Holmes Dual Blade Twin Window Fan

1.You don't have to cycle through 10 settings to turn it off - hold the button down and count to 3. 2.I noticed that a great deal of the negative reviews on this fan exactly match a similar Holmes fan at a much cheaper price point - I have to wonder if some of them are on the wrong product page. 3.There is a trick to this fan that I believe some people don't understand - it only works if the outside air temperature is LOWER than the inside temperature. If the outside air temperature is higher than the inside temperature, you'll just be sucking hot air into your room. We use an indoor/outdoor wireless thermometer and immediately shut the fan off and close and cover the window as soon as the outside temp gets within a degree of the inside temp. If I didn't have the thermometer (which wasn't very expensive), I would just use the Weather Channel hour-by-hour forecast or something like that to make a judgement call on when to turn it off and on. In other words - it's mainly meant for nighttime use. You can use it as a floor fan or something when it's warmer outside than in, but take it out of the window for heaven's sake! I also wouldn't reverse the direction and expect it to do much unless you had some cooler air to pump into the room as the warmer air was sucked out; but it would work very well to clear hot air out before turning on the A/C or something along those lines. If the temperature was fairly equal inside and out, I could see fresh air being somewhat more relieving than just moving inside air around, and the idea of putting one on intake at one end of a room and one on outtake at the other end would be a very effective way to move air around, too. Otherwise - think before you decide when/how/where to use the window fan. It's not rocket science - but it's not plug-in and expect a cheap A/C miracle, either. 4.It's not noisy at all. Compared to central A/C? Yeah, it's pretty loud. Compared to a box fan and most floor fans? It's whisper quiet. 5.It doesn't seem to be any lower quality than any other plastic fan I've ever owned. I don't expect it to last forever, but I don't think it seems too cheaply made for a plastic fan. All things considered, quality control on something like this would mean that sometimes a bad ones will get through, so I would probably exchange it at least once before asking for my money back. (We ordered 3 and they all work fine, though.) The only negative I can really say is the thermostat gadget. When the temp is on the line, the thing can't make up it's mind and starts and stops for awhile. It *does* work though, so if you need it to 'think' for itself while you are at work or something it is a worthwhile and useful feature. For it to work smoothly it would have to be considerably more sensitive and expensive and I don't care to pay that much for a fan. Also - I have to say this. Some reviewers were disappointed that the thing was 'unsafe' and they had to take it out of their window to secure the house from burglers when they were away. All I can think is: REALLY?!? For a plastic fan at this price point, people seriously expected that?!? So, with that said: No. No, it's not secure and you will need to remove it and lock your window if you are concerned about your neighborhood and your TV. I refuse to remove a star for that, though. (You might be grateful however, if you ever get locked out and have to boost your youngest through a window. Not that this has ever happened to me or anything....)

This fan does a better job than I ever would have imagined. I have it in a second floor window of a home built in the 1700's. I originally bought it for the main bathroom for better ventilation and cooling, but decided to put it in our bedroom on a temporary basis. We had just moved and did not get all of our air conditioners put in upstairs yet. So, downstairs was cool and wonderful, but upstairs was literally like entering a heat wave as soon as you reach the top of the stairs. We put this fan in our bedroom window with both sides of the fan set to exhaust and the difference it has made is unbelievable. Our bedroom is cool and as long as we leave our door open you do not feel that heat wave as soon as you reach the top of the stairs anymore. We have actually decided not to put our a/c in the window now, since the fan does such a good job and we really only have about a month yet that we would need the a/c and then have to take it out anyway. I believe after it had a full day of running and circulating the air, it eventually started pulling the cool air up from downstairs since it was set to exhaust. I cannot believe the difference it has made and it is an excellent purchase. You can feel the air lightly circulating the room and it is just as good as the a/c would have been. The room is totally cooled and the hall way is cool and comfortable. It runs quietly, even set on high. The controls to switch from exhaust to intake simply slide to either setting and the fans reverse pretty instantaneously when you change it. I am throughly satisfied with this purchase and am in awe that a simple window fan does such an amazing job. If you're debating this purchase, just buy it. I will be ordering another one for the bathroom still, just for better ventilation as its such an old house and has no built in exhaust in the ceiling. I think if you had a couple of these scattered in windows throughout the house, you would not even need air conditioning.

OK, so this is going to be a weird review. I despise and therefore refuse to be one of those people who give a 1 star review for a product because THEY didn't know what they were doing. Saw someone post a 1 star review for an appliance because it was too big for his kitchen counter top. The size was shown, he's an idiot. I don't want to be that guy. The fan works very well. The reversible airflow works as intended, and you can set the fan to be one side extracting, one side on intake. Neither of the fans rattled in either position, extract or intake. Also it's a nice looking fan. But... My cat moves more air when he sneezes than this fan does, even on high. Now, if you have a small room, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this fan. It's really quiet. The room I wanted to put it in is approx 8' x 15'. On high, standing 6' away, I couldn't feel anything. I lit a lighter, barely a flicker. My own fault, I should have researched the specifications better. I got this to replace an aged Honeywell unit that, quite literally, disintegrated. It was very old, and had served me well. The fans were 6.5" diameter on the Honeywell. This Holmes is 8.5". I thought bigger fans, more air movement. But... whereas the Honeywell fans spun at approx a million RPM, this fan spins at about 5. The Honeywell sounded like a jet taking off, this fan sounds like a whispered confession. Bottom line: if you have a small space and want a quiet fan, by all means pick this up. It's a quality fan. If you have a bigger space, look elsewhere.

This fan is light and VERY easy to install (it took probably 2 minutes to install). You can keep your screen down so it doesn't invite insects into your space. It cooled my stuffy, second floor apartment in about 3 minutes. In my living room I put it on intake at night and exhaust during the day. In my very narrow kitchen I just want more air circulation in general so I put one fan on intake and one on exhaust (the product contains 2 fans that are attached but that operate separately). I am very happy with this purchase because it lets me get fresh, cool air into my apartment while still allowing me to keep my windows open (unlike an air conditioner). It's a little noisy but I have heard a table top fan that was noisier, so I'd say the noise level is normal and reasonable. I have windows on only one wall of my apartment so there is no cross breeze. This fan creates a breeze in my apartment regardless. I'm really very happy with it.

You are in luck today. This is a direct comparison review between the three most popular currently available twin window fans: Bionaire BW2300 Twin Window Fan with Remote Control Holmes HAWF2043 Twin Window Fan Honeywell HW-628 Enviracaire Twin Window Fan If you are interested in purchasing any of those window fans, read on... I didn't intend to have to do this review because I didn't intend to purchase more than one of these fans. I can tell you now that all of these fans are super cheaply designed and built and none of these fans are perfect, but in my opinion, one is worse than the others. Holmes HAWF2043 Twin Window Fan : my rating - 3 of 5 stars I first purchased the Holmes HAWF2043 unit. It was lightweight and fit the window nicely although I had trouble with the extender which is located on the right side. The locks for the extender are located on the right side along the top and bottom edge of the fan, which is supremely stupid because as soon as you place the fan in your window frame and put weight on it, the bottom lock locks and you can not move the extender. What rocket scientist thought of this? So you have to unlock the locks before you place the unit in the window AND keep weight off the bottom lock until you have the extender adjusted to where you want it. This maneuver is not so easy, especially at first. Plus, the lock mechanisms can be difficult to move. At the time, I could not imagine anything worse, but I was wrong as I found out with the extenders on the Honeywell unit which I will go into in the next paragraph. This Holmes unit has the best placement of the power cord which is in the lower left corner... the location is high enough as not to interfere with the bottom of the window frame. This unit has two speeds, high and low. The controls are easy to operate. In fact, there is only one button and two switches. The button cycles through the high and low manual speed settings and then though the automatic temperature presets which are at 60, 65, 70, 75 & 80 degrees fahrenheit. If you set it at one of the temperature presets, the unit will turn off once the sensor reaches that temperature. It seemed to work although I did not have the opportunity to see how accurate that function is. The two switches set the direction of the fans to either intake or exhaust which can be done on each fan independently, so you could have one fan on intake and the other on exhaust for quickly exchanging room air with fresh air. This unit has 8.5 inch fans and they are relatively quiet at both speeds - naturally high is louder than low, but don't expect silence. I own a Kill-A-Watt P3 energy meter and this unit used 46 watts on low and 63 watts on high. I would have been happy with this unit except that two days into using it, the right fan started working intermittently. Of course, that is unacceptable. Returning. I give this fan 3 out of 5 stars because I feel that if you get a good one you'll be happy with it, but don't expect anything great. FYI: Holmes is a division of Sunbeam. Honeywell HW-628 Enviracaire Twin Window Fan : my rating 2 of 5 stars So with the right fan not working correctly on the Homes, I ordered the Honeywell HW-628. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I was not going to be happy with it. For one thing, the unit has 7 inch fans compared with 8.5 inch on the Holmes. So in order to move as much air, the fans would have to run much faster and the unit will be much louder. Time to install... I previously mentioned that the extenders on the Holmes were poorly designed, but the extenders on this Honeywell were MUCH worse. First of all, this unit has two shorter extenders on both the right and left sides instead of one longer extender like the Holmes has. Second, the four extender locks are, get this, located on the BACK of the unit, the side facing out the window! How are you supposed to set those? It was impossible for me. I ended up jamming the extenders into the window frame in order to keep them extended. Okay, so I finally get the unit in the window and turned it on. I found out immediately that my thoughts about the smaller fans, higher fan speed and noise were true. This thing is LOUD. Super loud. And buzzy. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it is downright unruly. There is no chance you would use this in a bedroom even on low speed. The controls were easy to use although not completely intuitive. There are three speeds available on each fan - low, high and super high. You have to set each fan separately, which I think is stupid. I cannot imagine a scenario where I would want one fan on high and another fan on low, etc. The temperature setting dial is also extremely stupid. There are no temperature markings. According to the manual, you are supposed to keep the unit on until the room reaches a temperature that you like and then turn the dial back until the unit cycles off. Seriously? Each fan has its own direction switch for either intake or exhaust. The power cord is located on the bottom center of the front of the unit and its mounted too low so that it interferes with the bottom of my window frame. Who is designing these things? The one feature it had that I liked was that the grilles were directional and could be rotated to direct air in a 360 degree arc. On the power consumption front, this unit used twice the power as the Holmes! - 97 watts on low, 109 watts on high and 120 watts on super high. My unit was defective in that the switches for the right fan are wired incorrectly such that low is high and high is low, but super high is still super high... odd. Returning. Due to the noise level, I would not recommend this unit. I cannot understand how it has 4 of 5 stars and as of today, 262 reviews. Incomprehensible. Bionaire BW2300 Twin Window Fan with Remote Control : my rating 4 of 5 stars So after the poor experience with the Honeywell (They put their name on that piece of junk? They are a defense contractor!), I purchased the Bionaire BW2300 hoping for better luck. The first thing I noticed was the similarity between this unit and the Holmes. That is because they are both made by the same company. Bionaire, like Holmes, is Sunbeam. It has the same right side extender locks as the Holmes, but after the experience with the unusable rear locks on the Honeywell, I was happy to see them! One unwelcome difference is that the power cord is located on the bottom center of the front like it is on the Honeywell, which itself is not a problem but its also too low like it is on the Honeywell. I mounted the unit in window fairly quickly and turned it on. Its got three speeds, low, medium and high. It uses 8.5 inch fans like the Holmes and it is relatively quiet, although I think it may be ever so slightly louder than the Holmes on high. The controls are all electronic and it has an electronic temperature readout and thermostat. It is very easy to use. Simply choose a fan speed and put the unit into intake, exhaust or one fan on intake and the other on exhaust (air exchange mode). You can use it either in manual mode where there is no temperature control or you can set a temperature for the unit to reach and then turn off (automatic mode). This is easy to do using the simple up and down buttons to the right of the large temperature readout or you can use the remote control. Once you set it, it will remember your settings if you turn it off as long as you don't unplug it. The remote control works well and it allows you to control all of the fan's features and functions remotely: on/off, fan speed, air direction, temperature and to toggle between automatic and manual mode. Finally, there is a button to change the brightness of the temperature readout, although you cannot completely turn it off. The power usage was similar to the Holmes. The Kill-A-Watt read 43 watts on low, 49 watts on medium and 64 watts on high. Unlike the most popular review for this unit, my temperature probe was located in its proper track and it seems to work well. I've been using it for three weeks now without issue and so this is the keeper. 4 of 5 stars for this. Its not perfect, but in my opinion, its the best of the three. Just remember that with any window fan, one of the most important things is setting up a ventilation route. In order for a window fan to be most effective, you have to have a second open window for either: drawing in fresh air if you put the fan in exhaust mode. or exhausting room air if you put the fan in intake mode. If you don't have a second open window for either mode, you'll either create a vacuum or pressure balloon, respectively - and either way, you'll not be moving much air which is what a fan is all about - in addition, you'll possibly be overheating and likely killing the fan's motors. The second open window can be in another room or on another floor or it could be a screen door, but you need an unobstructed, open source of fresh air with the fan on exhaust or an equally open window for air to exhaust through if you put the fan on intake mode. Of course, you could use the fan on exchange mode where one fan pushes air in and the other exhausts, but this is not ideal as my observation is that this mode is not nearly as efficient the other two. Also remember that the outside temperature rules everything. In my experience, in order for a fan to cool a room, the outside temperature needs to be at least ten degrees cooler than the inside temperature, and preferably falling, like it typically does at night. If the outside temperature is about the same as inside or warmer, then you'll not be cooled off by a fan. Humidity counts, too. High humidity = bad. The window fan works well for me in the evenings/nights where the outside air temperature drops 10 or 15 degrees into the low 60s or 50s, but the inside air temperature would stay high, even with all the windows wide open as often happens without any significant wind or breeze. With the fan on and with the windows and doors set up correctly, the upstairs bedrooms stay within five or six degrees of the outside temp for me without having to turn the air conditioning on in the spring and fall. I find intake mode most effective for me. And again, remember that the effectiveness of any window fan will depend a lot on the outside temperature and humidity level. As far as these fans are concerned, I would say either get the Holmes HAWF2043 or the Bionaire BW2300 , but stay far away from the Honeywell HW-628 . Good luck! UPDATE - June 24th, 2014: I've had the Bionaire BW2300 for just over five years now. It's holding up quite well. I use it all the time and it works as well today after five years of use as it did when it was brand new out of the box - no problems at all. The remote control and the full temperature controls are nice! I'm very happy with it. Its one of the best things I've ever purchased. UPDATE - April 19, 2015: Houston, we have a problem. The flux capacitor has failed! Well, not that but after almost six years of use, I noticed that one of the two fans kept shutting itself down because it was overheating. Overheating? Huh? It was becoming too hot and tripping a protection circuit which was shutting it down until it cooled again. Sooo, what to do, what to do... Take it apart and try to fix it! (Not for the mechanically deficient)... So the fan case comes apart with seven screws. Easy, right? But those extender locks make a repeat appearance as the design makes it virtually impossible to fully take the case apart without breaking at least one of the extender locks. Which I did. And I don't care since I don't use them. I didn't even bother reinstalling them when I was finished. But I'm getting ahead of myself... Anyway, I then removed the fan blades (single bolt) and then the motors themselves - which turn out to be made by General Electric. I first vacuumed out any dust from both sides of the motors. Then I applied a generous amount of a full synthetic 5w50 motor oil (yes, motor oil) to both sides of the motor shaft and the ball bearings. I worked it in by turning and sliding the play in the shafts and by using gravity to allow the oil to work in on both sides. I then reassembled the unit. Make sure that when you reinstall the fan blades that you key them correctly on the shaft and you may want to hand balance them a little. Also, the extender is a bit tricky to reinstall - make sure you get the end into the three grooves correctly, then extend the extender before you put the other side of the case shell on. You will need to put some support under the extended extender while doing this to keep it flat. And again, I didn't even bother reinstalling the extender locks on mine since I don't use them. So after the operation, the fan works like new again. No overheating. No shutdowns. In fact, the motor is staying very cool now. It just needed a little lube to keep the moving parts moving. You *may* be able to achieve a similar result without taking the whole fan apart by using a spray lube like WD40. But I find that WD40 is too light and it's effects are not long lasting unlike it's strong odor. The full synthetic 5w50 motor oil will work for years and there is no odor. For me, this issue did not bother me one bit. After six years of heavy use, one should expect this sort of thing. In no way should this discourage you from buying the Bionaire BW2300. It's still one of the best purchases I ever made. UPDATE - April 20, 2015: After browsing some of the more recent reviews for the Bionaire BW2300, it seems that there *may* be a problem with the newer units. From what I understand, they added an inline fuse to the power cord and they may have also changed the electronics, but I'm not certain as I do not have one of the newer units. As of this date my fan is almost six years old, purchased in June, 2009, and it does not have an inline fuse on the power cord. My review reflects my experience with my fan and I do not know exactly what changes they may have made to the design since or how those changes may affect the newer units. That said, it is also possible that the spate of issues people are having recently *may* be due to user error. For instance, some of the people having issues may not be setting up an adequate ventilation route to an open window which would overheat the motors and cause shutdowns. But since I do not have one of the newer units, I cannot know what the situation is, one way or the other.

Overall great window fan. Keeps my room very cool, I am able to use it with the screen still in my window, and the sliders on the side of the fan reach all the way to the edge of the window with no gaps. There is a bit of a rattling plastic noise with mine, but its not very loud and I typically have a headset on when I use it. I've never used the reverse setting to pull air out but if its anywhere near as powerful as when its normal, then I expect it can clear a smokey room from a kitchen mistake pretty quickly. I use it in the late fall through early spring to combat the furnace that is my PC with an I9 and 2080s card which even liquid cooled it can get the room to 80°f without a form of cooling in my 120 sqft game room. It can keep it in the mid to low 60s if I use it on low setting when the temp is below 55 outside, and on the high setting when it is 55-60 outside. I recommend it.

I bought this fan because the year prior we had bought a Holmes window fan that we absolutely loved. It was the only one we'd been able to find that didn't have an extraneous digital display, nor did it make any beeping noises when you adjusted the speeds. Unfortunately, it was around for a single year before getting replaced by this piece of junk. We bought this one less than a year ago and used it lightly during the tail end of the summer. It worked fine; nothing special, but at least the body of the fan was more heavy-duty than the crappy white ones you find everywhere else (we've tried a bunch of those, too). This year, I popped it in the window, and one of the blades doesn't spin. Doesn't matter if it's on intake or exhaust, speed, unplugging and replugging; it's dead. No problem! Amazon's description mentions a three year warranty. So I go to Holmes site and start filling out their customer contact form. As soon as I select "fans" it informs me that no, actually, this isn't a Holmes product. They've licensed their brand name out to some third party company called Star Elite. Alright, well that's kind of sketchy, but I fill out the Star Elite form, pop an image of my Amazon invoice in there, and send it off. This morning I receive a response that because I purchased the fan through a third party seller which is not directly affiliated with them (HOUSE SMART), they can't guarantee the condition of the fan when it arrived, and will not honor their own warranty. Obviously, it arrived new in box. I hadn't even realized it was from a third party seller until that point. This company is utter trash. DO NOT BUY THIS FAN. Not only is not actually a Holmes, but neither Holmes nor their licensee actually stand behind their products, which based on my anecdotal experience are not super reliable in the first place. Honestly, the cheaper Comfort Zone fans (which are one of the aforementioned white pieces of crap) have had better longevity for us, even if I despise them thanks to their love affair with digital controls, lights, and beeps.

Absolutely love this window fan! It's a great fan for a reasonable price. This has been the best window fan that we have purchased, out of the 4 we have bought during the last 8 years. Out of the 4 other window fans we own, this model works the best. I like using them to cool down the house during the evening, in the summer time. I like the way you can set the temperature settings. It has lights on the tempura settings, so you can see where the temperature is set. It controls the settings to turn on or off automatically with the temperature setting. A very nice feature to use. The fans having two types of settings that controls the air flow. You can set one fan to pull in cool air, while the other side draws the warm air outside. Or you can switch it to use both fans to pull in cool air, or to draw out warm air. There are two speeds of high and low. Nice to use in our bedroom to cool the room before bedtime. We sleep comfortably, with the fan on low, and it's fairly quiet. There are expandable sidings on both sides of the fan and an one extra removable side panel. This is a really good fan to have for those summer nights to keep the house cool, and it helps circulate the cool air through the room. I suggest to have fans placed all over the house, to help keep the whole house cool at night. It pulls in the cool air in from outside, and draws out the warm air. We use the air conditioner during the later part of day time, for around 6 to 8 hours, and then we switch to the window fans after it cools down in the late evening. Just in time, to cool down the bedroom, for bedtime. I like to use a fan for bedtime because I get a stiff neck using an air conditioner at night time. This is an alternative method, to help cool and circulate air flow through the house at night. This is a great fan for the price. We have been very happy with this model.

Es mejor de lo que esperaba puedes controlar los dos ventiladores por separado puedes colocar uno a extraer y el otro a introducir aire para que así circule en un cuarto así este la puerta cerrada, en el modelo anterior solo podías poner a extraer o introducir aire así que siempre debías tener la puerta abierta sino se forzaba el ventilador, también tiene modo de on-off o temporizador y se apaga al llegar el cuarto a cierta temperatura, sirve para que no enfrié de mas el cuarto y ahorrar energía consume unos 60W aprox

Does the job as expected, as we have it to help air circulation to cool down 2nd floor. I was aware of all these issues before making the purchase. Common comments/issues already identified by others. No On/Off switch but you could press AND hold the Mode button for about 2-3 seconds to turn it off (I did not know until I read the manual). Great that you can set Intake/Exhaust direction independently between the two fans. Noise (at night time) could be an issue for those who have it in bedroom (but not applicable to us). Catch-22 here, that if it is quiet enough, then it may not be powerful enough to draw/push air.

Sold in £'s in the UK. 110v with US plug! How silly is that.

Excelente producto. Justo quedó en mi ventana, mantiene el cuarto fresco. Funciona con ventilador y extractor.

Bought this window fan for summer as a cheaper alterative to A/C. In 20C weather it keeps my 10x11 room cold with a gaming pc cranking out heat. At 25C it works ok and above 27C it just pushes around hot air. One month shy of 2 years, I brought it out for the would be third summer. One fan seized up and stopped working after a week of use, noticed it had a 3 year warranty, so I contacted Holmes via their website. I got a reply after about 3 hours and 8 minutes after i replied to that, they told me a replacement would be sent. They sent me a billionaire fan(same price as this was when i bought it) as a replacement and it feels like a better fan so far. Very good customer service.