Great fan, and is perfect for my needs. I love how quiet it is, and that the flow has three levels. The three levels are controlled with a mechanical switch, and basically switch whether 1, 2 or 3 fan blades are running at the same time. 1=Center motor, 2=Two outside motors, 3=All motors

Pros:

* The three fans (rather than the more common 2 fans) is a better design. This spreads out the airflow, and to my ears three small fans make less noise than two larger ones in other products I've used.

* Runs quietly in all speeds

* Designed to be used either in horizontal or vertical orientation (for those with windows that slide open horizontally)

* While it's plastic of course, the case and switches feel like a soft plastic, and overall the fan has some good substance to it. The plastic used for this product doesn't feel "cheap", but somewhat premium.

* 5 year warranty is much longer than other products I looked at. So long as the warranty can be serviced in the US, I feel good about the longevity of the purchase.

Cons:

* To reverse airflow, you have to remove the fan from the window, flip it around, and reinstall it. This isn't uncommon in other products, so it's barely a "con", but some products have airflow reverse switches that don't require removing the fan. I'm not bothered by this, but something to think about when choosing a product.

* I've read others state in their reviews this fan uses fuses that aren't available in the US should they need to be replaced. I don't know if this is true, but if I end up having to toss this product in the bin because it blew a fuse I can't buy in my country, that'll be sad. Because I really like the product and hope it lasts a good long time.

My review is from the perspective of my specific needs and how it worked for me so here it is:

- NOT VERY BIG AND BULKY - this is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Shopping for a fan for a small one panel bathroom window mainly, with option to use in any other window. I needed something that is relatively small, not super big and I did not need a hurricane like power of the fan either. The fan is about 7 or so inches high tops 8 but I am guessing.. In any case.. it does not overpower the window or room, it is nice and rather forgiving as far as the visual impact and what is important to me, it is light and small so I dob't have to struggle to put it in or take out as needed.

- EASY TO PUT IN THE WINDOW AND REMOVE - that is really non-process. You just open the window, pull our the accordion like extension to cover the entire width of the window frame and it is really super easy to do. Then you just position it in the open window frame and close the window down all the way till it touches the top of the fan. Done. The whole process takes maybe a minute or under once you get a hang of it. It is light and perfect so I can carry it easily in one hand. To take it out of the window.. you just open the window sliding up the panel.. then take it out and you can either push back the accordion extension or set it wherever you want with the extension left as is.

- I USE IT IN MY BATHROOM WINDOW - to take the moisture out super fast. I don't like when the steam hangs in the air and the vent alone just does not do job good enough. I am not going to bother now in the midst of epidemic and worry about the vent so this is perfect solution. Once set in the window and turned on it sucks all the moisture in no time. I don't keep it in the window as I don't need it beyond this situation.

- THE AIR POWER - This fan is naturally bit less powerful then the double fan big window fans that I also have one of. However, note to the wise - when you use TOO strong fan to push your indoor air, you must be very careful to follow recommendations. Just like with the kitchen exhaust that pulls x amount of the air from the house along with the smells you have to follow the rules of physics and recomendations.

If the air vent is too strong then you push a lot of indoor air with it and the trade off is that you also may

pull some gasses from the furnace and what not.. so you need to be careful as this can somehow endanger you and your family by creating some adverse air condition. To avoid this you have to check the fan power and capacity of air removal per minute or so.. You can call google this Or ask the seller for recommendation. To avoid any hazard I never run the big fans on full speed for a long time but rather on lower speeds for longer. This particular fan is gentle and it does help perfectly with air exchange as not only you can push out the air but also reverse or have some fans going one way and some another.

Best rule of thumb is to have two fans in the house and while one is exhausting the air the other would pull out the air in that way you avoid the potentially unsafe situation of low pressure build up in the house.

Possibly opening some other window might help but I don't know if this is sufficient recommendation. I would research this thoroughly. I usually do run other fan somewhere so I don't really run into any extremes.

It is great fan to push your air out of the house, it is also great to pull fresh air in fast. This is important because oftentimes you want to get air in fast and it is often impossible if the outdoor pressure is lower

then inside the house or even in both places, there is no inward draft then and so the outdoor air

does not get inside much without the wind pushing it from outside. This fan does the trick. It just sucks your air super fast and you can enjoy it in no time.

The portability of this fan is super important to me, I can easily take it form room to room.. from window to window as needed. and if I want to I can also use it as a stand alone fan without putting it in the window at all. I don't need this much but occasionally I had situation when I wanted a painted surface to dry here or there and so I could set it up as I wanted and had a lot of air blowing at it fast.

It can help your indoor air to circulate on one of the lower speeds if you wish, you can place it in an area of the house really.. window or no window. Just prop it against something so it stands solid and out of the traffic area so nobody bumps it or no pets can knock it down.

I was happy to see that it did not have any smells upon arrival. Smell is a big thing to me. I don't like any new chemical smells so It is crucial that an item is free of them upon arrival. It was just perfect, no smells whatsoever.

Last thing to note is that when I am not using it and not in the window, I can set it gently on the floor below the window or I can put it vertically on a shorter end and lean against the wall under the window curtain so it is perfectly concealed.

I HIGHLY recommend it. It gets a lot of mileage in my house. We use it often and we find many uses for it.

I was debating between the light color and black color and I personally like the lighter one because it does not bring attention to it. I find this just a utility device and not necessarily an element of decor so I seek things that blend in as such. However if you for some reason like the fan to be black to blend in with your particular decor or you find it more modern or like it to be more visible then go for it obviously. I am just adding in case you would be debating the color and would get stuck on lack of perspective on the issue. Perhaps this can help you to decide.

IN any case, If you need a light reliable and prefect window fan for frequent use then you should try it.

Also.. a closing tip.. like all or most fans this does not come with a timer. In case you would like it to run for prescribed amount of time I would suggest to buy either analog or digital outlet timer that cost few dollars and is easy to find on amazon and just plug it into the outlet and then plug this fan into it and then

you will be free to set the time to any duration you wish so it will turn itself off as needed.

FIFVE STARS AND VERY HAPPY WITH IT!!!!

- YOU CAN REVERSE THE FLOW -but that is not with the flip switch, you need to physically flip the device which also is not a problem , easy peasy.

- FLUID REGULATION OF SPEED is pretty neat as you can adjust the speed as you like. That is much better option then having only two three or four speeds.

- PICK HOW MANY FANS YOU WANT ON OR OFF - you can have just one, two or all three on or off situation respectively. Just look at the product pictures and you will see the options.

This unusually short/thin fan moves a surprising amount of air, but I found it was a poor fit for my 36" Andersen windows.

I love my bigger Bionaire BW2300 Fan and whole-heartedly recommend it. After 5+ years of regular 2-season use, it still runs perfectly. But when it came time to replace an ancient, failed fan in a second bedroom, I was hoping for something a little cheaper while retaining Bionaire quality, which is where this fan comes in. I also thought the manual controls on this model would be longer-lived than an electronic thermostat.

This fan runs great. Reasonably quiet even with all three fans spinning, and the small fans move a lot of air. The controls work well, although the thermostat is vague (hard to tell where it's set other than by spinning the dial until the fan starts/stops). On the negative, the fans don't turn up/down for the three speed settings. Instead one, two, or three fans are engaged to match the setting.

Build quality is solid, but there's no handle. The fan will try to fall out when you try to open the window (it doesn't balance), and without a handle, it's kind of awkward to swap it around to reverse airflow or whatever else. But the main problem is the fit (for my windows) is terrible, and the fan is going back as a result.

My initial hope was a vertical fit so I could have the window fully open and enjoy the view with the fan occupying just one side. Unfortunately, the fan is about 2" too long to install that way.

Horizontal installation was even worse. Unlike the the bigger Bionaire and other fans I've had, the top of the fan is smooth. There are no indentations or brackets to hold the fan into the window, and thus it wants to fall backwards against the screen (or out the window if you don't have screens)-- the Andersen window simply wouldn't hold down the fan in horizontal mode. I found I *had to* to use the extender screens and brace them against the plastic sides of the windows to keep it in place. And even then, the extenders were pressing against non-structural parts of the window frame (bad in the long run). I had to angle them awkwardly to keep the fan in place and not press on the more delicate plastic. A terrible fit.

The fan is also very short, so it installs at the very bottom of the window in horizontal mode. For me that means it's blowing directly onto a cat bed that was previously slightly below the airflow. If you have anything level with the bottom of your window, you'll have the same problem.

Recommended if you have tall/narrow windows, otherwise this fan is very frustrating to get situated in windows like mine. Get the Bionaire BW2300 instead.

I purchased this fan for the summer so that I can call my house without using my expensive central air all the time. I put the fan in the window horizontally up and down because I have side closing windows. The fit great to blow air in to my room. I try to fit the fan into the window to try to blow air out. For this fan the fan blades blow only one way to blow air out you need to flip the fan to face outward. The fan case is a little thick on one side. If you have the fan facing inwards to blow air into a room from outside the fit is great. If you have the fan facing outward to suck air out of a room to blow it outside you may have problems because the fan case is thick and will push against a window screen. Other than that small problem the fan is awesome. I don't often use or need to have the air pulled out of a room. But getting fresh air pushed into a room works great. I especially like the air exchange feature. I can turn on one fan blade and the other two fan blades will allow air to flow out because the other two are not spinning. I can also have 2 fan blades going and one fan blade not. Or I can have all three blades going to force air into a room. If the fan had similar fit for both sides outflow and inflow I would have given it 5 stars.

Stopped working short of 1 full year after purchase. Fan motors not tough enough for all night use. Gets hot. And I clean the fan screens every week with a damp cloth to remove dust build up but still motors slowed then just stopped working.

This review is about the manual control version. I like it better than the Holmes Dual Blade Twin Window Fan.

I didn't realize this from the pictures, but if you look closely, the Bionaire's three fans are enclosed (so each of the fans is in the middle of its own cylinder). This works better for venting. The Holmes is basically empty space inside - just a plastic box around two fans, the vents are larger than the fans, and there's no separation between them.

Pros compared to the Holmes:

- much quieter

- build quality feels solid. It's heavier, if that matters. Looks nicer in person.

- works particularly great to exhaust smoke from an ashtray on the window sill

- has rubbery pieces on the left and right ends, which is a little nicer and safer if you're concerned about window frame side damage, I suppose? The Holmes is all-plastic.

- extends further width-wise, out to 34.5"

Cons:

- shorter in height

- top and bottom plastic lips are very shallow

- airflow doesn't actually feel tremendously strong, but anyhow, it works better

I had the Holmes Dual Blade Twin Window Fan and used it for 3 years, until it unceremoniously quit working (both fans at the same time). It was a cheap, basic window fan, so can't complain too much about that.

I would be happy if the Bionaire lasts as long. One more point in favor of this design: because the three fans are "sealed" in their own cylinder (like a horizontal can with open top and bottom), all of the air flows through there. With the Holmes, dust and smoke and pet fuzz eventually accumulate all across the front and back openings - so it gets grimy on the outside and inside (which is still plainly visible), and is difficult to clean.

Manually scrubbing dozens or hundreds of little grilles on a simple fan like that is a fool's errand (which I attempted once); and then you'd have to disassemble the Holmes fan and repeat cleaning on the inside. The Bionaire design is better in that regard too.

[Edit: June 2018] It died after 3 years of 3-months of summer use. Expiring after 9 months is not good...

<Air flow>

<In>

Standing on the doorway, 12 feet away from the window (slightly oblique), I could feel the breeze from head to toe. I would guess that's as good as 20" box fan on low.

<Out>

After dinner, the smell of food often lingers in the second floor hallway. In about 20 minutes of fans blowing air out the second floor window, I could smell nothing. These little 5 inch fans moved air 50 feet from kitchen door through one of the rooms upstairs. *I tried to work the fan with the wind both in and out. Not against the wind. I opened windows in other rooms too.

<Noise>

You can immediately tell that the fan is on as soon as you enter the room, but it's not like big blades making wind-chopping noises like box fan or range hood fan. It's smoother kind of fan noise. If I turn on only 1 fan, I can hardly tell if anything is on.

<Minor annoyances>

1) One fan is very smooth, but one other fan is making small vibration.

2) Fans are uni-directional, so I have to turn the fans around if wind direction changes.

3) Stinky black rubber on either end leaves small black stains (but rubs off).

4) I wish fan speed could be controlled instead of turning on one by one.

<Problem>

1) Without lubrication, fans will seize.

2) Switch has voltage spike or something. I had it plugged on the same surge protector as my computer. Every time I turn on or off the switch, "Pop!" from my speaker. Maybe because the plug has only 2 prongs instead of 3?

<Verdict>

It works for me. It's shallow enough that I can leave the bug screen. It can suck out fajita smell all the way from downstairs kitchen in about 20 minutes. Neither ceiling fan nor AC can do that. From 2 feet away from my head, it's somewhat noisy. But thanks to 9 blade fans, it's more of a white noise than chopping propeller noise of box fans. Despite dangerous sounding popping speaker noise with the switch, I might buy another; one room in the south can blow in, while the room in the north can blow air out.

<Update: July 2016>

These fans need a few drops of oil every few months (motor oil will do the trick). These fans have a steel axle resting on copper bushings. NO BEARINGS. IF YOU DON'T LUBRICATE THE AXLES, THEY WILL SEIZE ON YOU. It's not hard to do. But you must unscrew 20 screws and screw them back on. There is an axle clamp on the fan, but it's not hard to take it out. I found that the motors get quite hot too. Under each fan, there is a plastic cover that's almost completely encasing the motor. Since my fans won't get a lot of dust or rain, I took those motor covers off. The center part of the fan is already a cup-shape, so I don't know why motors are doubly covered. No cover should keep the motors run cooler, and burn off less lubricants. I've used one drop of clean motor oil on the front and back side of the axle on all 3 motors (total of 6 drops) and that seems to work. Don't buy this fan if you are not willing to take it apart and lubricate it. If you don't lube the axles, don't be surprised if they die on you after a year.

[Edit June 2018] It died after 36 months... I oiled them, and I replaced the fuse. No use.

I don't understand or agree with the few reviewers that stated this doesn't move much air. It certainly cools the room after sunset much more quickly than the ceiling fan because it's bringing in the cool outside air. Of course, for that to work, you need to open two windows so there's a way for the hot air in your room to escape. It's very quiet and doesn't disturb my sleeping at all. There's a nice thermostat function which will shut itself off.

Note that by "manually reversible", it's meant that the unit can be installed either way, blowing air into or out of the room, as there are controls on both sides. You literally flip the unit itself around. However, at least with my windows, only positioned to blow air in would readily fit with the screen in place. It will almost fit in the exhaust orientation by pushing against the screen. Luckily I have only half screens on my double hung windows so it's a non-issue. I only use this fan to bring the outside air in anyway. But it may be a consideration if you're planning on using this as an exhaust fan (e.g. cigar room).

It works very well, is quieter than my wall AC (which I would use in fan-only mode), and saves electricity costs over using active cooling. Indeed, I prefer to let some fresh air into the house. It's pretty light so it's not much of a hassle to add and remove from the window each day.

I got the analog one (no remote and must be manually turned around for intake/exhaust):

I was skeptical because of a few bad reviews and its small size, and I've only been using it for a month or so, now, but so far I like it a lot. It's small, but easily more powerful than the window fans I'm used to that are quite a bit larger (except for box fans, those things would romp this in power, but in terms of noise this one has them beat). It runs very quiet for the amount of air it moves. Granted, it might be less effective in a large space. I'm in a small/med apartment with it placed in the living room/kitchen area, which is actually a good sized space, now that I think of it. I can feel the jet of air this fan produces from the other side of the apartment enough to feel like it was doing its job and cooling the space (about 25 feet away). I'm wishing I had another window I could use this in so I could get another one!

Cons: the cord is placed in an odd way on the bottom of the unit, I'm guessing to allow it to be turned around to intake/exhaust less awkwardly. Because of this, and the design of the housing, it sits in my window a little oddly, especially when I first got it. Once the window is closed it's really not a problem, though.

The accordion extender was pretty stiff and tough to move at first, especially when trying to fit it in the window. But the mechanism seemed to "soften" and become easier to move and lock after several uses. At this point it is smooth and locks pretty easily, but it could become a weak point. I will update if it breaks.

I'm very happy with it and assuming it doesn't crap out on me anytime soon I'd definitely grab another one of these if I had need of it.

I bought this unit as a replacement for an older unit I had. The older unit finally gave up, I had bought it used, had it for about 2.5 years, ran 24 hours a day and did the job. The new unit is white so fits my decor better, also runs 24 hours a day, this ones I can hear run but just as a background hum, I do find the controls, being at the top of the unit (vertical placement), a bit of a pain as I am short and the unit is in the kitchen over the counter tops, so I have to use a step stool to reach the controls. I would recommend this unit to anyone who requires a constant and consistent fan.

Me gusta mucho por que no solo ayuda a introducir el aire fresco a la habitacion, tambien a sacar el aire caliente, muy buena herramienta, me encanta.

Works great to pull fresh air into the house or exhaust hot air on those nights when there is no breeze.

Having had one of these fans installed and running for a couple weeks now, I quite enjoy it.

Pros

- Moves a surprising amount of air. I have it installed in a window blowing outwards with another window cracked on the other side of the house and you can feel the draft.

- Surprisingly quiet, even with all 3 fans running.

Cons

- The extra baffles dont lock in, so installing the unit can be a bit of a hassle for one person.

- Cord placement. The power cord is in the middle of the main unit, and doesnt have any clips to tuck it out of the way to one side or the other.

I have had one before, and I needed a new one , and would only buy thus one. It fit tighly in a small window, has a very strong wind with three mini fans on, and adjusts if you need less. It projects air for about 12 feet. Noise level was low to average. It can run for hours, and due to its size takes up little storage.