Fans are such a funny thing; you never want to spend too much, because at what point do you just go ‘f*ck it’ and buy something like a portable air conditioner. Plus, you’re often disappointed by aspects of the cheaper options, be it because of price, height, or noise, to name a few things. The Acerpure Cozy F2 seems to satisfy the quality aspects you’d be looking for in a fan, but the price you pay for it is quite extreme.
We’ll be referring to this fan as the ‘Acerpure Cozy’ in this review, because up until now, the Acerpure range hasn’t been available in Australia, so we missed out on the F1. Acerpure is laptop-maker Acer’s lifestyle sub-brand, and it launched earlier this year down under with a range of air purifiers, fans, and a vacuum. The brand is also set to launch a hair straightener and a three-in-one cooking device later down the line.
Among the new devices, I was most interested in the new pedestal/desk fan, or as Acer likes to call it, an ‘air circulator’. The basic idea of that name is that the airflow can feel more refreshing over greater distances than a standard flat-blade fan, but when I first heard that I thought it was just marketing drivel.
But I’ve got to say, after using the Acerpure Cozy for about two weeks, it’s turned out to be the exact piece of tech that I’ve been looking for, and although its sizeable price is perhaps more than I’d ever spend on something as simple as a fan, I’m coming around on the idea of it being worth the splash.
My biggest fan
I am not in a position where I can have air conditioning. I’m a renter who can only afford quite small places in Sydney, particularly ones without installed air conditioning, and buying a portable air conditioner raises a bunch of logistical considerations, the leading of which being price – would I get value for money over time, and would it be good enough to justify the larger power bill?
Naturally I gravitate toward fans – and for the most part, I’ve had a pretty good run with column fans. The problem with these is that they’re cumbersome and can often be more trouble than they’re worth, but for just sitting in a standard location (such as beside my bed), they’re more than fine.
But I also need cooling for when I’m working at my computer. I tried a cheap ‘Evapolar’ cooling fan last year, which required its internals to be filled with water so it could mist water onto your face, but I didn’t really see the benefit from it. It was also quite loud and required quite a bit of messing around.
So… What about just a good fan, like the Acerpure Cozy? Well, this has been one of the best solutions I’ve had so far. It’s extremely quiet at speeds one through six, and can go up to a maximum of 16 – which is exceptionally loud, but I completely understand the need for such drastic speeds (and why there are so many).
The trick of the Acerpure Cozy is that it’s a multi-purpose fan. In the box, you get modules that allow you to make a simple desk fan – a pedestal with touch buttons, a small LED display, and of course the fan module. You also get a remote and, this is the best part, a module for extending the height of the fan.
Now, I will preface this by saying that the height on offer with this attachment might not be ideal for your circumstance – it’s not too tall, reaching a maximum height of 86 centimetres (I hope Acer releases further height attachments for this device).
However, I’m on board with Acer’s framing of an ‘air circulator’ here. Sitting on my couch with the fan set on me, it was able to reach me across the length of it, no matter where I was sitting. Acer claims it can reach 25 metres while staying satisfying.
But the fan also has some features to it that just confuse me.
Cool your jets
At the price you pay, gosh there are a bunch of features that the Acerpure Cozy comes with – some of which I don’t get the utility of, but I’m sure would be useful to others.
There’s the typical stuff – the already mentioned one-through-16 speeds, along with an adjustable 30-degree, 60-degree, and 90-degree horizontal swing. There are also touch buttons on the base (intended for desk use) and the remote (for standing use). You can use those touch buttons with the device standing up, but you’ll probably be using your toes.
Here’s the base.
And the remote.
There’s also a vertical pivot, though there is no adjustment for the range that it will travel – it’s either going up and down, or it’s not. This is a complexity that I’m not clear on why it would be useful to me – maybe if I wanted air blown up or down to me on the couch? It’s very much an extra that I would be fine having manual control over, but hey, it pushes that price up.
There are also three mode selections – Eco mode, which changes the fan speed depending on ambient temperature, night mode, which turns of most of the LEDs and brings the device down to its base speed (you can adjust it upward), and ‘turbo’ mode, which just sets the fan to 16-speed. There’s also a power-off timer and a magnetic spot on the top for placing the remote.
So, that’s a sweet assortment of features. But would you buy it?
The verdict: should you buy the Acerpure Cozy?
I recommend the Acerpure Cozy if you’re after a fan that’s simply good and solves your home cooling issues, but it’s certainly not cheap. Small but mighty, this air circulator rivals much larger fans that I’ve used in the past, and I would happily keep using it on my desk and in my lounge room. I just wish its price wasn’t so high (at $250 in Australia), and I wish that its power cable was removable and USB-C compatible.
The Acerpure Cozy is available in white in Australia for $250.
Image: Zachariah Kelly/Gizmodo Australia