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- Flexible modular design
- Cordless usage and epic battery life
- Powerful and incredibly quiet
- Minimal onboard controls
- Large and pricey
Perhaps the only bad thing you can say about Meaco’s new pedestal fan is that it’s not a massive step forwards from its last one. In fact, the Sefte Pro 10in Pedestal Fan is much the same as the Sefte 10in Pedestal Air Circulator from 2024, only with some refinements for a more controlled airflow and the convenience of an internal Li-Ion battery.
This transforms Meaco’s mighty blower into a truly portable fan, ready to give you a breeze in any room, the conservatory or even in the garden. Combine this with the Sefte Pro’s unusually flexible design, and you’ve got one of the most versatile fans around.
I’ve been using it over some surprisingly warm days in April and May, and I’ve got a pretty good handle on how this fan might work out for you in the event that we get a hot summer.
Meaco Sefte Pro 10in Pedestal Air Circulator: What do you get for the money?
This is a 10in fan mounted on roughly 70cm of stalk and circular base, giving you up to 1.1m in height. Cleverly, the stalk comes in two sections and you can connect the main fan unit directly to the base, meaning the Sefte Pro can also work as a 59cm tall floor fan or a compact 82cm pedestal fan, if you’d rather not have it looming over you while you’re sitting down.
It uses a quiet and seriously efficient DC motor to push through up to 19.8 cubic metres of air per hour, with an airflow that can be felt, Meaco claims, up to 32m away. I’ll have to take its word for it, as I don’t have access to a long corridor, ballroom or warehouse unit in which to put this claim to the test.
The physical design is very close to that of the existing Sefte 10in Pedestal Air Circulator. The main body of the fan unit is made from a tough white plastic, with the fan blades covered by a dark grey plastic grill. The three pieces of the stalk have robust internal connections and screw together through discreet threaded collars, and the base is weighted to make sure the whole shebang doesn’t tip over. It all feels very solid, but still portable at 5.5kg in total.
The display at the bottom of the fan unit shows the current temperature, mode and fan speed, while two buttons underneath toggle through the different fan speeds and allow you to switch the unit on and off. All the other functions are controlled through a compact, disc-shaped remote control, which clips magnetically onto the front of the fan, facing inwards, when it’s not in use. This remote uses well-labelled, responsive membrane buttons, which I have no cause to complain about.
The battery isn’t quite as accessible as it is on the Sefte Pro 10in Table Fan, where it lives in a compartment under a lift-off panel at the top. Here, the compartment sits underneath the base. However, the battery is still removable and replaceable, so a dead battery in, say, five year’s time doesn’t have to mean a trip to your local recycling centre.
What features and settings does it have?
You have a choice of 12 speed settings and three modes. A manual mode allows you to set the fan speed, while an Eco mode sets the speed automatically according to the current temperature. The Night mode switches off the display and any indicators, then runs the fan at its current speed before ramping that down one step every half an hour.
There’s also an on/off timer, turning the fan on or off, depending on its current status, in hourly increments. The other key feature is oscillation. Horizontal is standard for all pedestal fans, but the Sefte Pro goes one better with vertical oscillation. What’s more, the degree at which the fan tilts or swivels is customisable, so you can have it at 30, 75 or 120 degrees on the horizontal axis or 20, 30 or 65 degrees on the vertical. This makes it easy to tailor the airflow to the current space and where the occupants are sitting.
How well does it perform?
The Sefte 10in Pedestal Air Circulator we reviewed was, if anything, a bit of a hooligan, its airflows reaching speeds of over 7m/sec. The Sefte Pro we’re testing here is a bit more restrained, with air speeds peaking at 4.6m/sec at top speed, dropping to 4.3m/sec on setting 10, 3.1m/sec at the halfway mark and 2.6m/sec on setting 3. Even on its lowest setting, it can push air through at speeds of 2.2m/sec. The only pedestal fan we’ve tested in the same performance league is the Levoit Pedestal Air Circulator, and the Sefte Pro does a better job of maintaining its power at low speeds.
Combine that with the tunable oscillation, and Meaco’s fan can spread a lot of airflow around a large space – you really don’t have to have it near you to feel the breeze. I can see it working everywhere from stuffy conservatories and living rooms to bedrooms, where the Night mode comes into its own.
What’s more, the great performance at low speeds is important because, while the Sefte Pro is comparatively quiet across its entire speed range, it’s especially quiet on its lower speed settings. At maximum speed it puts out 35.5dBA, but that drops to 27.8dBA at setting 6 and 24.5dBA at setting 1, making it the quietest fan we’ve ever tested, and virtually silent. While it was running at speeds lower than 6, I felt the need to keep checking that it was still on if I wasn’t already in the airflow. Members of my family mentioned that they couldn’t believe just how quiet it was.
As for power consumption, it’s reasonably frugal, but uses a certain amount of power just to keep the battery charged. On its lowest setting, I measured just 7.4W, and 13.2W on the medium setting. At maximum, it uses 27.39W, going up to 32.2W with horizontal and vertical oscillation turned on. For comparison, the old model used 25.7W at full power and 3.6W at the minimum.
Meaco promises up to 40 hours of cordless cooling from the Sefte Pro Pedestal Fan, and in practice I had it running for over 32 hours on the medium setting, though with some reduction in fan speed and air speed towards the end. This gives it a flexibility you just won’t find with most larger fans. Charge it every couple of days during summer, and you can bring it wherever you need some relief from the heat.
Is there anything we didn’t like?
Not much. Personally, I’d rather have buttons to increase or decrease the fan speed on the fan itself, rather than just one button to toggle through the different settings, but that’s hardly a deal breaker. Ditto for the lack of any mode switch button on the fan itself.
Should you buy the Meaco Sefte Pro 10in Pedestal Air Circulator?
Yes. It’s an expensive fan, but I can’t think of another model with the flexibility to cover so many bases so well. It’s powerful but quiet and energy-efficient, and the oscillation and design give you real control over how much horizontal and vertical space you want it to cover.
Best of all, the addition of the battery means you can use it almost anywhere, even in spaces where you don’t have a convenient power source. You can have it in the living room and still hear the TV, then shift it to the bedroom and stay cool while you’re trying to get to sleep. Provided you have the budget and the space, it’s the ideal all-rounder.
