As a proud owner of a Vornado 660 Whole Room Air Circulator, I wanted to see how the Vornado 460 Compact Whole Room Air Circulator compares. Especially compared to a similar sized and priced Honeywell Turbo Force Whole Room Air Circulator.
First and foremost, the Vornado 460 is a bit smaller than the 660, moves air up to 70 ft (as opposed to the 660 which is 100 ft). While both have the chrome glide bar for full control of the airflow direction, the 460 has 3 airflow speeds and is switched by a mechanical knob versus the 660 which has five buttons (four speed + one to power on and off) on the top.
The 460 works perfectly for small office or for the bedroom as it really delivers great air circulation for its size. I feel at its fastest speed, it pumps out better airflow than the Honeywell Turbo Force Whole Room Air Circulator which I use in my work office.
Having used the Vornado 660 for the past few years, it's still going strong and I would imagine that the Vornado 460 retains the same quality. Personally, I am very pleased because it's good enough to fit on a desktop or table, or kept on the floor and keeping one cool. In fact, I'm typing my review while this Vornado 460 is circulating my home office.
A big question for some people is whether or not they should go for the Vornado 660 or the Vornado 460. For the living room, definitely the 660 for its larger size and speed, but it's important to mention that there is a misconception that one air circulator will make your room super cool. That's not not going to happen! It helps to circulate airflow but it's not a replacement for an air conditioner.
If I had to do it all again, knowing now how well the 460 circulates air, if I had only $100 to spend, I would purchase two 460's versus one 660.
Reason being is that I thought the four-speed would make a big difference, but in the last two years, we only used three of the four speeds of the 660 and I could see myself having a much easier time cooling my living room by having two 460's pointing on different corners, versus one 660. And getting two 460's is nearly the same price as getting one 660.
Don't get me wrong, I love our Vornado 660, it's larger and it really has great air circulation, but having used the 460 and for its price, I would get two 460's if I only wanted to spend $100. I would position two in different areas of the living room and can easily leave one and utilize the other in another room.
Otherwise, if you had $200 to spend, then you can spend and purchase two Vornado 660's (or four Vornado 460's).
But overall, I was quite impressed by how well the air circulation was with the smaller Vornado 460. It's more powerful than the Honeywell Turbo that I have in my office and I like that you can choose white or black versions.
For the price and it's great air circulation and compact size, the Vornado 460 Compact Whole Room Air Circulator is recommended!
Hands down the best fan I've ever used.
Usage: power button with four speed buttons, defaults to highest when powered on.
Noise:
- level 1 is quiet enough that running your faucet will be loud enough to block out the sound of the fan
- level 2 is quiet enough that talking will block it out
- level 3 starts sounding like a normal fan
- level 4 is a bit louder, but not loud enough to make you raise your voice to talk over it
Air movement: This fan blows a column of air, allowing the room itself to circulate. If you want to blow it directly on yourself, you won't need more than the second speed setting if it's ~10 feet away and you don't want to be in a constant gale.
- level 1 moves a surprising amount of air for being almost silent.
- level 2 moves even more. It's also good for setting in a window and pointing directly at yourself from ~10 feet away.
- level 3 moves significantly more air, can easily ventilate a small room 25 feet away by simply aiming this towards the doorway
- level 4 moves even more than 3. I can't imagine using this level steadily unless you have a seriously large area you want to ventilate. Can completely ventilate a steamy bathroom after a shower from 30 feet away in seconds.
Design: There is no ability to have it rotate as the fan is supposed to shoot a column of air onto the ceiling or some other surface and allow the room to spread out the airflow. It works extremely well for this purpose. The up/down angle is a balanced rotation joint, so it doesn't rely on springs or clamps which could wear out over time. The base is good quality, durable plastic with rubber knobs on the bottom. For reference, I can still set it stably on a 9" wide ledge.
Overall: This will work better than five $20 fans combined. It's worth the money for its performance alone and I have no reason to think this will break in the next decade of use.
I absolutely love this fan.
Design:
Let's just get this out of the way; the fan is probably a lot bigger than you're expecting if you didn't pay attention to the given dimensions.
Now with that out of the way, this fan is well-made and unassuming. The glossy finish in the front should've matte like the rest of the fan, but it looks nice when there aren't any fingerprints all over it. The nice wide base gives the fan stability and there's no way that this thing can be knocked over. The tilt design is flexible and it works well, but it can be hassle sometimes since it relies on the motion of the metal band in the back. The location of the power cord could've been better placed somewhere else.
Operation of the fan works by the 5 buttons that lay on the top; Power, and fan speeds 1 - 4.
Cleaning this fan is simple. There's a single philips head screw you need to remove first, and then you just push down on 3 tabs to remove the entire front grille.
Everyday Usage:
This fan is remarkable. The amount of air it blows at even speed 1 is great, and it's extremely quiet. At 2, you can start to hear some noise, but the noise output is still next-to-none when you compare the amount of air being blown to any of its competitors (and even the lesser models in the same family).
I went through an entire Summer using just this fan. I never once turned on the AC regardless of how humid some days got. Remember, that this is a Whole Room Air Circulator and not a traditional fan, so its intended function is to point it from corner to corner to create a breeze through the entire room. The effects are very apparent when it's a sealed room and you see the curtains being blown and drawn towards it.
• "Is this fan 3x/4x better other fans in the $25-$35 range?"
If you have your heart set on buying multiple fans or being frugal, then I won't try to convince you. But once you own a fan with this much air output at such quiet levels, you'll understand why it's worth every cent.
• "Why wouldn't you just buy an AC at this price?"
Having an AC racks up the electricity bill big time, but if you desire a COLD room, instead of a sufficiently comfortable one, then this fan won't be able to compete. However, I prefer the latter, and the comfort of running this fan 24/7 without any worries of an absurd monthly electricity bill let's me sleep at night. It pays itself down the road if you think of it that way.
• "It's even better than the Dyson fans?"
The bladeless Dyson fans are garbage. They're loud (or they used to be) and the amount of air they blow just pales in comparison. You're only paying for the premium aesthetics.
*Cons*
The power cord could've been placed in a better spot.
The fan starts at 4 when you turn it on. Very minor gripe.
The size is a bit much if you move the fan into a variety of rooms.
There's no other portable fan that can compete against this.
This is an air circulator not a typical fan .
It's designed to circulate air in a room mixing all the cooler air lower to the floor with the hotter air higher near the ceiling while creating airflow all around the room vs the typical fan blowing air in no real pattern that works best pointed directly at you.
The vornado works amazingly well but there is a catch to it that most people don't notice, don't know or don't always mention... In order to get great results you must experiment with placement of the vornato to find its sweet spot in that particular room. In other words the vornado doesn't work well everywhere in the room and that sweet spot could be a place you really don't want to keep it like the middle of the room, far corner of the room or maybe not near an outlet. If you don't experiment with placement you may not be getting full results leaving you to believe it wasn't worth it or it's overrated when your just using it wrong.
I hope this helps..
Rarely ever do I write reviews - and I buy A LOT off Amazon...
Plain and simple - I have purchased probably 10 different fans in the past 3 years...including a $499 Dyson AM08 ...so, if you are in this same boat, or, are just fed up with horrible fans...then look no further...
Fan arrived literally this morning, plugged it right in (just so people know, I live in a 950sq ft loft condo...and have very high ceilings)...literally within 5-10 minutes you can easily notice a difference in the temp in the entire apartment - this fan has some serious "balls" - when put on the highest speed, sure, it is a bit loud - but I mean, when you feel how much air is being circulated, you can understand why...
Flat out - best fan I have owned YET - no need to spend anymore than the $100.00 this unit costs - I will either be purchasing another one (not because I actually need it - I just prefer my place pretty cool - and having another one upstairs where I sleep will be just perfect)...
Again - stop looking, stop reading all the damn reviews (I already did)...this is the one (or the one they make that has the floor stand - hear that one is even more powerful)
Feature Product
- Utilizes Vornado's signature Vortex technology for whole room air circulation
- Superior performance through deep-pitched blades that move air up to 70 feet
- Chrome glide bar provides for full control of the airflow direction
- User-friendly knob controls 3 airflow speeds
- Easy to clean and backed by a 5-year satisfaction guarantee
- Built to meet U.S. voltage requirements. Certified, safety-tested, and warrantied for use only in the U.S.
Description
Inspired by the larger Vornado 660, the 460 features dramatic gloss and matte finishes and sleek lines. Its whole-room vortex action empowers the 460 to move air up to 70 feet. A chrome glide bar enables a full 90-degree tilt, and a user-friendly knob controls three airflow speeds. Maintenance is simple with a detachable grill that provides easy access to the blades. And the 460 is backed by Vornado's industry-leading 5-year satisfaction guarantee.
We live in Las Vegas. Our house is fairly "new" and seems to be pretty well built and insulated, however, our master bedroom is situated over the garage. We also have dual unit AC's and the thermostat for the upstairs is in a dark hallway we hardly ever walk down. So the temp in that hallway where it reads is typically a good 5 or so degrees lower then what our bedroom is. I saw this "fan" on the home shopping network and watched the presentation and was pretty impressed, but also skeptical. Once I started to do my research, I found that almost every retailer who sells this fan had many 5 star, perfect reviews. I ordered this from Amazon and had it 2 days later. It's not terribly large, takes up about the same amount of floor space as our regular tower fans. The difficult part was finding the perfect location in our room to make this thing perform the way it should. Once I discovered that spot, this thing exceeded my expectations. Our master has vaulted ceilings and is quite large, so I have this on the ground aprox 6 feet away from the foot of our bed and shooting about halfway up the wall behind the bed. After a few minutes, we can feel the air moving all around the room. With the size of our room, I do still keep a basic $20 oscillating fan in one corner to kinda help aid the circulation. The other 2 fans that have been in my room have now been relocated to other places in the house. No longer need them because this one Vornado outperforms what 3 fans together could ever do.
It's definitely not an AC unit and it isn't meant to replace one. But when used in conjunction with the AC, it really cools our room down. I'm able to run the AC at 78 day and night to keep my pets comfortable, but also now be comfortable myself in our bedroom. Our daily energy consumption has also dropped down about $1-$2 a day now thanks to this.
We started buying Vornado fans a couple of years ago since the fans we bought at Sam's club would usually last only 2 years then they would suddenly stop. We had bought a Vornado fan when we first moved into our new house about 10 years ago but unfortunately, the fan was dropped during the move and the fan blade was broken. I was about to throw it away recently and plugged it in and the motor was fine. I just needed to replace the fan blade so I emailed Vornado about the part and they responded quickly and I was able to get the part and got the fan working like it's new. So we now have 6 Vornado fans in the house.
I needed a small one I could move around easily and this model was perfect. It's quiet at the lowest speed and still puts out a lot of air. As with most Vornado fans, it's best to bounce the airflow on the walls so you get a constant breeze instead of it hitting your face.
I will continue buying Vornado fans. They're a bit more expensive but so far we have not that have failed and a few of them we keep running 24/7.
They do then to get loud at max speed. So I like have 2 in a room at the lowest setting so the air just moved around the room constantly.
I bought this Vornado to replace a very old Vornado of the same size when it finally died. I am not even sure what model the old one was because it was so old that the nameplate with all the model information was worn off. I looked at other fan types and brands, but decided to go with another Vornado.
Pros:
- Stylish: I like the looks of it. The gloss black portion can get attract fingerprints and dust, but it sits under a desk most of the time
- Capable of moving a lot of air: It gets noisy at the third and fourth settings, but if you need it to push a lot of air it will
- Relatively quiet at 2nd setting while still moving enough air: I mostly run it at the second setting where it is a good balance of air moved at a low noise level. It has a relatively pleasant white noise hum at this setting similar to my older Vornado.
Cons:
- Harder to move around and tilt than previous Vornado's: This one may look more stylish than older models, but is a little more difficult to adjust the tilt. There is also no good place on top or back to hold it while you pick it up other than the sliding arm. That means means when you do pick it up and then set it back down, you have to adjust the tilt again.
- Touch buttons: The location of the on/off and speed settings on the top may be more convenient than than a knob on the bottom like my old Vornado, but it comes with drawbacks. When you're trying to move the unit or adjust the tilt, it is very easy to hit one of the touch buttons to change speeds or turn it on/off. Not a big deal, just annoying.
- On/Off button - Related to the last con, when you turn the unit on it immediately goes to the highest fan setting which is very loud. It is a minor annoyance, but I don't know why they set it up that way instead of starting it off at a lower setting.
- Made unpleasant noises out of the box: It eventually went away, but it made some unpleasant noises that sounded to me like it was out of balance or defective initially. It was most apparent at the lower fan settings, but I decided to give it some time to see if it would go away before going through the hassle of sending it back. After about 4 or 5 days it had smoothed out and began to sound like my old Vornado. I have had no issues with it since.
The cons I listed knocked it from 5 to 4 stars, but I am still satisfied with this fan. You will be hard-pressed to find another fan this size that is capable of moving the amounts of air it can when needed. You will also find it difficult to find another fan this size that is capable of relatively quiet operation while moving decent amounts of air like this one does at the second fan setting.
We have had this fan less than 6 months, and the motor already died. Took it apart to make sure it wasn't something else. The motor died! After 6 months. I'm annoyed I spent so much money on a fan that died so quickly!! It should be noted that I live on a tropical island and the humidity is pretty high (though the last 6 months have been the "dry season") so that may have had something to do with it.
Updated 5/28
Customer Service contacted me after our first poor review, and they shipped us a brand new one for free! Excellent no-hassle customer service. It's great to see a company that stands by their product.
We have used Vornado fans for years now. We just bought this one for our baby's room to help circulate the air. It definitely keeps the temperature cool and is easily placed on the floor or a table. The low setting is fairly quiet. The medium and high settings are a bit louder, but it doesn't seem to bother our baby while he sleeps. We tend to keep the setting on low or medium. Some people may like an oscillating fan, but this fan circulates the air so well that you don't really need it to oscillate. The compact size is nice for a small room. We have another Vornado fan similar to this one that we bought a few years back which has a knob to turn the fan on and to different settings. Somehow the knob broke off and although the fan still works, that was a bit of a child safety issue for us. This fan doesn't have that problem and is a bit more child friendly.
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