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- Stylish looks
- Quiet and powerful
- Useful smart features
- App and setup could do with a polish
- Minor issues with review sample
We’ve seen a few innovative fans over the last few years, but the Duux Whisper Flex is arguably the cleverest of the lot. Not only did Duux come through with an ingenious three-part design that enabled the Whisper Flex to double as a floor or pedestal fan, but it did so with an unusually quiet but powerful motor, smart Wi-Fi features and elegant controls.
Now like many great debuts, it’s getting a sequel: the Duux Whisper Flex 2. It comes with more speed settings than the old model and promises the same 13dB silent running, but with a slight reduction in airflow and some changes to the features and control. Are we looking at an improvement, or one of those follow-ups that fails to make the grade? I’ve been giving the Whisper Flex 2 a workout in order to find out.
READ NEXT: Duux Whisper Flex review
What do you get for the money?
The Whisper Flex 2 carries on the basics of the Whisper Flex’s three-part design, with a fan head and motor unit at the top, a base and control unit at the bottom and a stalk connecting the two in-between. With the stalk in place, it functions as a short but effective pedestal fan, standing 92cm high (4cm higher than the old model). However, it also works with the fan head plugged directly into the base, becoming a floor or table fan standing 54cm high, which is 3cm higher than the old model.
The fan head itself needs to be assembled before use, with the threaded shaft from the motor unit pushed through the back of the grill, then the new nine-bladed fan attached and a knob screwed into place to hold it all together. It’s pretty clear what needs to go where, and I had it all set up within around ten minutes of opening the box. Admittedly, as a veteran of the Whisper Flex, I remembered to remove the tiny screw that keeps the grill closed, though the instructions are now pretty clear on this subject.
Duux has ditched the controls of the original, on which a rotary dial around the circular display switched speeds and selected modes. Instead, we have a more conventional set of touch-sensitive buttons surrounding a larger digital display. Along with the fan itself you get a chunky compact remote control, which gives you instant access to its modes and features. This no longer clips on magnetically to the rear of the fan, but it’s still a big improvement on your average fan’s credit card-style remote.
The Whisper Flex 2 remains a well-designed, stylish fan with a tough construction that feels built to last. And while I’m not sure whether or not the new controls are quite as elegant as the old ones, they’re actually quicker and easier to use.
What features and settings does it have?
Where the original Whisper Flex had 26 speeds the new model has 30, which may be considered an upgrade if you subscribe to the Spinal Tap school of thinking eleven is one louder than ten. Otherwise it has the same Natural mode, which keeps shifting between speeds for a more convincing wind effect, and a night mode that dims the digital display then turns it off after a few seconds of inactivity. There’s also a timer to turn the fan off after one to twelve hours of use.
Like the old Whisper Flex, the Whisper Flex 2 can connect via Wi-Fi to Duux’s smartphone app, where you can control the fan remotely or set schedules to turn it on at specific times during the week. There are no options to turn it on when you reach a certain temperature, but you can integrate it with Google Home or Alexa and configure routines to turn it on or off.
The Whisper Flex 2 is one of only a few pedestal fans I’ve tested to offer variable oscillation (aside from the original Whisper Flex, others with this feature include the MeacoFan Sefte 10in, the Princess Smart Air Circulator, the Levoit Pedestal Fan and the older MeacoFan 1056P). The fan can swing across 30, 60 or 90 degrees on the horizontal and 45 or 90 degrees on the vertical.
How well does it perform?
Despite having more speed settings than the original, the Whisper Flex 2 isn’t necessarily more powerful. Duux’s own specifications claim that it can displace 1750m3 per hour where the old version could do 2300m3 per hour. I measured the airflow at the maximum 30 speed setting at 3.5m/sec, going down to 3m/sec at speed 25 and 2.6m/sec at 20. At the medium 15 speed setting, it pushes air through at speeds of 2.3m/sec.
For comparison, the Whisper Flex reached 3.7m/sec at maximum speed and 2.2m/sec at the medium setting. In short, there’s really not much in it.
This is still a powerful pedestal fan and I’m not sure that anyone needs more breeze than that in the average office or living room. Meaco’s 10in Sefte desk and pedestal fans were, if anything, a little too beefy for everyday use – at least if you wanted papers, lighter ornaments and toupees staying in position. What’s arguably more important is that the Whisper Flex 2 can still deliver a decent amount of air at its lower, quieter settings. Even at speed setting 10 it can dish out a 1.9m/sec breeze.
What’s more, it’s really very quiet at these speeds. I don’t have a soundproofed chamber to measure noise levels free of ambient noise, so I can’t tell you if it really goes as low as 13dBA. What I can tell you is that at settings one to four it’s quieter than the ambient noise level in my lounge, so effectively silent. And it’s only at setting five, where it hits 28.9dBA, that I can hear it at all. At 10 you only get a low 33.1dBA hum, and even at 15 it only hits 37.8dBA. The maximum 45.8dBA output is still far from raucous. On lower settings, I could definitely snooze with this fan on.
There’s enough power here and a wide-enough airflow that you don’t always need oscillation, but if you do you’ve got plenty of range on both axes, with the ability to quickly limit the angle if you want to keep one or two people cool. I also like the Natural mode on this one. You don’t get large and sudden variations of speed or noise, which makes for a more relaxing experience.
Finally, power consumption is every bit as minimal. The Whisper Flex 2 uses just 4.5W at its lowest settings and 9.1W at medium speeds. Hit maximum speed and you’re looking at 17.3W, which only rises to 23.4W with both horizontal and vertical oscillation turned on. You’ll struggle to find a more energy-efficient pedestal fan.
Is there anything we didn’t like?
The smart features are really useful. It’s great to be able to operate the fan from your smartphone, or schedule it to switch on at a certain time for a certain period. You can even set the speed, mode, sleep or child lock status. However, I had some problems getting the smart features up and running. At first the Duux app set up the fan as a new device without any issues, but then I was asked to log in to get the scheduling features, at which point the Whisper Flex 2 disappeared. To add it again, I had to reset the connection by holding down the power button.
I then discovered that the Whisper Flex 2 wouldn’t work with the old Duux Alexa skill, but needed a new generation 2 skill enabled before it could be integrated. Even then, voice controls don’t really seem to do much beyond turning the fan on or off, while Alexa would regularly inform me that the fan wasn’t responding, even when it was. As always, your mileage may vary according to how fast and robust your home network and Alexa setup is, but this is more trouble than I usually have. Duux might also want to look at being able to edit scheduled events, as there seems to be no way to do so without simply deleting them and adding them again.
I also had some other minor issues, some of which may come down to this being an early sample. At one point the fan got stuck while trying to swing left and right, and needed a gentle nudge to get it moving again. Meanwhile, I found that it was sometimes tricky to wake the display up in Night mode, requiring a few taps or even a swipe across the surface before it and the touch controls appeared. Even the remote had some wobbles, occasionally refusing to turn the speed up or down or the oscillation on or off.
Should you buy the Duux Whisper Flex 2?
This isn’t a huge upgrade on the Whisper Flex, and in some respects you might describe it as a downgrade. I’ve experienced a few teething troubles with this new version, and some of the smart features could do with work. Yet this is still one of the two best pedestal fans I’ve reviewed – the other being Meaco’s Sefte 10in. In terms of raw power, it sits behind the Meaco, while the Princess Pedestal Air Circulator and Duux’s own Whisper Essence have it licked on value. But if you’re looking for the smartest, most stylish pedestal fan, the Whisper Flex 2 is still the one to buy.
