A tower fan buys you floor space. It does the same job as a pedestal fan from a footprint the size of a dinner plate, which is why it ends up in bedrooms and beside couches where a 450mm pedestal base will not fit.
What it does not do is cool a room. No fan does. It moves air across skin, which speeds up evaporation and makes a warm room feel several degrees cooler while you are in front of it. Switch it off and the room is exactly as warm as it was.
The trade against a pedestal fan is airflow: a narrow column of blades moves less air than a 40cm blade, and tower fans are harder to clean because most cannot be opened.
1. Best overall: Philips 5000 Series Tower Fan
Around $179 and rated 4.7 by owners at The Good Guys, which is the highest score of any tower fan on the shelf. Charcoal finish, remote, timer and a slim column that suits a bedroom corner.
Philips' fan range is newer in Australia than De'Longhi's or Kambrook's, so there is less history behind it than the score suggests.
What We Like:
- Rated 4.7 by owners
- Remote and timer
- Around $179
What We Don't Like:
- Shorter track record here than its rivals
2. Best oscillation: De'Longhi Dual Oscillating Tower Fan
968mm tall with 360-degree oscillation and, unusually, upper and lower outlets that can be aimed in different directions, so one half faces the couch and the other the rest of the room. Three speeds, eight-hour timer, remote, LED display, 55 decibels. Owners rate it 4.5 at The Good Guys.
The warranty is one year, which is the weak point across almost every fan here.
What We Like:
- Two outlets aimed separately
- 360° oscillation
- 288mm footprint
What We Don't Like:
- One-year warranty
3. Best cheap option: Kambrook 116cm Arctic Tower Fan
116cm of column with an LED display, at around $149. Owners rate it 4.3 at The Good Guys.
At this price the build is plainer and the motor noisier than the Philips or the De'Longhi, which is the honest trade. Kambrook also sells a 77cm version for around $99 if height is not the point.
What We Like:
- 116cm of column for around $149
- LED display
- Remote included
What We Don't Like:
- Noisier than the dearer towers
4. Best bladeless: Dyson AM07 Tower Fan
1010mm and 2.9kg, ten speeds, 70-degree oscillation, a nine-hour timer and a remote, projecting up to 500 litres of air a second with no blades to clean around. Two-year warranty, double what the others carry. Owners rate it 4.5 at The Good Guys.
It costs more than twice the Philips and oscillates across 70 degrees against the others' 360, so it aims at people rather than sweeping a room.
What We Like:
- No blades to clean, nothing for small fingers
- Ten speeds and a two-year warranty
- 2.9kg
What We Don't Like:
- 70° oscillation, and around $399
5. Best air circulator instead: Breville the Air Dynamic 3D Connect
Not a tower, and worth knowing about before buying one. A circulator aims a concentrated column of air at the far wall so the whole room's air keeps turning over, which means it does something useful when nobody is sitting in front of it. Owners rate it 4.6 at The Good Guys.
If the fan runs overnight or alongside an air conditioner, this is the better shape. If it needs to fit a narrow gap beside a bed, it is not.
What We Like:
- Moves a whole room's air
- Works with nobody in front of it
- Pairs well with an air conditioner
What We Don't Like:
- Wider footprint than a tower
How to choose a tower fan
| Height | Oscillation | Speeds | Noise | Warranty | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kambrook 116cm Arctic | 1160mm | Yes | — | — | 1 year | $100–150 |
| Philips 5000 Series | — | Yes | — | — | — | $150–200 |
| De'Longhi Dual Oscillating | 968mm | 360° | 3 | 55dBA | 1 year | $200–250 |
| Breville Air Dynamic 3D | — | 3D | — | — | — | $250–300 |
| Dyson AM07 | 1010mm | 70° | 10 | — | 2 years | $350–400 |
Figures are from The Good Guys listings, which do not publish every specification for every model.
A fan cools people, not rooms. Running one in an empty room adds a small amount of heat from the motor. Switching it off when you leave is the whole energy-saving strategy.
Check whether it opens for cleaning. Most towers do not, and a season's dust settles on blades you cannot reach. Pedestal fans and circulators generally come apart; towers generally do not.
Speed steps matter more than top speed. The quietest fan in practice is the one with the most settings, because it can be turned down furthest. That is the argument in Vornado 660 vs 633, where a DC motor gives 99 steps against four.
One year is the normal warranty, and it is short. Only the Dyson here carries two, and the Vornado circulators carry five.
FAQs
Tower or pedestal?
A pedestal fan moves more air for less money and cleans more easily; a tower takes 288mm of floor instead of 453mm and usually comes with a remote. The full comparison is in tower vs pedestal vs air circulator.
Are bladeless fans quieter?
Not necessarily. They move air differently rather than more quietly, and their advantage is that there is nothing to clean around and nothing exposed for small fingers.
Can a fan replace an air conditioner?
Up to about 30 degrees in dry air, a fan makes a room comfortable for a fraction of the running cost. Above that, moving hot air over skin stops helping.
Do tower fans use much power?
Very little. A typical tower fan draws 40 to 60 watts, which is a fraction of a single light globe's worth of heating and roughly two cents an hour.
