Lakewood Floor / Box Fan - Liked It So Much I Bought Two!

I have been fortunate enough to move to an area where it generally doesn't get too hot in the summer, and even those hot spells generally don't last more than a day or two. I was very happy to give up living imprisoned in my air conditioned home for the summer. Instead, I have relied on my ceiling fans and a couple of window fans. My kids use a Aloha Breeze Tower Fan in their bedrooms quite effectively. I was looking for something strictly to use in the window in my own bedroom, and that I could take in or out with ease.

The local store had the Lakewood Floor/Box Fan available and I bought it. There's not much variety to choose from around these parts and in general, if you find what you want you snap it up right away and don't shop around. I did all right when I grabbed this fan.

The Lakewood Floor/Box Fan is roughly a square about 21 inches vertical and horizontal. It's about 5 inches deep. With the new windows in my house, this doesn't sit exactly in the window, but on the sill in front of the window. This means when it rains and I have to take the fan out of the window, I still can leave it on the sill.

The Lakewood Floor/Box Fan has three speeds, LOW, MEDIUM, and HIGH. The LOW speed is gentle enough to create a slight breeze and is typically the setting I use the most. At MEDIUM it draws more air through and that's what I use on hot days to try and get any sort of cool air circulating in the house and make it comfortable. HIGH is used the rarest and only when it's extremely hot in the house and really cool outside, such as after the sun goes down. Around here it tends to cool down fast and most nights are in the 50's. I want to suck that cool air into my house as fast as I can! The five blades circulate the air very well and give great movement when I need it.

The fan is made of plastic. In some ways I like that better than the old metal fans my parents used to have. I don't worry as much about my kids putting their fingers between the slats. Don't get me wrong, especially at MEDIUM and definitely at HIGH it can hurt the kids if they put fingers into the blades. However, it's not quite as dangerous as those old metal ones were. There's no safety on it that will stop the fan blades if little fingers do make their way in there, although I guarantee kids will only do it once. For this reason, I prefer having the other fans in their rooms where they aren't monitored all the time.

The plastic is sturdy. The fan has fallen out of the window at various times and been banged around by the kids and pets and held up. None of the plastic that makes up the screen for the blades has broken at all. I would have expected these to be the first things to break as it's the weakest part of the fan.

My Lakewood Floor/Box Fan came with feet for the bottom to steady it in the window and give it a bit of balance to prevent tipping. Well, they were the first thing to disappear. I can't say they really were an asset as the fan doesn't tip all that easily to begin with. Even at HIGH it doesn't wobble or tip on its own.

The fan runs pretty quiet. Since I sleep during the day, it serves as a sort of "white noise" to sounds from the outside as well as providing air circulation in my bedroom. It makes it cool enough that I feel like there's a breeze washing over me as I sleep. We liked it so much we bought a second fan to use in our living room window. It's still a lot cheaper than trying to air condition my house, especially when there's no need for it and generally it's just a matter of getting the cooler outside air into my home.

My biggest complaint is the length of the cord. It's only about five feet so you better have an outlet near what window it's going in or you'll need an extension cord.

Overall, I'm pleased. The Lakewood Floor/Box Fan has kept me from having to put air conditioners in my home and done a terrific job cooling my house on all but the very hottest days. It makes it comfortable for sleeping day or night. It's stable enough that I don't worry about tipping, and when it does tip it hasn't broken. I hope I will have these for years to come and the price was right for what was available to me.



© 2007 Patti Aliventi