Like Princess’ traditional tower fan below, this connects to a user-friendly app and is compatible with voice control. Although its not a traditional air conditioning unit, it'd be pretty difficult to have a roundup of cooling fans without featuring Dyson, wouldn't it? Having tried other air coolers I now realise it’s a bit of an outlier, with a more efficient motor enabling a greater airflow. Even the least energy-efficient – the Princess Smart Air Cooler – wasn't much more expensive, averaging about 2p an hour. With some air coolers, there’s a risk of adding to the room’s humidity, which can be a problem if it already suffers from excess humidity.

air coolers 2023: Evaporative fans tried and tested from Best air coolers 2023: Evaporative fans tried and tested from

We’ve set up air coolers right through the home in 30C heat, filling their water tanks with lots of ice and cold water for maximum effectiveness.

It has a wider oscillation than many air coolers, rotating 120 degrees, but I found it more effective in fixed mode, blowing the chilled air directly towards the bed in a steady stream. Its instructions are clear, as is the app, which can change settings even if you're in a different room. We turn the air cooler up to maximum for thirty minutes, and then an hour, to test how effective the airstream is at cooling people down, while also using a digital thermometer, or air quality sensor, to check whether it’s had any impact on the ambient room temperature or humidity.

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With a 7000 BTU rating, this air conditioning unit from Meaco applies practical cooling in living rooms, bedrooms and offices with a size of between 12² to 22m². You'll be able to set between high, medium or low speed settings to maximise your comfort and adjust the fan to redirect cool air across angles of the room. Look for a WiFi- and voice control-enabled model that can be operated remotely or from another room in the house. To get the most comfort from your fan, these GHI-approved tips will help boost its ability to circulate cooler air. In typical British fashion, summer has been somewhat of a washout to date but it finally looks as though we’re set for a turnaround with temperatures expected to reach 28C in parts of the country.

It’s intuitive to use and the integrated smart tech adjusts the air flow according to the room temperature.

Air Conditioning Units | Portable Air Conditioners | Argos Air Conditioning Units | Portable Air Conditioners | Argos

The display, used to control the LED light, also shows you the temperature in your room and what temperature it’s blowing out (for us it showed 31C inside and 23C blowing out). Watts, it’s less than one twentieth as powerful as the Symphony air cooler above and could more accurately be described as a vaporiser, projecting a cloud of somewhat cool mist for about a metre.The Princess Smart Air Cooler is light enough to move easily, and there’s a grab handle at the back to help you. We often see wind speeds dropping sharply with distance away from a tower fan, but at one metre I measured 2.

Princess Smart Air Cooler, 70 W, Oscillating, 3 Fan Speeds

What’s more, this is one of the few coolers we’ve seen with a built-in timer, so you can set it to chill your bedroom before you go to bed. Dyson fans all look so distinctive with their bladeless heads that you can put a hand through that theDyson Pure Cool Meimmediately looks different thanks to its ball head. They’re also much lighter, averaging around 6-7kg rather than 20-30kg, and require no complicated set-up – although it’s wise to leave a door or window open to avoid too much humidity building up in the room, reducing their effectiveness. The three-speed fan gives you options from subtle breeze to full-on gusting, and on the lowest setting it’s quiet enough that it won’t disturb you while you work.

However, the cost comes with some amazing benefits you may want to consider if you're serious about staying cool throughout the year.