‘I sleep with this fan on every night and it’s incredible in a heatwave’

Keeping cool is high on the agenda at the minute and this fan has been great at doing just that

I’m one of those people who moans about being too hot at the best of times, let alone in a heatwave. Throw in a hefty dose of hayfever and summer can be a bit of a challenge for me.

So one thing I’m absolutely obsessed with is having good fans to call upon when the mercury rises. Last year, I read up on the Shark Flexbreeze but concluded that £179 was a bit much at the time, but it’s currently down to £169.99.

It was then I stumbled across the Challenge White Pedestal and Desk Fan and I’ve been super impressed with how powerful it is when you turn it up, so much so I’ve used it in some capacity almost every night since I’ve bought it. Priced at £70 from Argos, the fan is a bit cheaper than some of the more premium options but still really packs a punch when you need cooling down.

Read more: Tesco discounts award-winning Irish cream liqueur that beat Baileys in taste tests

Read more: ‘I’m always too hot in summer, this bladeless fan that rivals Dyson is a game changer’

I often plonk myself in front of it when I return from being outdoors in the heat and turn the airflow up to the max setting to cool me down. The fan features eight speed settings (as I’ve already mentioned the top setting is really something), a remote control (handy when you want to adjust it while lying in bed), adjustable tilt, oscillation and also comes with an adjustable height stand.

There’s not a lot to criticise, the only thing that would be a great bonus feature is if the fan could be portable to make it easier to take outside, like some of Shark’s new range.

If you have a bit more budget to spend, I also have the Midea SmartAir Cool and Purify Bladeless Fan. Sold for £199.99 at both High Street TV and £199 at Amazon, (you can read the full review here). It has all manner of fancy features and High Street TV says it’s a fan that “does it all” and it’s hard to disagree.

It boasts twelve fan speeds, four wind modes, adjustable oscillation, an auto-shut off timer, purifying HEPA filtration and an ioniser to clean the air you breathe. The adjustable oscillation is great. Anyone who’s had a standard fan will know that the oscillation arch (the amount it moves from side to side in layman’s terms) is often far too wide, and it feels like you’re waiting an age for the air being moved around by the fan to come back and hit you.

That’s where the Midea SmartAir really excels. It features the option to adjust the amount in degrees the fan turns as it oscillates, meaning you can instead set it to do a much smaller – or larger – arch, depending on how much of the room you want cool air to circulate.

Elsewhere, Dyson’s range of bladeless fans are very well reviewed, though a bit pricier. The Dyson Cool Tower fan costs £349.99 from Currys, with some of the features including a two-year guarantee, a nine-hour timer and 10 speed settings.

Back to the Challenge fan, the product has a very high rating of 4.8 out of 5 from more than 600 reviews on the Argos website. One said: “This ticks every box when looking for a fan. It’s quiet, the 7 blades give a very strong streamline flow of air. It’s sturdy and high quality. I actually bought one a few year back and bought another recently.”

Another wasn’t quite as pleased, mentioning: “Good strength but actually only four power settings, one to five are basically the same.” Though another went on: “Bought this fan a few weeks ago and it’s amazing. Remote control works well and fan is powerful and fairly quiet. Looks good, doesn’t feel cheap.”