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- Best quiet fan for bedrooms: At a glance
- How we test fans
- The best quiet bedroom fans you can buy
- 1. Best bedroom fan overall
- 2. Best fan for large bedrooms
- 3. Best luxury bedroom fan
- 4. Best bedroom fan for bedside tables
- 5. Best pedestal fan for bedrooms
- How to choose the best quiet fan for your bedroom
Heres the problem with the Great British summer: you wait for months for the hot weather to arrive, then feel bad for complaining that its too damn hot. That goes double if you sleep in a bedroom that doesnt get much breeze or worse in the middle of a noisy town or city. As the mercury rises, your chances of getting a decent sleep dwindle to close to zero.
Air conditioning is overkill for most of us, especially given the rising cost of energy, but a good, quiet bedroom fan is a sensible solution. Fans have grown much quieter and more efficient over the past few years, becoming more frugal in their use of energy while still giving you a nice, cooling breeze. All you need to do is look at your budget and decide which one to buy and were here to help with that.
Best quiet fan for bedrooms: At a glance
| Best bedroom fan overall | Honeywell HY254E QuietSet | |
| Best luxury bedroom fan | Duux Whisper Flex | |
| Best fan for large bedrooms | Levoit 36in Tower Fan |
How we test fans
Our fan tests begin with a range of airflow tests, where we measure the speed of the air pushed through the fan at a distance of 1m using an anemometer. We test at maximum and minimum fan speed settings, plus a medium setting in-between.
We also measure sound levels at these settings, along with power consumption at the highest and lowest levels. From there, we use the fan in a selection of different rooms to gauge how effectively it works in different situations and layouts, paying special attention to noise, size and the accessibility of the controls when we think a fan might be particularly suitable for bedroom use. We also try out any special modes specifically quiet, sleep or night modes and take a careful look at any remote control supplied.
The best quiet bedroom fans you can buy
1. Best bedroom fan overall
Honeywell HY254E QuietSet
Price when reviewed: £63 | Check price at Amazon
The Honeywell HY245E QuietSet is an established favourite: slim, well designed and solidly built, even if it wobbles a little on its round plastic stand. There are some thoughtful touches such as the compartment where you can dock the supplied remote; a carrying handle; and the soft-glow indicators at the top, where they won’t shine in your eyes as the fan oscillates from side to side. It has five fan speeds ranging from Sleep to Power cool, plus a one-, two-, four- or eight-hour timer, and the straightforward controls make it incredibly easy to use.
The best news is that the QuietSet name isnt just marketing hype: the HY245E is noticeably quieter than most conventional tower fans, even at its higher settings, with a night mode you might actually sleep through. Other fans are bigger and put out more air over a wider space, but this one delivers more than enough cooling for the night without making any kind of racket. Its easily the best tower fan weve seen for bedroom use.
Key specs Dimensions: 84 x 27.3 x 27.3cm; Weight: 4.8kg; Oscillation angle: 75Ú; Cord length: 1.75m; Warranty: 3 years; Power: 35W
2. Best fan for large bedrooms
Levoit 36in Tower Fan
Price when reviewed: £90 | Check price at Amazon
While its one of the taller tower fans weve tested, its worth making room for Levoits 36-inch Tower Fan. Look beyond the two-part plastic base and its a well-built unit with no hint of wobble, with stylish and straightforward touch controls on the top panel. Whether youre using these or the bundled remote control, turning the fan on and off or switching settings is a breeze. The Levoit also has some useful features that could help your snoozing, including an Auto mode that adjusts the speed according to the room temperature, a one to 12-hour off timer, and a Sleep mode that will do its best to keep you cool while staying quiet.
Otherwise, the best thing about this tower fan is that it offers an efficient and economical way to cool larger areas. It pushes through air at speeds of up to 3.2m/sec at the highest of its five speed settings, or 3.3m/sec in Turbo mode. True, its a little loud when maxed out, at 44.4 to 45.2dB, but on its next to lowest setting you can still hit speeds of 2.1m/sec, with the noise reduced to around 32dB and it will only use around 20W while doing so. Throw in the competitive price, and you have a great tower fan for bigger bedrooms.
Key specs Dimensions: 92 x 16.5 x 16.5cm; Weight: 3.6kg; Oscillation angle: 90Ú; Cord length: 1.8m; Warranty: 2yrs; Power: 39W
3. Best luxury bedroom fan
Duux Whisper Flex
Price when reviewed: £165 | Check price at Amazon
The Duux Whisper Flex is a brilliant fan for bedrooms. Its nearly as powerful as the MeacoFan 1056P, and every bit as quiet, making roughly 43dB when running at full tilt and dropping to under 34dB at medium settings. It will run for up to 12 hours from the optional battery pack, and with 26 different speed settings and useful Natural and Night modes youve got plenty of control. You can connect to it over Wi-Fi using an iOS or Android app, and it will also work with Google Home and Alexa voice control, although commands are limited to turning the fan on and off or adjusting the speed.
Perhaps the best thing about this fan, though, is that you can use it either as a pedestal fan or a floor fan or even put it on a bedside table at low speeds just by adding or removing one section of the stalk. This means theres less height, and height adjustment, than on other pedestal fans, but the Duux more than makes up for it with its sheer versatility.
Key specs Dimensions: 88 x 34 x 34cm; Weight: 5kg; Oscillation angle: 90Ú horizontal, 100Ú vertical; Cord length: 1.85m; Warranty: 2 years; Power: 27W
4. Best bedroom fan for bedside tables
Meaco MeacoFan 360
Price when reviewed: £70 | Check price at Amazon
The MeacoFan 360 is one of the best-value desk fans out there. At just over 20cm across, it will easily fit on your bedside table, and it only puts out a whisper quiet 15dB at its lowest setting. With that and Quiet Mark certification, it shouldnt disturb you while youre snoozing, yet theres enough airflow even in the lower half of its 12 speed settings, and you can turn it up to bone-chilling levels if you need to cool a room quickly. Thats impressive for such a diminutive model, and with a maximum consumption of 10W its also cheap to run.
You adjust the speed using touch-sensitive controls and an LED display, and can also switch on oscillation to keep the fan sweeping back and forth through roughly 70 degrees. Theres even a timer to turn it off after up to six hours. The big surprise, though, is that its USB-powered, allowing you to run it from the supplied charger or a power bank.
Its a little more expensive than your average desk fan, but well worth the extra if you want a feature-packed, low-noise fan.
Key specs Dimensions: 209 x 298 x 214cm; Weight: 1.36kg; Oscillation angle: 71°; Sound levels: 15-50dB; Cord length: 1.2m; Warranty: 2 years; Power: 10W
5. Best pedestal fan for bedrooms
Meaco MeacoFan 1056P
Price when reviewed: £150 | Check price at Amazon
Meacos largest and most powerful fan gives you a massive airflow while using precious little power and making barely any noise. At the highest of its 12 speed settings, it can push through air at speeds of 3.8m/sec only its sister model, the MeacoFan 1056AC, exceeds that level of performance. Yet even at full power, it consumes around 18W and is quieter than most of its competitors. Even at medium speed settings the output comes down to around 37dB, which is quieter than some fans on low.
You also get horizontal and vertical oscillation, easy height adjustment, a clip-on remote control and two highly effective optional modes that either simulate a natural breeze or tune the fan speed according to the ambient temperature. Its not the most elegant fan out there, but nothing beats it for large-scale, controllable and whisper-quiet cooling.
Key specs Dimensions: 84 x 27.3 x 27.3cm; Weight: 4.8kg; Oscillation angle: 75Ú; Cord length: 1.75m; Warranty: 3 years; Power: 35W
How to choose the best quiet fan for your bedroom
Your choice really comes down to your budget and the size and layout of your bedroom. For obvious reasons, theres no point in having a compact floor fan or tower fan if it cant produce an airflow that will rise over your bed. At the same time, you dont want to have to work around a hulking pedestal fan if space is limited.
For most bedrooms the best options are going to be a compact fan you can place on a chest of drawers or bedside table, or a taller pedestal fan you can use to create airflow above the bed. However, some of the taller, quieter tower fans can also work well in a bedroom setting, while some floor fans might fit the bill if you can raise them up on an item of furniture.
Almost all fans will give you a choice of speeds, but its crucial that a bedroom fan has a low, relatively slow and quiet speed setting that delivers an effective level of cooling without blasting you or making too much noise. A dedicated night or sleep mode is a plus, but not a necessity; any quiet, low-power setting will do.
To make things tricky, we all have preferences that might make one fan conducive to sleep and another actively unsettling. Oscillation modes, where the fan rotates to move the breeze around the room, might be a plus or a minus. Similarly, some of us are more comfortable with a regular breeze while others might prefer one that ebbs and flows. Luckily, youre rarely stuck with one of these modes turned on permanently. Dont like it? Just shut it off.
Are there any practicalities to look out for?
You either want easy access to the controls, so that you can turn the fan on or off in the middle of the night, or a remote control you can keep by the bedside. Being able to tilt the fan up or down can also give you more options as to where to place it and the same goes for a longer power cable. Were also seeing increasing numbers of fans that can run from a USB connection (either a USB power bank or charger) or from an internal lithium-ion battery.
Are there any other features worth having?
Some fans are more energy-efficient than others, and these tend to be the quietest, too. While you wont rack up anywhere near as high a contribution to your bills from a fan as from a heater, it still pays to look for one with low running costs and some kind of eco setting. Its also worth looking for fans with a programmable on/off timer. That way you can set it to come on at your normal bedtime (if you have one) or off when youve got to sleep or the temperature has dipped. Some fans are now even incorporating Wi-Fi or Bluetooth along with basic smart features. Here, having a thermostat and being able to program the fan to stop at a certain temperature really makes a lot of sense.
