It may feel a little later than usual, but the hot weather has started to kick in in a serious way, and it might be time to invest in a cooling fan if you've been putting it off so far this year.
I've been scoping out the best ones this year, and a new arrival to the cooling fan scene has caught my attention — the Shark FlexBreeze. It's an interesting concept for a fan as it's as strong as a standard fan, but is also portable, meaning it can easily follow you around the house, and outdoors too.
Plus, it comes with a clever hidden trick — a misting attachment that connects up to your garden hose and sprays you with a cooling mist. Genius, right?
I have a few cooling fans already, so I put the Shark FlexBreeze to the test in my own home over the past several weeks to see how it stacked up. Here's what you need to know about it, and how its unique offerings might make it the ideal cooling fan to buy right now.
Price: $199 (Get 10% off now with code BMSM10)
Across retail sites, this fan has great reviews, averaging between 4.5 to 4.8 out of 5 stars. See what our reviewer made of it below.
How does the Shark Flexbreeze fan perform?
Shark's FlexBreeze is quite a different offering to traditional standing and tower fans, which makes comparing them quite difficult. The first thing to note is that it's quite an analog fan for 2024, and doesn't involve any smart controls or on-device smart interface — some people will prefer this, some won't. It has five fan settings which while not hugely granular, especially in comparison with non-bladed fans with smart controls, is certainly enough to make you feel you can set it at a comfortable level without huge steps in between settings.
It delivers on what you'd hope from a cooling fan in this setting offering, allowing you to balance noise against how much cooling you need. On its highest setting, Shark say you can feel the fan's breeze from 70 feet away. While the largest part of my open-concept house isn't anywhere near that, I put the fan at one end and stood at the other to test this out, and I could certainly feel the effects.
This cooling fan does, of course, come with a remote, which sits neatly in the back of the fan head when not in use. The controls are limited to just a few buttons, but it's easier to control using the remote than it is the controls on the device, which require cycling through using the same button for changing fan settings and oscillation angles, but it's very easy to operate in general, and you shouldn't find anyone in the family gets stuck getting it turned on and set to the right settings.
Where this fan really comes into its own is in its unique offerings. It's portable, for one, and when looking at the wider market for tower and bladeless fans, it stands alone for a fan of this size. It can be used plugged into an outlet, or on the battery charge, which handily lasts up to 24 hours, so you won't find yourself running out mid-way through the hottest day of the year if you remember to put it on charge each evening. In summer, I spend my time carrying fans around the house, unplugging and re-plugging into outlets, so this portability really does change the game.
And, while it's pretty easy to move the entire fan (it's a sturdy, but lightweight plastic), you can also unclip the fan head from the stand, transforming it from floor-standing to tabletop, depending on your needs. It does have quite a large fan head, so it might be a challenge to squeeze it onto a particularly small desk alongside your computer, but it's a useful feature nonetheless. It's UV and rain-resistant, too, which means you can put it outside, which you'll want to do when we get on to the misting element of the fan.
Is it well designed?
Cooling fans aren't necessarily, in their very nature, the most beautiful design objects, but the best-looking ones either go one of two ways. A fan like the Stadtler Form Otto uses designer materials to make devices that would feel at home in modern homes, but they're often not packed full of features. On the flip side, something like the Dyson Cool Gen1 goes for a minimalist but tech-y look.
This sits somewhere in the middle. It doesn't have that futuristic tech aesthetic, which personally I'm not a huge fan of, but it doesn't try too hard to be a design object either. It's definitely a background character, and keeping it simple, in one color, was undoubtedly the best choice for this design. With its larger fan head, it's never going to fade into the background as much as a columnar tower fan, but it's certainly not going to ruin your home's good looks.
How much does the Shark Flexbreeze cost?
Shark's FlexBreeze with InstaCool Mist Attachment retails for $199 in the US, meaning it's probably not the impulse buy fan on a hot day, but it's far cheaper than a lot of more complex smart fans. It puts it in the same category as some mid-range bladeless and tower fans, as well as some larger bladed fans. It comes down to preference — this product undoubtedly beats out the latter, but you may find you have a preference for some more smart-enabled cooling fans that offer a little extra control.
How loud is the Shark Flexbreeze fan?
It's pretty quiet. On its lowest levels, it's a whisper, while on the highest settings, I don't think it would give you many problems whether you're on a phone call or trying to sleep.
I compared it with a standard bladed fan, which was far louder and created a "buffeting" noise that the Shark fan doesn't, as well as a bladeless Dyson. The sound is different from the latter, but on the mid-way setting (3 for Shark, 5 for Dyson), the Shark felt quieter and less distracting.
How does the misting attachment work?
@sharkhome ♬ bounce (i just wanna dance) - фрози & joyful
This model of fan comes with an InstaCool Misting Attachment that you can fix onto the front of your fan, which means it can act as a mister, blowing cool water around. This is an outdoor-use feature, in general, and requires you to fix up to your hose attachment to supply the fan with water.
It's a great idea — however, with no hose attachment, you can't get this feature to work. I'm a watering can in a small courtyard garden sort of guy, so I haven't been able to test this out in full yet, but the good thing is I can transport this fan easily to a friend or family member's house to test it out on their hoses.
Is it worth it?
At just under $200, it's not as expensive as some modern cooling fans, but it's not cheap, either. Shark's FlexBreeze stands apart for a few reasons, but mostly to do with its unique selling points over more performance-related comparisons.
If the below are on your checklist for a cooling fan, then the Shark FlexBreeze is worth considering:
- You want a portable fan: It's a really nice feature of this fan that it can follow you around the house without needing plugging in, and that it can be used in the backyard, too.
- You want a tabletop and pedestal fan: The two-in-one functionality is a nice detail that supports its portability more than a reason we'd necessarily buy this fan.
- You want to try the mister: it's an appealing idea for hot summer days
- You want a good-looking fan: It's not the fanciest design on the market, but we like how it looks on the whole
