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- Clever folding design
- Very easy to use
- Epic battery life
- Don’t expect massive airflow
- Ticking noise at higher speeds
Dimplex’s new desk fan might be the perfect travel fan. It’s compact and folds neatly into an even smaller package, while its built-in Lithium Ion battery will give you up to fifteen hours of cooling while unplugged. Prioritising portability means making a few compromises on performance, but if you’re looking for a fan you can pack into your suitcase, it’s easily one of the best options I’ve tested.
What do you get for the money?
This is a compact 5in desk fan standing 295mm high, with four fan speeds and not much else in the way of features. Instead, its selling points are its built-in Lithium Ion battery and a clever foldable design: the stalk pivots and stows into a slot in the base, with the fan head folding backwards and sitting horizontally on top. Folded so, you end up with a unit that’s 182mm in diameter and just 10mm high, perfect for packing in its supplied soft carry pouch and taking with you on a trip. It charges via a USB-C socket from any 10W charger, and weighs just 660g.
The folding mechanism works smoothly and while the construction is mostly plastic, it feels more robust than many budget rechargeable fans. As long as you pack carefully around it, it should make it through the horrors of the car boot or airport baggage handling without getting smashed to smithereens. There’s also a small faux-leather loop at the back, which might come in handy if you want to hang the fan up for storage.
What features and settings does it have?
This one keeps things simple. A button on the top cycles between the four available speed settings, and there’s 90° of tilt. In practice you can actually tilt it back even further, but hitting horizontal or beyond accentuates a slight rattle that kicks in as the fan blades spin at speed. Four indicators show the current fan speed, or the current charge level while the fan is charging.
How well does it perform?
You can feel the breeze at reasonably close quarters, but this fan is much better for personal cooling than it is for cooling a space. There’s no oscillation, and even at maximum speed we measured an airflow of just 1.5m/sec at 1m, putting it behind the VonHaus 2500952 Desk Fan, the Duux Globe and the NSA Compact Cool.
On lower settings, you can expect airflows of between 0.9 and 1.5m/sec. That’s fine for sitting on a desk or bedside table and moving some air across your skin, and it’ll do the same on a coffee table in a hotel room. Just don’t expect something that can double as a floor fan or treat more people to a cooling breeze. You really need something bigger with some oscillation to spread more airflow around.
The smaller size also means the 5in blades have to work harder to produce that airflow, which in turn means more noise. On the slowest speed it puts out around 34.6dBA, rising to 42.9dBA on the highest setting. That’s not painful, but it’s noticeable even on setting one, while setting four is probably too loud to snooze through.
The battery takes roughly two hours to charge and lasts up to 15 hours on the slowest speed setting or four hours at the maximum speed. In tests on its medium speed setting (two) it lasted for 10 hours and 18 minutes, making it our current battery life cham
Is there anything we didn’t like?
Not much. Weirdly, both the fan and the front grill spin while the fan is active, and at maximum speed I heard a small but regular ticking noise, possibly where the two occasionally clash. It’s not a big deal, though, given that the tick is only just perceptible.
Should you buy the Dimplex Rechargeable Desk Fan?
If you need a fan for travel, look no further. While the Dimplex Rechargeable Desk Fan doesn’t have the power of bigger models. It’s well-designed and thoroughly portable. The battery lasts for ages and you can charge it up with a phone charger or power bank while on the go. There are better options for use around the home, but it’ll help ease the heat – and potentially your sunburn – while you’re away.
