When Dan told me we were going to review some Ryobi stuff, I have to admit I was pretty excited. While I really like their older 18V Ni-Cad tools, I don’t have much experience with their new Lithium line. Then he told me we would be reviewing the 18V fan. While I thought it might be cool, I wasn’t as excited. I did a little research and found out it was $25 which is pretty inexpensive, well not compared to a $10 box fan I could buy. Anyways I thought it would be cool, but just one of those items that sits around on my shelf and hardly ever gets used.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have been very excited about getting this fan. I know it’s just a fan, but this thing is awesome. Since I have opened the box a couple weeks ago, this has been running non stop. Even as I sit here writing this article, I have it on and pointed at me. Right now it’s about 85° outside and not ready to turn on the air conditioner yet since it will dip down into the 60’s tonight.
The first thing I noticed after taking it out of the box was how small and lightweight the unit is. Then looking at it closer, I noticed this wasn’t some cheap plastic flimsy fan. The face was solid and the plastic was sturdy. I didn’t try this, but I bet it could get hit pretty hard with something and not even crack it. Even the frame of the fan had ribs inside to make it stronger. I could tell this was a well thought out product, not something that was just tossed together to make a quick profit. The base is nice and wide to also provide support. The fan will rotate 90° from facing forward to rotating up using one of 6 click positions. According to Ryobi this can run 10+ hours on low with one battery, which I didn’t test but I can believe it. I have been running it on speed 2 and get over 7 hours of run time. I have been remodeling my bathroom and have been using it to circulate air to help dry Thin Set, paint, mud, primer and more.
After using this for a while, I realized how important this fan would be to a lot of people. It has two ways to hang the fan for any worker in a spot who needs air movement. It even has a way to mount this fan for those people who work in their truck or van and need a little more air movement. On the back there is a nice carrying handle to make transporting this fan a lot easier.
Now while the fan has a lot of cool things and well thought out ideas, what good is the fan if it’s loud or doesn’t move a lot of air? The fan is pretty quiet on speed 1. Speed 2 is a little more noisy, but you can still sit right next to it and hold a conversation without any problems. For the size of the fan, it moves a lot of air. Don’t expect it to blow off your toupee, but it does an awesome job for the size of the fan. I was really surprised by the amount of air this small fan pushes.
Overall this is worth every penny. The fan is solid and lightweight. While the fan has a small housing assembly, it pumps out a lot of air. This would be great for anyone looking for a small portable fan. From your DIY to your professionals.
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