Customer Reviews

Soleus Air FTY-25 10-Inch Wall Mountable Table Fan

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This fan is whisper quiet, even at the highest speed. The tilt function is useful -- it tilts at a 45-degree angle, so it's necessary to reposition the entire fan as to direction once you have it tilted to aim it where you want the air to go.

The rotating grille, at first, looks symmetrical. On closer inspection, each successive louver changes angle as they move around the circle of the grille. Thus, when you turn the grille rotation feature on, the air sweeps in a wide conical pattern as it moves away from the fan. If you want the air to go in a particular direction, you can leave the grille rotation switch in the off position and rotate the grille by hand until the air is blowing in the direction you want.

I actually use the two-hour timer feature a lot. The exhaust fan in my bathroom is ineffective, so when I shower, I leave the door open and have a fan blowing into the bathroom so that moisture doesn't cling to the walls and cause mildew. After the shower, I keep the fan on for two hours to make sure the entire bathroom dries out. My tile stays mildew-free a lot longer when I do this. I can leave for work with the fan running.

During a heat wave, when it cools off at night as it does here, I set the fan in my window, up against the screen, to bring cool air inside. At bedtime, if it's still a few degrees too warm, I keep the fan on and use the 2-hour timer so it doesn't stay on all night.

This is the quietest fan I've ever owned, though not the most powerful. It's great for smaller rooms, especially the bedroom at night when it's warm. The timer is absolutely quiet. (If you happen to get one that ticks loudly as another reviewer did, it's defective and you should exchange it for another one.)

One other nice thing is that you can mount this fan on a wall or on a door jamb, high up and out of the way. There are a couple of key-hole shaped screw holes in the bottom of the feet to accept mounting screws. Very useful if you have a situation where you need the fan in a permanent place and you want it out of the way -- I'm going to mount it on the wall just outside my bathroom for just this reason and buy a second one for the living room, to use on the window sill.

The Soleus FTY-25 is a quiet fan with a noisy timer.

We use fans at night to create a soft breath of air as we go to sleep. For this purpose, "quiet" is good. We live in the country and the natural sounds are pleasant and actually reassuring. "White noise" is unneeded.

Except for the timer, the Soleus is a good, quiet solution. The timer makes a fast ticking noise like some older kitchen timers.

A complete explanation of the Soleus controls and operation is surprisingly wordy. I'll try to cut it short...

The timer is mechanical. Once the timer dial is turned, the mechanism will tick for the maximum period that it was turned to, even if turned off in the meantime. In other words, if the dial is moved to the 2 hours position and then immediately moved back to "off" (even unplugged), then when the fan is turned back on the next day (even to just the untimed "on" position), it is going to tick for 2 hours.

The Soleus can be made to operate quietly. Just never move the timer dial to a timed-setting position.

Since we don't care about a timer when we are awake and can't use it to go to sleep, we taped the timer to the "on" position. With the timer dial in the "on" position, the fan can be turned off and on with the Fan Speed Switch, which has an "off" position, or with a quiet external electronic timer.

For those who want a smallish fan that moves a lot of air, the Vornado 550B moves more air. Unfortunately, the 550B has a variable speed controller that hums like an old fluorescent light, which makes it unacceptable to those who want a truly quiet low-speed fan.

I'm very puzzeled by another poster's comments about the "ticking timer". With the timer dial turned fully counter-clockwise (marked 'ON', meaning constant running/no timer), the spring in the mechanical timer runs out of steam after maybe 15 minutes and the fan is one of the quietest I've ever had.

I originally bought this fan because of the wall-mounting feature, which I needed to equalize the air conditioning in my home. I planned to mount it in a doorway. Before I had time to hang it, I stuck it on top of the TV at the foot of my bed and it hasn't moved since!!! The rotating grill gives a nice, gentle, cool breeze every 30-45 seconds. Love it!

I could do without all the plastic, but this fan did hard time last summer and hasn't let me down this season. It needs a serious vacuuming, frankly.

Other fans from this manufacturer appear kinda cheezy, but the FTY-25 is a winner.

Lets get the obvious out of the way, this is a really nice looking little fan. Especially for the price. It also can be used as a conversation piece since some people haven't seen the oscillating fans like this one that don't actually move, except for the inner circle.

So far so good. The timer works, but I've only used it one time, mainly to see if it works.

Now for some bad news. I bought a total of 3 of these. One for a bedroom, one for my office and one for our kitchen.

I bought these all around 12-14 months ago. As of right now, 1 still works, the other two won't even turn on. For more bad news, the inner circle that oscillates can and will become noisy after awhile. It is kind of a rattling/loose piece sound.

Another frustrating part about the design is that the on/off switch is on the right side. I have the one that works beside my bed, which is on the left side of the fan, and there is no way I can reverse the bed just to work with the fan.

Whatever happened to putting the power switch on the front of the fan in the middle?

When these fans work, they are very nice for the price. Even on the low setting, there is plenty of air being produced. Just be forewarned that you may be buying new ones once a year, as they do not seem to hold up very well. I didn't even use them in a way that could lead to damage. One is on a nightstand, one was on a kitchen counter and one was on a desk in my office. Never moved them, once in place.

I still give it a 3 because I think it is common these days for fans to tear up around a year after buying them. I'm not willing to buy the more expensive ones to see if it is a case of, "You get what you paid for". I'm sitting on the fence on whether to recommend this fan.

I have three of these fans. I like the features, the ease of use, how quiet they are. I mounted two on the wall and they do a great job supplementing my house centeral air conditioning, moving air more to where I set and work in these two rooms. The fan head turns more than enough to point it and still mount it vertical on the wall. Looks good. I like the rotating grill much better than those fans that turn their whole 'body'. I used an extension cord and plugged it into the wall outlet that I can turn on both the room light and fan with a single click. Nice quiet unit.

I decided to go without air conditioning this summer (money was a factor, but the main factor was that air conditioning fouls our common atmosphere while raising the outdoor temperature for everybody outside the cool cocoon). So I needed more fan coverage. I bought this Soleus on the basis of the very good user reviews and the low cost. What I got exceeded my expectations. I love the unique asymmetric design, with the key controls in front (most fans have them in the back). The fan stands on feet that look like seaplane pontoons. The grill has a beautiful oscillating pattern (but watch out, it can be hypnotizing). Functionally, it's very clever that only the grill oscillates, rather than the entire fan. Overall a very pleasing retro aerodynamic design. Then there is the silence. I own several fans, and this one is by far the quietest. A Vornado desk fan I have is far noisier, much more expensive, and it doesn't oscillate. The timer is a good, though by no means essential, feature; and it is not at all noisy, as one user says. And the price is surprisingly low. I would gladly have paid twice as much.

This is a good small fan. It is relatively quiet but it is not very powerful. If you want a strong fan, this may not be the one for you.

I am using this as wall fan. It is able to be adjusted from left to right but cannot be adjusted up and down. For my situation, it is pointing too much down. I wish it can also be adjusted up and down.

Because I am using it as wall fan, it is very inconvenient to switch on/off the fan using either switch on the fan. Both switches are at the top of the fan when wall mounted. I plan to add an in-line switch to it or I can plug it into a switched outlet.

Also the cord that came with the fan is not quite long enough for me to hang the fan high up on the wall. I need to add a short extension cord to it.

Super quiet, just what I was looking for. Quiet for running at night, but more power at the higher speeds when/if you need it.

BUT, after just 2 weeks of use, the motor apparently burned up --- I had it on the lowest speed, and came into the room to a noticeable plastic-electrical smell, and the blade was barely turning. I will be returning it under warranty for another one, because i do like it.

The timer noise on the one i had was not at all noticeable like the other reviewer complains about.

The only thing i would add is a built in handle, but overall i like it.

I had to send mine back after a couple weeks. Wouldn't get up to speed, and would stop by itself. When it did run, it was very quiet. That's about all I can say. Didn't have it that long.

This is the quietest fan I have ever seen. Even those fancy bladeless fans make more noise. It also moves more air than the noisier fans on the market. If you're looking for something to use while sleeping, especially if you share a bed with someone who is super sensitive to any regular pattern of noise, this is your fan, hands-down.

Now, if you want an oscillating fan, this is probably not for you. The front grill on this one can be set to rotate, and the fins on this grill will cause a slight oscillation as it rotates, but it isn't much.

As a final note, operation is a little counter-intuitive; you must first turn the timer dial to the position marked "on" (which does not set a timer in this particular case), and then operating the on/off/speed dial will work as expected. I was at first worried that the unit was DOA.