your children ever putting their hands into a spinning fan blade completely out of the equation.
