Swan SFA12610BN, Retro 16 Inch Stand Fan with Metal Blades, Oscillation and Tilt Function, 3 Speed Settings, Low Noise, Black

Update: Two years on and it is still quiet enough, without any rattles. Works perfectly. Sturdy. Moves a lot of air, keeping it nice and cool on hot days. Increased the rating to a full five stars as it has been a reliable hard worker.Original Review with Directions:Awful directions. Let me help you get it put together....First, this is for the 16inch STAND fan. I have no idea what the smaller ones are like, which are included in this listing. Second, I’ve never written out directions before, so I’m not promising to be particularly helpful, but they have *got* to be better than what is provided.After you unpack it all and have checked that everything is there, you may be wondering about the screws. Most of them are actually in place already, which is helpful, but look out for the tiny screw and nut which are supposed to be included for the grill. I found the nut, but no screw. It was loose in the bottom of one of the big bags surrounding the grill and blades.You’ll need a fairly long Phillips screwdriver. And, if you are putting it together alone, you’ll need a way to balance the thing while you are working on it. It’s heavy and awkward to hold. I’m an average sized woman, and I used a big chair so I could cradle it in my lap.INCLUDED INSTRUCTIONS: “Fasten the rear grille onto the motor with four screws.”MY ADVICE: The screws are in the right slots, so take them out, put them within easy reach. Put one screw through the grill, THEN MAKE SURE THE HANDLE IS AT THE TOP before you start trying to fit it into place. I had the entire fan half way finished before I realized the handle was at the side. Ugh. Had to take it all apart and literally start over. (I’m convinced that twisting and untwisting and re-twisting screws is one of the main reasons why things that move start to rattle. So don’t be like me—do it right the first time.) Also, once you have the first screw in, don’t tighten it. Keep it loose so you can move it enough to get the next screw in place easily. In fact, it’s always best to leave them all a bit loose and then tighten them all after the last screw is completely in.INCLUDED INSTRUCTIONS: “Install the Blade onto the Motor Shaft by tightening the blade screw.”MY ADVICE: Nowhere does it tell you that there is a BLACK RUBBER TUBE covering the shaft, or that you have to remove it to reveal the indented place where the screw goes. I’ve included a photo, because this one will cause you massive grief if you don’t know ahead of time. Loosen the screw in the blade so it is level with the inside of the hole. Then put the blade over the shaft, let it go down until the top is even with the top of the shaft. Tighten the screw so that it fits into the indent. Make sure this is good and snug.INCLUDED INSTRUCTIONS: “Centre the front grille by aligning the logo on the grill Hub so it is horizontal and parallel to the floor. Secure the front and rear grills completely together by snapping grill clips into place. Lastly, tighten the grill locking screw at the bottom of the Rear Grill.”MY ADVICE: Forget the logo. You are looking for the CLIP that doesn’t move—the one that is kinda two pronged to go around the wire. (I’ve included a photo, as I’m rubbish at explaining tool bits.) Make sure it is at the top and clips on completely over the back grill. After turning and pushing, and getting a tiny sliver of metal in my finger, I ended up having to pry that top unmoving clip wide enough (with a flat screwdriver) so that it would fit completely over the back grill and the grills would line up correctly. After that, the clips that flip and snap were a little easier. Two of them were still very tight, but I manhandled them into submission. Ha!As for the nonexistent grill-locking screw, it wasn’t needed. And honestly, it wouldn’t have fit anyhow. If you’ve put things like this together before, you’ll know that it doesn’t take much during manufacture to make them just a teensy bit off, so that they don’t exactly line up. Well, in this case, as you can see from the photo, the screw hole at the bottom was misaligned enough that if I’d tried to put a screw in there, it would have been a nightmare. Luckily, the clamps are so tight it doesn’t rattle. If it did, I’d have found a tiny screw and wrestled with it, because I hate the sound of metal rattling, but, as mentioned, it all fits quite tightly together. (Your mileage may vary.)Finally the base. The included directions are not so bad. As someone else mentioned rust, I’ll add here that my stand had some rust on the inner pole. Not really a big concern, since you’ll probably put some scratches on it yourself just getting it together. Lol.Also, the heavy black base was pretty filthy and had to be wiped off before it was going in my house. Perhaps the folks who packaged it thought that since it was going to be hidden by the pretty blue cover, it didn’t matter. :PINCLUDED INSTRUCTIONS: “…ensure it’s strong enough and all fastenings are sufficiently tight.”MY ADVICE: I’ll second that, and warn you ahead of time that there are three different fastenings that you have to worry about. (I’ve included a photo.) Make sure you loosen them all before you even start, because as stated before, that motor is heavy. If you are doing it yourself, be smart, and take out all but the small screw, and make sure it is unscrewed to be level with the inner metal.This next bit may be too much detail for most of you, but I’m putting it here anyway, because as stated at the beginning: Don’t do what I did. Lol.Put the BIG long screw in your right hand, hold the motor with your left and ease the motor onto the pole. Quickly push the long screw through right to left. This takes a lot of the weight of the motor so you can maneuver better. Switch the weight of the motor to your left hand, and with your right hand twist the large white plastic button handle over the end of the big screw that is sticking out.Don’t tighten it completely until you put in the smaller button screw on the right side and start to tighten it. It’s all a bit twist-shift-tighten-repeat at this point. You need to make sure all three of them are good and tight, and at the same time, make sure the fan is angled the way you want it. Yes, you can adjust the angle, but it isn’t easy, so make sure you have it as you want it before you start tightening things up. I tightened the large one first, and it made the small one almost impossible to move, so you have to do them a bit at a time to keep it all even. When you want to adjust, you have to unscrew both white knobs on either side in opposite directions, just a bit, make the adjustment and then tighten them up again good and tight. It’s a heavy motor, so I’m guessing that too much faffing around with it is going to make it loose or rattle, so figure out what you want and leave it. In fact, moving it using the handle is something we plan to keep at a minimum as well. It’s heavy and at some point it’s going to need tightened up again, and I’m in no hurry.After it’s together, the fan does what you expect. It is metal, heavy, and puts out a lot of air. It isn’t loud, in that it doesn’t make clanging sounds or irritating clinks, taps, etc. However, on full force (which is what we always use), it does make a rather loud swish of air, and there is a deep (rather lulling) hum of the motor. Again, nothing unusual or irritating. Noise is a relative, subjective beast. So, what doesn’t bother us may drive you nuts. It is, however, a big fan. So, it’s not going to be quiet. Unless it’s turned off.Good luck!:D

I'm very pleased with this purchase. Arrived quickly. Easy to assemble. Looks great. I like the metal blade and fan cover. Good price. It is however a bit noisy but the fact it's powerful and has kept us cool in the heatwave far outweighs being able to hear the TV!!

I'm pleased with this fan. It is quite powerful and creates a good airflow, across a wide area, in the large room I have put it in. It's not silent, but the noise just sounds like the woosh of air any fan is going to create, it doesn't cause me any problems. A less powerful metal fan we have is louder. The construction was straightforward and I didn't have any problem with the instructions. It looks nice too. The cord could be longer, considering that it has to stretch from the top of the fan to the socket. I don't have a huge amount to compare it to, but after umming and ahhing for a while over what to buy, I'm happy with it and feel like it's worth the price.

I got this fan for my husband for when he's zwifting (riding his bike on a smart trainer) as he gets incredibly sweaty (it's really quite gross!). he was previously using a tower fan which was precariously balance on two coffee tables (doh!). In the interests of safety, l decided to buy him a floor standing fan, and after a lot of research, chose this one.It was reasonably easy to assemble, and seemed okay quality. The blades on the fan are metal, which are better than plastic, which many fans have. Due to the weight of the fan, it doesn't really tilt up very well, and the fan comes down again, and the screws which you use to adjust the position do not seem very robust. The knob for turning the fan on and adjusting the speed has come off a few times, but that's probably because my husband was trying to turn the fan on whilst riding his bike!The fan itself is very powerful, and my husband is very pleased with it. It is much more powerful than the tower fan, and also (l think) much nicer to look at it. It makes a reasonable amount of noise, because, well, it's a fan and it blows wind! It's so powerful that it blows his sweat off him and across the room (eeeuuwww!!) so l have to make sure l am not sitting the opposite side to the fan or l get a shower of sweat on me (and that's not good for any relationship!!!).All in all, l recommend this fan as it very powerful and does the job it is designed to do.

I have no idea why Amazon would sell this fan in the US It is wired for the UK and will not work in the US! The US uses 120 volt and UK uses 240. They are not compatible! Back it goes. I am $20 poorer.The manufacturer should at least provide postage to return this item!! I have never had such a terrible experience with Amazon. To be forced to pay postage, not to mention my time and the inconvenience, to return an item that is NOT useable in the US.BAD experience!!

Beautiful fan but can't use it yet because it needs a plug adapter. It has a UK plug.

Doesn’t work in America! Now I’m stuck with an expensive fan I can’t use or afford to pay shipping on to return!