BLACK+DECKER Personal USB Mini Air Cooler, Humidifier, Air Purifier and Cooling Fan, 3 Speed Settings and 600 ml Water Tank, Soft Touch Controls, 6 W, Black, BXAC65004GB

For a fan that costs coats only £30, it is great.I'm used to a portable air conditioing unit so i wont compare it at all to that because it's not fair.I used this fan in 30 degree celcius heat with not much wind and I was upstairs in my office which is a small room and the upstairs gets a lot hotter than the downstairs.You will be pleased to hear the fan does a really good job, not a mind blowing job just a good job.It is important to follow the instructions so as to not be disapointed.1) load the side jug with water and let the filter soak for 20 minutes.This will allow for cooler air.In 30 degree heat the cold water alone cooled me down a bit but it was a struggle to feel comfortable completely although it was an improvement.2) freeze the cooling pack that comes with the unit, note there is a pack already inside the device.Yoy need to freeze it, unscrew the panel where the water container is and then put the frozen pack under the filter.Now with step two you do get satisfying results, the air coming out was really cool. It felt like a weak air conditioner whichb is a good thing.The teperature remained at 30 degrees outside and i was a lot more comfortable.Settings:There are 2 buttons on the front, one tonturn the unit on and one to switch between the fan speeds.Natrually you will want to put it on setting 3.The maximum setting isnt that loud which is great.Conclusion:For £30 this is a must have fornyour office desk.You definetely neednto be in close proximity to benefit and that I would say is around 50cm.It fits perfectly on my desk while I work so it is practical.Things to note:This does not come with a plug, you need to provide your own usb plug.I plug mine into my laptop while working.You should also note the usb wire provided is very short, so for me it will not reach to the plug socket if I were to use a plug.You can get your own usb however.I would recommend this product but make sure you understand how you will use this before you buy it.Dont expect it to cool an entire room down, it's nowhere near that powerful (it's £30).It is better than a regular fan becaise ofbthebway it uses the cool water and also produces less heat.

I'd never considered buying a "cooling" unit until the hot weather this year, although I had a fan already. I changed my mind about that when it got to 34 degrees in our "home office" (during enforced work-from-home) over a period of a few days.This unit is compact but effective if placed close to you. (The instructions suggested putting it about 1.8 metres away from the area to be cooled, but I didn't find it as effective when I did that.) On the low setting it's fairly quiet, makes about as much noise as my computer. The '2' and '3' settings provide a lot more cooling but are quite noisy, although I found I got used to the noise and tuned it out quite quickly.When first setting it up I found it did spill some water underneath, I think I moved it while it was getting its water reservoir filled for the first time (the instructions do say not to move it), so I would recommend putting a tea towel or similar underneath it when first setting it up if you don't want to get water on your surface. However once set up, it's been running smoothly and I've moved it around the house with water in (making sure to keep it level) and haven't had any spills. To be fair there is a warning label saying "do not move unit when it is on or when water is inside of it".It's USB powered and currently attached to a USB port in the front of my computer, but also works with any USB mains plug (of the type that everyone has about 20 of in their house, as it seems that one comes with every electronic device these days) - the package itself doesn't include a USB mains plug, but it is compatible with any normal plug.I've had variable results with powering it from a power bank, so I wouldn't suggest trying it.The "dual ice packs" means that 2 ice packs are supplied but the unit only takes one at a time, so that you can have one in the freezer and one being used at any point in time. It is a bit fiddly to change the ice pack, as you need to unscrew the cover (which is like the cover of the "battery compartment" of remote controls and things like that... a plastic cover with tabs on) before you can remove it. I've no idea why they decided to design it like this.

This works well for what it is, a basic water evaporating cooler with a nice way of adding ice in the form of the little packs you add to the unit. I knocked off two stars for ease of use because replacing the ice pack requires a screw driver. Since this is something you are going to do repeatedly, and is part of the design in that they give you a spare pack, this has to be considered a design flaw and certainly make it not very easy to use.However, as mentioned by others, it is not quiet at all which is why the overall rating is just a 3 too. It has a single 120mm fan in it, and sitting next to my full tower PC (which has 6 such fans) the cooler makes more noise. The fan has a high whine, and at full power is very irritating. Thankfully, I had a number of replacement 120mm fans from old PC builds and can confirm that after swapping out the original fan, you can indeed get to a low-noise solution. For reference, the fan uses a 2 pin connector, so you will need an adapter for a standard 120mm PC case fan or you will need some DIY wiring to use one.