Lasko #678 11" Flex Fan Review

I have had this fan for a few weeks and while it isn't perfect it's still a good fan that performs it's intended role.

I had been looking for a small fan to aim at my mouse pad because my hands sweat a lot and can sometimes make it difficult to hold or move the mouse. I looked at a lot of other fans but none of them fit my needs. They were all far too big or were limited in the angles and directions that they could point. I saw this fan at the last minute and decided to try it despite no other reviews.

For my purpose it performs well. The flexible neck works very well and you can aim the fan in quite literally any direction. The base is also heavy enough that it won't ever tip over, though at extreme angles it might lean a little and not sit completely flat. It has a detachable power cord that is about 6 feet long and has a small transformer box plug. There is a power switch at the top back of the fan head and a metal grate on the front and back of the fan. The construction and overall quality seems pretty good for the price and was better than I was expecting.

The fan itself is of course the most important aspect and in my opinion it is both good and bad. Although the fan support, shroud and housing are all a single piece of molded plastic the mechanical parts of the fan appear to be a standard 92mm (3.5m) size. For it's size it moves quite a bit of air and this is made even more effective by the fact that you can aim the airflow exactly where you want it. The drawback is that the fan makes a decent amount of noise in the process. I would not call it loud but it's also far from silent and because it's a small high rpm fan the sound is high pitched which is fairly noticeable.

This wouldn't be a problem except that there is only one speed. When you need the power it's great but sometimes you just don't need to move that much air and it would be really nice if this had a slower and quieter setting to turn to. I have to take off 1 star for this but otherwise it's a pretty great little fan.

Pros
- Moves a respectable amount of air for it's size.
- Flexible neck lets you aim the fan in any direction.
- Heavy base keeps the fan from falling over regardless of how you angle the neck.
- Overall good quality for the price.

Cons
- Only one speed setting that is decently loud and high pitched.

In the end I think it depends on your situation. If you need a small, flexible and powerful fan than this does a great job. If noise is a big concern than the single speed might be too much for you.

One final note to the tinkerers... I have not checked this yet but if my suspicions of it being a 92mm computer fan are correct than it should be possible to add a potentiometer/rheostat to the power cord to adjust the speed. That would make this a nearly perfect fan so if I ever check/mod this I will try to update and let you know.

-Edit- The above modification does work. It's a 12vdc 230ma fan (the power adapter is 12v DC 500ma) and it works between 4.5v and 12v (tested with an adjustable DC power adapter). You can easily add a potentiometer/rheostat, high/low switch or even convert it to USB operation if you wanted to. I will permanently modify mine as soon as I figure out a good place to mount a knob or switch.

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Product Description:
Flex Fan

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