Customer Reviews

Lasko Electrically Reversible Window Fan, 16 Inches, 2155A

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

SUMMARY: 5/5 stars - glad I bought it, would enthusiastically recommend it to friends, and would not hesitate to buy one again

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This Lasko model 2155A window fan - also sold as the Air King model 9155 - is a real blessing for me. I live in the deep South (Georgia) where the oppressive summer heat index (high heat + near-100%-humidity) often reaches into the 130s and above - and I don't have air conditioning. For me, a large whole-house window fan like this one makes all the difference between comfort and living hell when July and August roll around (it's July 27th as I write this, and I'm sitting right next to the window with the fan in it).

This is truly a WHOLE-HOUSE window fan, and it costs so much less to operate than an air conditioner. Compared with central A/C, I'm saving over a hundred dollars a month, which is over $600 a year EVERY YEAR. That's money better spent elsewhere! With this high-volume fan, I get my whole house cooled, without the $150+ monthly electricity usage of central A/C. This fan paid for itself in the first month.

Also, I've found that as I've gotten used to not having A/C, I enjoy the summers more and I'm not nearly as lethargic and short-tempered when I'm in a place without air conditioning, anywhere from the supermarket parking lot to a cookout. It all makes me wonder, WHY would I pay $150+ per month and end up so dependent on air conditioning that I can't be happy enjoying the great outdoors in the summer?! It's all a question of what your body gets acclimated to.

For the hottest summer nights, you can run a little window A/C unit in your bedroom, and still save a bundle because you can use this fan for the rest of the house instead of having to pay the skyrocketing electrical cost of central A/C.

PROS:
* Cost-efficient to operate - this fan moves 2470 CFM (cubic feet of air per minute) on only 90 watts - compare that with the larger 20" model (Air King model #9166) which moves 3560 CFM on 170 watts - an 89% power increase for just a 44% airflow increase...makes sense to just buy two of these 16" Lasko 2155A/Air King 9155 units instead...you get twice the airflow, not 44% more - and you get it for only ten watts more
* Moves a LOT of air - more than a 20" box fan, more than anything sold at Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, True Value, the drugstore, or anywhere else I looked
* Fused 3-prong grounded safety plug
* Versatile installation options
* 3 speeds instead of 2 or just on/off
* Electrically reversible for intake and exhaust - a big plus, since I want to be able to exhaust hot air during the day and then reverse it to bring in cool air at night...without having to de-install it and manually flip the whole unit around like you do with some other' brands fans (AHEM!)
* Quieter compared to the old metal-bladed fans from years past, which sounded like airplane propellers
* Made in the USA by our friends and neighbors and fellow countrymen, not in some Chinese sweatshop

NEUTRALS:
* Construction feels a bit flimsy...everything is plastic, except the interior side's safety grille - BUT, this is basically irrelevant, because after it's in the window, it just sits there, and plastic does just as good a job of sitting in a window as metal. And, on the bright side, it's more lightweight than a metal fan would be, making it easier to install and to store in the attic or basement at the end of the season
* Don't expect it to be silent on the highest speed, there is some wind noise...but that's not the fault of the fan, and there's nothing anyone can do about it...moving large volumes of air at a high rate of speed DOES entail noise, no matter what, so you can't fault the fan or the manufacturer for that
* Pricey - for nearly-all-plastic construction, and only a 50% (maximum) airflow improvement over an $18 Wal-Mart box fan, I felt that the cost of $50-$100 was a bit high...would rather see it around $35-$40 - BUT, in the end, it DOES move more air than the $18 box fan, and has some features that make it worth the cost (electrically reversible intake/exhaust, less noise, expanding side panels to give it a perfect fit with any size window, fused safety plug, Storm Guard feature, etc.) - and given that there's basically no competition in the field any more due to the prevalence of air conditioning, I can't expect pricing to be at super-low highly-competitive rates

CONS:
* Switch knob kept popping off...had to tighten up the screws under it and then put a dab of Krazy Glue on it (but that solved it)
* Not widely available in stores - because air conditioners' prices have come down so much in the last 15-20 years, the demand for genuine whole-house window fans has gone way down, meaning that this fan is usually a special-order or online-only item, either of which generally entail waiting times and shipping costs (though your local Grainger branch may have one of the ones relabeled Air King in stock)

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All in all, I am being really unfairly picky here, and I think this is a fabulous product that I sincerely hope doesn't get discontinued. It's the right unit for the job, it looks good, and it does a better (and quieter) job that the all-metal models from years past. It's also very energy-efficient. Of what's available on the market in 2009, it is the best of the best, hands down, nothing else even comes close. I have ZERO "buyer's remorse" about this purchase, and would champion its virtues to anyone considering buying one. A great product!

I've had a lot of window fans before but none have cooled nearly as well as the Lasko 16" window fan. The fan is solidly constructed with sturdy plastic side panels and a easy to turn on/off speed selection knob.Particularly nice is the exhaust feature on this fan,which cleared a smokey kitchen in mere seconds.

I purchased this fan 15 years ago and replaced it with another one this past summer because the old one clonked out on me. What I noticed about this new one is it has a different blade from the older model. It is also quieter and more powerful than the older model. I did not bother with the Storm Guard feature of screwing the fan in the window for safety reasons. If in the event of a fire and the window was my only means of getting out, the fan would get in the way. The fan takes up a lot of window space, so if you are one of those people who like your outdoor view, do not purchase this fan. If you want a fan that is powerful and will last for a good number of years, this is the fan for you.

I thought I would try this fan as a replacement for my Lakewood 18-inch window fan, which looks almost exactly the same in the ads. I have gone through three of the Lakewood fans over the last 18 years, and they were great for drawing cool air through my entire house. Unfortunately, the Lasko fan is less than half as powerful (0.83 amps vs. 2.0 amps). The high speed on this fan produces about as much wind as the low speed on the Lakewood fan. I will be returning this fan.

I have a Lasko fan that I bought around 1989 which still runs and I live in an apartment on the second floor that gets very hot in the summer so I decided to get another fan to have cross ventilation. I am really pleased with my purchase, this fan is lighter and easier to place in the window and you don't need to screw it in the window for it to stay in. It is much quieter than the older fan even on high speed and doesn't shake in the window like the older model does.I like the fan so much that I plan on purchasing another one next month and give the older model to a friend.

I bought an Air King 20" (same manufacturer of the Lasko) whole house fan a couple of years ago and it proved to be too much fan for my < 2000 sq. ft. condo. I went for this 16" and it does the job just as quietly as the 20". Very easy to install within the window frame and no vibration. I only wish that the side extenders were metal like they are on the Air King. The grill on the front of the fan is metal. I am very happy with this purchase and that's why it gets FIVE STARS. These are both excellent, high quality fans and I would not hesitate to purchase again.

I've had two of these fans for 4 years now. One upstairs, one downstairs, both set to exhaust. I'd have more of these if I had another window in the house small enough to accept the fan.

Just in case you haven't thought about this subject before, it's a lot easier to suck hot air out of a room with an exhaust fan than it is to push cool air in to the room. Using an exhaust fan works much better than just opening a window wide and hoping cool air will blow in eventually.

For summer evenings, as soon as it's cooler outside than inside, exhaust fans are the bomb.

Place this fan properly in a window, so that the fan and its casing cover the entire open window area. Then open another nearby window just a few inches, and feel the cool breeeze blowing in. When I have both fans going and the patio sliding door open 6 inches you can feel the breeze 6 feet inside. It takes only about 2 hours from jump to cool my 2500 sq ft house to outside levels with both fans going. I've had to put them on timers to stop at 2am or it gets too cold.

So why is this a great exhaust fan?

It's not the Rolls Royce of fans. It's a good fan at a great price. You can pay 3x what this one usually costs ($50 to $80) for only marginal improvements in performance. True, it's not built like a Sherman tank but it's built plenty well enough to do its job. (I like that--you know what they say, An engineer is someone who knows how to build a bridge that barely stands, but it does stand.)

Some notes:

If your window opens side to side, the height of the window on the inside ledge should be at least 26.5 inches and less than 34 inches. You need to be able to open the window at least 18 inches wide, preferably 20. They say this is a 16 inch fan, but that's the blade width. The basket is a little over 18 inches. You can screw the fan into the window, if your wife will let you. For some reason wives seem to object more to screw heads sticking out in the horizontal plane of a window than the vertical. It will work just fine to wedge the fan by turning it 90 degrees and extending the side panels appropriately. The side panels can be precisely set--they have two screws on each side. You may want to put some foam rubber or other soft material along the edge of the panels to reduce vibration--I didn't find it necessary.

If your window opens top to bottom, then the width of the inside window ledge should be at least 26.5 inches and less than 34 inches, and you should be able to open the window in such a way that the height of the opening is no more than 21 inches, 22 at the most. You can wedge the fan in this kind of window too, if screws still don't pass the wife test.

If you use screws, use the template included with the fan, and try hard to be precise, leaving about 1/16 of an inch of space at the bottom when the fan is set in. The fan has a clever keyhole scheme for hanging it in the window, similar to the keyhole opening you use when hanging a picture on a single nail. Take the keyhole length into account when using the template or be ready to put paper towels or felt/foam rubber under the fan to stop rattle.

At highest speed the fan isn't annoying--you can sleep with it in the same room if you're not a person who's bugged by white noise. At low speed, it's very quiet.

It moves a lot of air. My biggest challenge is getting my wife to buy into the idea that opening one window 6 inches will cool the room faster than opening it all the way. The idea is to get a breeze sucked into the house, instead of having cool air just mill around at window boundaries.

My fans have been going now for 4 years with no signs of quitting. But I did just buy another one as a backup. No reflection on the fan, I'm just one of Those Guys.

Be careful with the wings that extend to fit the window. They're not unduly flimsy, but they are a little flimsy. I broke one already. Another commenter worried about getting out of a window in case of a fire if the fans were screwed in. My take is that an adrenaline-charged 6 year old would have no problem flinging this fan across the room when screwed in. If you're worried, wedge.

Despite what I've said about noise and vibration, the fan is nicely balanced and not prone to excess vibration. You have to do some work mounting it correctly, but it's simple work for anyone if you relax and do it right. Get a level and a glass of wine, and you'll be fine.

You will have to clean your window screens. Kind of like replacing your furnace filters. Depending on how dusty your area is, you may have to do it more than once a year.

It is nice to be able to shut the window without moving the fan. Ours stay in the windows year round.

Bottom line: if it gets cool enough at night in the summer where you live that you wish you could sleep outside because the house stays hot, this fan is for you, if you have windows that can fit it.

This fan is the best on the market. With no A/C in an old farm house in Central Virginia, we use this fan to manage airflow. Quiet, efficient and largest air mass mover for the buck! Others just don't compare or are over priced.

I have never spent more than maybe $10 on a fan in my life, so I was kinda antsy about buying this one, but seriously, it was absolutely worth the price for me.

Let me explain my situation: My building is really old, retains a LOT of heat, and the wiring is such that tenants are only allowed to have one small window AC unit per apartment. Moving it back and forth from one side to the other is a huge pain, but it results in a sort of less-dramatic Sophie's Choice: do we leave the AC in the bedroom so we can actually sleep, or leave it in the living room/kitchen so that we can actually get things done without dying of heatstroke? So that's why I bought this fan--to help move air in the kitchen/living area and hopefully make both rooms habitable during the heat. I haven't gotten the chance to test it during a major heat wave yet (hopefully I won't NEED to *crosses fingers*) but so far, I could not be more pleased with how well it works.

What I love the most about it is the versatility. It is nearly silent on the "low" settings, but when you set it on "high," it moves a LOT of air. The fact that you can flip back and forth between intake and exhaust is really one of the selling points--it's super-handy in our combined kitchen/living room because, when my partner is cooking, we can flip it on to draw out a lot of the heat it produces. If we open up all the rooms, it helps a lot with cross-ventilation--way more than the box fan we were using previously. In addition, our old building has huge radiators which produce a TON of heat in the winter, and the exhaust function, when placed in a window near the radiator, helps a lot with keeping it from becoming too hot in here. Bonus! Basically, it does everything I hoped it would do, and a couple of things I didn't even anticipate.

I also love the way it's shaped--it fits nicely in the windowframe, and has a cute retro appeal. It's front-heavy, but still quite easy to move. It's also easy to take apart and put back together for cleaning, which is a HUGE plus.

My only complaints, all of which are extremely minor:
-I wish it were a little flatter, just because now we can't really close the indoor shutters on that window, but that's an unusual situation (most people probably don't have those!) and I won't fault the design for it.
-I'm a little concerned about the switch--it seems a bit flimsy and I'm afraid it'll break if I turn it with too much enthusiasm. But, so far, so good!
-while it's pretty quiet, it does make a distinctive noise on the exhaust setting. It's a bit annoying, but if you're more than a few feet away, you can't really hear it--I've used it while napping on the couch before and not found it distracting.

The first fan I purchased like this was in 1992 from Sears. It had their name on it, but it was obviously built by Lasko. That original is still functional, but after 14 years, it was time for a new one. Must be a proven, solid design to have been in production this long. It moves the air through my home easily, but my house is smallish, only about 1500 square ft. My only gripe concerns the fan guard, or grill, which faces towards the outside, through the open window. This grill is plastic, which we all know doesn't last forever. Exposed to direct sunlight and the elements, this grill will eventually become brittle. It takes several years for that to happen, but that's what happened with the first fan.
I hope that Lasko will in the future consider making this grill out of metal, like the one facing the inside.
One last thing........if, like me, you're sick of seeing "Made in China" stamped on everything, this fan is American-made.