Lasko 16" Electrically Reversible Window Fan with Storm Guard 16900G

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 is my second purchase of this fan, I got the second one to supplement the first during warmer weather and to have as a backup since my original unit was purchased several years ago. I use these to pull cool night air through the house. They are set up in windows in one room, and at night I open other windows in the house a few inches each. Used on exhaust, this fan can pull a lot of air though the house overnight, in fact it is usually downright chilly before dawn! I'm home most days, so if it's going to be warmer than mid seventies during the day, I let the house cool off as much as it can overnight and just dress warmly in the morning, then change into something cooler as the house warms up later in the day. The $$ I've saved in electric bills more than makes up for the trouble of changing clothes or taking off a fleece cardigan.I turn off the fans and close all the windows as soon as the temps start to rise in the morning, and since my house is fairly well insulated the house stays comfortably cool most of, if not all day, and then I open windows and turn the fans back on late evening when it becomes cooler outside than inside. Using this fan, and even more so with the second one added, I only need air conditioning during the late afternoon of the hottest days. I've cut my summer electricity bill back tremendously; the first fan more than paid for itself with the first electric bill.This isn't a quiet fan on it's high setting, but any fan moving this much air is going to be noisy. On low I consider it a nice white noise loudness level for sleeping. The fan is all plastic, and are perhaps a bit pricey for such, but it does move much, much more air than the box fans I've had in windows in the past, and as I've said, it can quickly more than pay for itself in power savings. I'm seriously considering purchasing a third one to keep on hand for future use if/when one of mine breaks down, as the second was supposed to be mostly a backup but it's made enough of a difference that it's being used regularly with the first fan; if I'd thought the second would be such a difference I'd have purchased it long ago. I'm extremely pleased with these fans!

This fan is quieter than I expected after reading the reviews here. It's also bigger than I expected -- it completely fills my regular-size Craftsman-style bungalow window -- I didn't mount it, I just set it in the window and closed the sash to hold it in place. It's pretty light and easy to move around, and the power cord is plenty long. The three settings are great. On low, it creates a pleasant breeze. On high, it moves a fair amount of air. It has cooled the house off every night (daytime temps in the low ~90° F, coolest night time temp low 70° F). I was hoping it would move even more air, but it does the job. As for noise, it makes the same amount of noise as other big fans I've owned. I have to turn the TV up a bit when the fan's running, but nothing major.My only complaint about this fan is that the control knob is hard to turn and it's very smooth, so I couldn't get a good grip on it to turn the fan on or change the settings. I put a small diameter, wide rubber band around it (like the rubber band that comes on a bunch of broccoli) and that fixed the problem. (I've including a photo of the rubber band on the knob.) Without that rubber band, I would have a hard time changing the setting of the fan, especially if my hand was sweaty. Lasko should consider replacing the current knob with one that's easier to grip.Because some reviewers complained about the bearings seizing up after the first year, I decided to get the 4-year extended warranty. Hopefully I won't have to use it, but it gives me peace of mind.