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- Highly portable with great battery life
- Good performance for the size
- Mist adds extra cooling on stuffy days
- Fairly narrow airflow
- Relatively noisy
In case you can’t guess from the name, the Shark FlexBreeze HydroGo puts a watery twist on the desk and floor fan. Not only is it cordless and weatherproofed for outdoor use, but it features a built-in mister that disperses a fine mist to help you beat the summer heat. In theory, this might give it the edge over larger fans like the MeacoFan Sefte 10in Table Air Circulator and Duux Globe, but it’s also the most expensive proposition of the three. Do the additional features make it worth the extra cash, and does the mister make a difference? I’ve spent some time cooling off with the FlexBreeze HydroGo to get some answers.
What do you get for the money?
The FlexBreeze HydroGo is a compact desk fan with a 21cm width and a 22cm depth, standing 29cm high. It sits quite low on a U-shaped stand and has a 45° range of vertical tilt, the majority of this going upwards. There’s no oscillation as with most high-end desk fans, but the FlexBreeze HydroGo makes up for it with a set of unusual features. It can run for up to 12 hours from an internal Lithium Ion battery, while the fan incorporates a mister: this will either spray an ultra-fine mist continuously for up to half an hour or in intervals for 60 minutes.
It’s solidly built and, thanks to the top-mounted handle, very easy to carry around. With the water tank empty, it weighs 1.77Kg. It’s powered by and charges from a compact 36W power brick with 2m of cord, and the battery takes just under three hours to recharge from empty. The combination of the battery and the portability makes for a versatile fan you can use in a range of places, both inside and outside the home. You can have it in the office while you work or in the lounge while you’re relaxing, then take it outside to the garden or the greenhouse when there’s no breeze to go around. A rubber flap seals off the charger socket for use outdoors, while a larger flap covers the intake for the water tank, which is just about big enough for filling from the tap.
What features and settings does it have?
The fan itself has five speeds plus a NaturalBreeze mode, which you can cycle through using a button on the top. The speeds take you from a subtle, near-silent breath of air, just 28.7dBA, to a fairly raucous 50.6dBA gust, with the noise settling at around 39.4dBA on medium speed. The NaturalBreeze, meanwhile, does its best to simulate the wind, though I found the changes in noise and airflow less relaxing than “NaturalBreeze” implies.
As for the mist, this either runs constantly once turned on, or can be toggled to the interval setting, in which case you get roughly three seconds off between every two seconds on
How well does it perform?
Even without the mist, the HydroGo delivers very effective cooling for its size. I measured air speeds of 3m/sec at a 1m distance on the maximum setting, falling to 2.2m/sec on the medium setting (three) and 0.8m/sec on the lowest setting. That’s higher than some excellent desk fans like the Duux Globe and the NSA Compact Cool, even if it falls behind the 3.5m/sec of the Xpelair XPA360CF and the ludicrous 7.8m/sec of the Meaco Sefte 10in Table Air Circulator (both of which are significantly larger).
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From a 1m to 2m distance, I had enough airflow on medium to high settings to make a hot day more bearable, while there’s just enough movement on the lower speeds to cool things down during a stuffy evening.
What’s more, the mist really helps. It’s actually better on the low to medium fan speeds, where the airflow doesn’t disrupt the jet of vapour, and it gives you enough cool moisture to take the edge off the heat without leaving you, your clothes or any papers feeling soggy. I don’t think you want it on all the time (you’d need to refill it every hour for starters) but I ended up liking it much more than I expected.
Shark claims that the HydroGo will run for up to 12 hours on a full charge, though this is at the lowest speed setting. At the medium speed (three) it managed a reasonable six hours and 42 minutes, which should be long enough to see you through the warmest part of the average hot day. It takes roughly two hours and thirty minutes to recharge.
Is there anything we didn’t like?
This is a compact desk fan and the angle of the airflow seems fairly narrow. With no oscillation, it’s good for cooling one or two people at reasonably close quarters but not if you’re trying to cool a wider area or put some breeze across your body while you sleep. What’s more, there’s no dedicated sleep mode, even if the indicators turn off when you haven’t pressed anything for a while.
If you’re looking for a fan you can snooze with, you might also want to think about the noise output. At the lowest speeds it’s virtually silent, putting out 28.7dBA. However at medium speeds this rises to 39.4dBA and at full speed it hits just over 50dBA. The Duux Globe is significantly quieter, at a maximum 42.4dBA, while the VonHaus 2500952 6in Desk Fan keeps noise levels below 42.5dBA.
Should you buy the Shark FlexBreeze HydroGo?
Maybe. It’s powerful for its size and the mister is fantastic. Everyone I know who tried it over a hot spring weekend liked it more than they expected, and some remarked how great it would be while working in a stuffy office or working out on a rowing machine. At the same time, however, it’s quite expensive and there are quieter options out there with similar performance, including the Sefte 10in Table Fan and Meaco’s new Sefte 8in Desk Fan. If you’re not fussed about the mister, you might want to look at those instead.
