Customer Reviews

Holmes Window Fan w/ Accutemp Plus, HAWF3095-U

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Buy this fan if you want something unobtrusive that will easily fit in a window, and if you like the "Acu-Temp" feature. If you live in a climate where you sometimes want a little extra cooling but don't really need AC, its ideal, especially if space is at a premium.

It puts out a good solid breeze and its nice and quiet. It is still a fan of course so I won't say its silent. Another reviewer complained about airflow, and I will say its not a heavy duty blast like you get from a big fan... but... its not a big fan, is it. High on this fan is more like medium on a big heavy fan. I like a cool bedroom and this fan has plenty of air for me. In fact I only use 3 (high) to cool the room down intially, then sleep using 1 or 2 (low, med) except on the hottest days. We have a another honkin' big fan we can move wherever we need it for the rest of the house. We love this quiet more gentle fan in our bedroom.

We replaced our old "Cool-Breeze" window fan with this one, and first off I was thrilled at how much easier it was to securely install it into the window. It is a really good design. If you choose to use them, the baffles on the sides allow the fan to fit across the whole width of the window. It was an unweildy job when I installed the old fan, but with this one it only took a minute to get it in and I didn't swear at all. The fan is nice and sleek so it easily fit into the window without interfering with the screen.

Using the "Acutemp" thermostat feature, you don't have to get up and turn off the fan and/or get a blanket in the middle of the night (the old one was so loud it kept me up so I was awake anyway). You choose your airflow level and temperature at which you want the fan to turn off, so you go to bed when its still warm and you want that fan, but then it eventually cools down (at least here in the Pacific Northwest it does, thank the goddess) and the fan turns off. Likewise, you can set it to turn on when it gets above a certain temp in the room.

Of course you can also just turn the fan on to low med or high (1, 2, or 3) without the automatic functionality.

The one thing that wasn't apparent when I ordered it, is that the darker control panel area that appears gray in the picture is actually a grayish olive green. Its fairly neutral though, kind of a pleasant sage color. Not a problem for our bedroom but I suppose some people might not like it.

This Holmes fan is great for pulling in cool air from the outdoors when it's more comfortable outside than inside.

It's not very powerful. The high setting could be medium or even low on other fans I've used. But keep in mind the main point of a window fan is air exchange, not blowing you with a massive gust. Nevertheless, if you need to cool a large area, this Holmes fan may be too small. It should suffice for a typical bedroom. And it's relatively quiet.

I like the LED thermometer, which stays on even when the fan is turned off. It seemed accurate comparing it to some other thermometers I have.

It is really easy to install. I have a wide window at 32" but it was no trouble using the included extender panel. You don't have to remove the screen.

I wouldn't use a window fan with a/c. That will drive up costs and reduce comfort. Similarly, don't use it when it is LESS comfortable outside than inside, as one reviewer did.

I think of it mostly as a fan for the evening and nighttime.

I live in SF so it's rarley HOT like it was in Fl.and therefore my demands arent as high as others' may be. But for keeping my room cool and fresh feeling, it is great! The best feature is that you can have the two fans running in different directions. One out and one in. That is the key to really changing the climate in a room. I have had other fans that were "reversible", which meant there was nothing stopping you from removing the fan from the window and flipping it around to change the input or output of air. That was nearly useless. This fan has a direction switch for each fan so you can adjust as needed just by flipping a switch. As for noise level, I'd say it improves the noise level by adding pleseant white-noise and therefore lessening the street noise considerably.
As someone else pointed out, this is not the kind of fan you need in very hot places to cool you quickly. A window fan is more appropriate to circulate and freshen air while lowering the temperature enough to be comfortable.
This is the best of four that I have tried (can't recall what the others were, sorry...)

This window fan is perfectly functional, but the absence of some features mars an otherwise desirable product.

Pros:
- It moves plenty of air, and keeps my 12'x15' room nice and cool.

- It has some nice automatic features, like a timer function and thermostat control.

Cons:

- Too deep to fit inside my window screen.
The back end of the unit is surprisingly large, so I removed my window screen. No big deal, right? Well...

- No dust screen.
After a few weeks of use, you'll start to notice dust and grime buildup along the path of the airflow. A decade or so ago, I owned a window fan with a removable dust screen that was easy to clean and prevented such buildup. Furthermore, due to the unit depth and lack of dust screen...

- The front and rear gratings are huge enough to let critters as large as bees in.
If your fan is not operating continuously, bugs will be able to fly into your house with ease. Either a dust screen or a closable vent would have solved this, but...

- No adjustable vent.
You can't direct the airflow, and you can't close the fan when it's not in use. But that said, even if you could close the fan itself...

- The adjustable length adapter does not sit flush with the rest of the unit.
This leaves a gap of approximately 3/8" between the window and the sliding adjuster. I taped the gap shut, but it's just another irritating design flaw.

- Annoying mechanical hum that's louder than the fan noise at low settings.
The hum appears to go away after an hour or so (either that or I adapt to it), but if the fan is using thermostat control, this noise will be prevalent whenever the fan is running. Speaking of the thermostat...

- The thermostat with digital readout is just silly.
Let's face it, the thermostat is built into the unit, approximately four inches from the path of airflow. If the temperature outside is 66 degrees, the temperature inside is 78 degrees, and your thermostat is set to 72 degrees, the fan will turn on, blow for about 15 seconds, 'read' a new indoor temperature of 71 degrees, and shut off, while the rest of the room is still warm. 45 seconds later, the air temperature will equilibrate and the fan will turn on again. While it's nice to be able to control the indoor temperature, the digital readout is inaccurate and unncessary.

------

I'll probably keep this fan around for the rest of the summer, and maybe cut a piece of foam or tape an air filter onto the fan intake as a temporary solution, but bottom line? I'll probably hawk this fan to some poor sucker on the first hot day next summer at a yard sale and buy a better unit.

------

Update September 1, 2008:

Okay, so this thing spews bugs into the house even when the fan is running. Heck, the fan may even be amplifying the problem by actively sucking them in! Anyway, I grabbed an old window screen, cut out the mesh, and hot glued it to the outside of the fan, and it seems to be keeping the bugs out, now.

When I needed a second window fan, I went looking for another Honeywell model
HW-628, like the first one I had purchased, because it was highly rated here.

Unfortunately, that model was no longer available, so I had to try something else.

I'm glad I did. The Holmes HAWF3095-U that I ended up with is better.

1) The expanding panels on the Holmes are easier to use than the Honeywell,
because they aren't the same on both sides. The left side is an optional
solid panel (use for wider windows, leave out for narrower windows) and
the right side is a slide out panel that can be adjusted to a variable size.
This turns out to be easier to install -- while one is fine tuning the position
of the right panel, the solid left side doesn't move around.

2) The temperature read out is nice to have, and lets you better
use the thermostatically controlled automatic on/off option.

3) The side of the fan toward the window screen is thinner on the Holmes,
so doesn't bump against my outside window screen or push it out of place.

4) The control buttons are a bit nicer, bigger, better feeling on the Holmes.

I now have two fans, one on each side of my upstairs apartment, in Texas where
it can get pretty warm. One fan (my old Honeywell) is blowing in, and the
other fan (my new Holmes) is blowing out. This creates a nice air flow,
through the entire apartment.

For those few days when it gets below freezing, I have hand crafted a pair of
covers, using velcro, hot stick glue gun, and a hand towel, which I can put over
the fan openings to keep out the draft. That's quite a bit easier than taking
the fans in and out would be.

So far, I have seen no signs of reliability problems with either fan, though
given that I have a green thumb for electrical gadgets, I didn't expect any
problem.

I used this fan for a small room, Good points, quiet, light weight, easy to install, easy to operate. Bad Points, not powerful enough, won't fit to any window, TEMP sensor, useless. My guess is, if you use it in a very small room, and proper fit window, it could be a good vent-exhaust fan.

The fan works well, however, I wish that it flowed a bit more volume for two fans. It seems that the intake is stronger tnan the exhaust, but it works well, and dramatically lowers the temperature in the second floor bedroom.

I have windows that the inside of the channel is 2 inches from the screen. It is a modern manufactured window unit widely used in the building industry. This fan needs about 2 3/4 inches clearance, minimum. If I removed the screen, bugs would swarm in through the fan grates. If I leave the screen in, the fan sits on the sill and there is no clean way of attaching it.

Another thing I noticed was that the electrical cord exits from the bottom and if I could have fit it in the window channel, it would have been inside it and would have to loop over the channel. Not a huge deal but further evidence of a strange design.

Basically, fairly flat on the inside, bulbous on the outside. The opposite would have worked a lot better.

It went back immediately.

I bought three of these fans at Amazon for our kids rooms and the fans have served us well for 4 years. Recently, one side of one of the fans stopped working. Holmes customer service addressed the problem immediately. Not only was it easy getting to these guys (not my experience with other mfgs. of electric items), but they honored their 5 year warranty w/o any hassle. Kudos to Holmes.

I have purchased other window fans in the past that were either too loud or didn't produce the result I wanted. My bedroom is on the Westside of the house that gets all the hot afternoon sun, so trying to sleep at night was miserable. I found this particular fan online and thought the price was reasonable so I purchased it. I was pleasantly surprised when I installed it, which was very easy and started using it. During the day I switch on the "exhaust" setting on both sides of the fan, which removes all the hot air from the bedroom, then I switch it to the "intake" setting before I go to bed. It has a nice, soothing hum to it and brings in all the cool air throughout the evening so I can sleep! I was so happy with this window fan, I purchased 3 more for the other bedrooms in the house. For the price and the results, this is the best window fan you can buy!