Reader Finds: The Vornado Heavy-Duty Fan
By Chuck Cage
Phillip writes: “This makes an awesome shop fan. The maker claims it can move air some 80 feet! It’s got a heavy-duty 3-conductor cord, cord wrap, and a lifetime warranty.”
Some other features that caught our attention: By loosening a friction knob, you can rotate the fan to point it wherever you’d like, and the handle on top looks quite sturdy. Best of all: the front is easily removable so you can clean the inside of the fan.
It’s been our experience that if you can’t clean it, there’s no place for it in the shop. Though our shop is usually quite clean, it’s no accident.
The Vornado Heavy-Duty fan MSRPs for $100, but it’s available for around $95 from a wide variety of vendors as well as Amazon.
283 Heavy-Duty Fan [Vornado]
Street Pricing [Froogle]
Buy It Now from Amazon
March 4th, 2007 at 11:54 am
I’ve had a smaller Vornado fan for several years and it’s held up very well. They aren’t cheap but they are worth it.
March 4th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
This thing pays for itself the first time you’re in the garage under the car and it’s 85-90 degrees. Makes work in a tight space a lot more bearable.
March 5th, 2007 at 1:18 am
I noticed the Special Effects department started using them a few years ago. When I saw they made a fan/heater I bought one from OSH for about $80. It works well.
March 5th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Don’t get me wrong I like a good tool, and the vornado has a great set of features, cleaning, power cable management, tilt, etc.
But I could buy a whole bunch of the standard box fans for $95. Even better a box fan is easy to throw a paper filter on to act as a simple filtration system.
Does this direct air very tightly to dry floors or something to that ilk?
I don’t get a $100 fan for use in the shop.
March 5th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I am with Paul on this one, that is a whole lot of money for a fan. You can swing a real industrial fan for that kind of scrape. But I am really excited about the prospect of needing a fan in my workshop. C’mon Spring.
March 5th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
I have a regular vornado and it does direct air amazingly well. It is like an air laser. Pretty quiet too.
March 7th, 2007 at 11:20 am
air laser is a good way of putting it. My friend has a cheaper home one and you can basically shoot a jet stream of air wherever you want and it travels, his room wasn’t big enough to fully test the distance
March 13th, 2007 at 12:24 am
If you are looking for a good fan you should get a squirrel cage one. It will put out much more air and is MUCH quieter. I have this one and absolutely love it. It was $50 at Sam’s
http://laskoproducts.com/fans/model_4900.html
They don’t carry the same one anymore, but they have a similar one,
http://laskoproducts.com/fans/model_4900.html
Lasko also makes the little yellow Stanly one, but I think that one is overpriced for it’s size.
March 13th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Sorry, the sam’s link was supposed to be,
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=359331