Shark FlexBreeze fan: Cool, quiet and very capable

It’s that time of the year again when Wellington weather ceases to be like living inside a frigidly cold Tupperware container. Gone are the endless grey and wet days, replaced with glorious blue skies. And then there’s that mysterious glowing warm ball in the sky that we Wellingtonians so rarely see that we’ve forgotten what it’s even called. BBQs, socialising, swims at the beach – there’s lots to like about summer, except it can get stinking hot, making being outside a less than ideal experience as the mercury attempts to cruise past the 30c mark.

Enter stage left those clever bastards from Shark. Their FlexBreeze Fan’s ingenious design can easily adapt to indoor or outdoor use. It’s not small, being significantly larger than most conventional table fans, but it is reassuringly sturdy. In its default configuration, it’s a typical pedestal fan; its fan head is mounted on a stand with a solid weighted base.

You can have the FlexBreeze in any colour as long as you choose black with brass accents. Personally, I don’t mind this aesthetic which gives it a real no-nonsense look and feel and helps it disappear into the background when in use.

Being a Shark product, it has quite a few clever design flourishes. A small handle on the top rear of the fan and well-thought-out weight distribution make moving it around dead easy. At just 5.6kg, it’s also lighter than most other comparable fans. The fan can be manually tilted vertically, which, along with 180 degrees of automatic oscillation, gives it the ability to blast cool air just where it’s needed.

Another clever feature is its ability to convert. Detaching the fan from its pedestal allows its fold-out legs to be deployed so it can be used as a tabletop fan. The really clever bit comes in the form of a bundled misting attachment intended for use outdoors. This attaches to the front of the fan grill magnetically, and a standard Nylex-style hose connector fitting connected to a garden hose allows it to blast a fine cooling water mist, which Shark’s blurb says can drop the ambient temperature by up to 10c. The effectiveness of the misting attachment has to be felt to be believed. I’d experienced similar setups when visiting Universal Studios while on holiday in Florida, and they made waiting for rides in unbelievably long lines almost bearable in the oppressive summer heat.

The other clever bit is the not-so-inconsiderable fact that the FlexBreeze is both battery and mains-powered, and can run for up to 24 hours without being plugged in. This means it can be used virtually anywhere, eliminating power cord clutter. That said, it does come with a charger with a generous amount of lead should you need to run it for extended periods.

The FlexBreeze offers five fan speed settings. Having charged it up and powered it on, I was pleasantly surprised at how quietly it runs. At lower speeds, it was virtually silent. When I set it to its top speed, it was sufficiently quiet that I could easily fall asleep on a particularly hot night. It might be near silent at lower power settings, but it efficiently moves air. I could feel a steady breeze from an impressive 20 metres away. Shark has crafted the FlexBreeze so its plastic body will resist UV and rain, making it an ideal workhorse for outside use.

Driving the FlexBreeze is a doddle. It comes with a handy remote control that stores magnetically on the rear of the fan. Clearly labelled controls on its top, plus an intuitive LED display on its fascia, means there’s virtually no learning curve, as the simple controls cover power, oscillation, and fan speed.

If that’s the good, the not-so-good is that there is no Alexa or Google integration, which would have been super handy. There’s also no automatic vertical oscillation (it can be manually tilted), and I also struggled to fit the bundled fabric cover with the misting attachment. None of these issues are deal breakers though, and are easily outweighed by the fan’s quietness and sheer versatility.

Shark’s FlexBreeze sports an extremely clever design. That, and its super sturdy construction, make it an excellent choice for keeping summer heat at bay, especially when the misting attachment is used.

https://sharkclean.co.nz/collections/fans