This Dreo Smart Fan Is Sleek, Efficient and Easy to Clean
Standing fans annoy me. I found myself constantly getting up to adjust them; they are loud; and they get absolutely filthy with no clear way to clean them. None of these problems seem difficult to solve, and yet die-hard fans have existed for a long time without much innovation on how to fix these pain points. Somehow, the DREO PolyFan 704s ($134.99) figured it out, and for that reason, I highly recommend it as the ideal standing fan for small to medium-sized spaces.
Looks expensive
The PolyFan, whose name refers to the two motors that power it, stands 43 inches tall when fully extended, with a tapered stem and round base. You can adjust the stem four inches to shorten it. The fan head itself swings and can be positioned at any vertical angle (but you don’t have to install it yourself – more on that later). The fan comes disassembled in several large parts, and assembly to attach the stem to the base took less than 10 minutes. The Dreo comes with a small remote control, which is definitely nice, but since you use the phone app for all the remote control features and more, you won’t need it. PolyFan is available in two colors: rose gold and matte silver. The tapered shaft and rounded edges of the fan head combined with the matte finish make the fan look more expensive than it actually is.
Feature-rich and clearly designed application
The Dreo app connected to me quickly on the first try. All fan commands are executed on two panels. First, there’s a general panel that lets you turn the fan on and off, get room temperature readings, see upcoming scheduled runs, and use a slider to adjust fan intensity. If you click on settings, you’ll be presented with a second panel with more options for the fan, including turbo mode, natural mode, and sleep mode. You can use the visual angle control to point the fan in any 3D direction and then control horizontal and vertical oscillation. I didn’t realize how valuable this was until I had to get up to adjust the fan, and then it seemed downright luxurious.
Impressive features for a fan
Like the Dreo air purifying tower fan I recently reviewed, the air produced by the Dreo is fresher than a regular fan. At lower speeds there is a slight natural breeze. At higher intensities I felt cooler, but not as cool as in the wind tunnel. To achieve this, the Dreo uses a brushless motor and dual vortex technology, and while it’s not the same as the Dyson Hot+Cool , it feels closer to that experience than a traditional standing fan.
The Dreo is impressively quiet. Dreo says the fan noise level never exceeds 25 dB, and in most cases it doesn’t even reach that. In my use it rarely went above 18dB, but I rarely heard it at maximum settings. You can easily leave it on during a Zoom call.
I was impressed by the way Dreo’s air filled the room. You can rotate the fan 120 degrees horizontally and 85 degrees vertically, which means you get a fairly wide rotation angle, and according to the documentation, the fan can reach up to 100 feet. None of my rooms are longer than 30 feet, but you can definitely feel the fan if you stand 30 feet away.
Fans collect dust and then are impossible to clean – I have broken many window fans trying to open them to clean them. Dreo built a fan for this purpose that can be disassembled. After only a week of use I started to break it. The fan can be disassembled into three parts, all of which are easy to clean. It took a minute to disassemble and put it back together.
Dreo amazes other fans
I know, it’s just a fan. But I suspect you’ve bought a lot of cheap fans over your life based on this premise, and you end up with old-looking fans covered in dust that you pull out every spring. The design of most tower fans makes them not very stable or look cheap at all. Standing fans also tend to be heavy. PolyFan has nothing to do with this, it works better, it’s washable, it’s quiet. For these reasons I think it is good value for money. I’m also really excited to see these two products from Dreo to see what else they will produce in the future.