To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more
- Easy to use
- Effective cooling over larger spaces
- Surprisingly quiet
- Big and bulky
- Weird remote with membrane buttons
Is bigger really better when it comes to tower fans? With the EcoAir Halo, you’d definitely hope so. Even by the standard of other tower fans, this one is colossal: it stands 1.2m tall on its base and, should you feel that’s not tall enough, it extends another 8cm upwards. In its mix of matt black and gloss white plastics it’s pretty hard to miss, and it isn’t even all that powerful.
Yet what I’ve come to like about the Halo is the stuff that isn’t so apparent: its lack of noise, its lack of fuss and its quiet, efficient cooling. It might be a little too big to be your perfect tower fan, but it’ll work hard to win you over.
What do you get for the money?
Like I said, the EcoAir Halo is a massive tower fan standing 120 to 128cm high, or an inch and a half over four feet tall if you want to go imperial. The base is 32cm in diameter and the central column 17.2cm wide and 17.2cm deep, so it’s larger than your average tower fan in all dimensions. The base has to be attached before use, but EcoAir has designed the mechanism so that all you need to do is twist three plastic knobs to lock everything in place. That’s a lot easier when you pack the fan away after the summer than searching for an Allen key to the screws or bolts.
Normally, the column sits almost flush to the base, but unscrew the thumbscrew at the rear by a few turns and you’ll find that you can pull it up by another 8cm (2cm more than the manufacturer states) and make it even taller. To be honest, I’m not quite sure why this feature exists. But if you have a tall bed or sofa and find the breeze doesn’t quite reach you, this extending trick may well help.
Beyond the sheer size and hefty 9.2Kg weight, it’s a fairly simple tower fan powered by an efficient DC motor and bundled with a basic remote control. Recessed push-button controls can be found in a panel at the top, while a display at the front shows the current fan speed and mode (though this fades out after thirty sections of inaction in order not to distract you or blind you at night with its neon green glare).
Interestingly, while the Halo gives you 85 degrees of oscillation, the column as a whole doesn’t turn. Instead, a central section with the vent rotates left and right, minimising the wobble you get when some towers do the twist.
What features and settings does it have?
The Halo has a choice of 12 speed settings along with four modes and a timer. Beyond the basic fan mode, you get a Silent mode to turn the speed and noise down even further, plus a Natural mode that mimics a soft and variable breeze. Finally, Sleep mode runs the fan at speed four for 30 minutes, then drops down to speed two for another half an hour, then finally speed one for the rest of the night.
The timer turns the fan on when it’s in standby or off when it’s already turned on, and can cover a 0.5 to 12 hour period, with half-hour increments for the first ten hours.
How well does it perform?
Tower fans don’t tend to be that powerful in terms of concentrated airflow, and the Halo peaks at 2.5m/sec even at its maximum speed. Turn it down to the halfway mark and that drops to 1.9m/sec, going as low as 1.2m/sec on the first normal speed setting and 0.9m/sec in Silent mode.
What it does do, though, is maintain this airflow consistently in a 56cm tall vertical jet, with the flow spreading upwards, downwards and outwards the further you are from the fan. At the higher speeds you get a reasonably forceful breeze from one to two metres away, which oscillation does a nice job of spreading over a wider area. At lower speeds you get a gentler breath of air that can still take the edge out of a hot and humid evening.
I was also struck by how quiet the Halo is. Sure, at its maximum speed it puts out a 46.1dBA racket, but even that’s a fair bit lower than the 54.6dBA of the Levoit Classic Pro Smart Tower Fan or the 51.5dBA of Shark’s innovative TurboBlade. At the medium speed setting, the noise level drops to 39.4dBA, and at lower speeds it hovers at 30.8dBA to 34dBA, where it’s reasonably hard to hear at all. In Silent mode it’s tricky to make out any noise above ambient noise levels: my smartphone noise meter registered just 29.7dBA. It’s one of the quietest tower fans I’ve tested, and the airflow is still present enough to actually feel if you’re reasonably close.
There’s more good news when it comes to energy efficiency. Even at full whack, the Halo consumes a mere 15.2W, which drops all the way down to 3.8W on the lowest speed setting or 0.2W on standby. This isn’t a hugely expensive fan to buy, and it’s certainly not an expensive fan to run.
Is there anything we didn’t like?
At over 9Kg when assembled, it’s a bit too big and bulky for some people to carry around the house. It’s a better bet for long-term lounge or bedroom duties than all-round household use. The remote is also disappointing. It’s bigger than a credit-card style remote, but the plastics feel cheap and it has weird membrane buttons, with a single button to cycle through all of the fan’s speeds.
Should you buy the EcoAir Halo tower fan?
If you want a big fan that can dish out plenty of air, they don’t come much bigger than this, yet the EcoAir Halo remains surprisingly quiet and energy-efficient. I found it did the job of keeping me and others cool on hot summer days and evenings, and it’s very straightforward and easy to use, with no unnecessary modes or smart features. It can’t match the Levoit Classic Pro on power or the Dimplex Ion Fresh on flexibility and features, but as a simple, beefy tower fan it’s one of the best around.
