Honeywell HW-628 Enviracaire Twin Window Fan
by Honeywell
|
List Price: Category: Home See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Tools and Hardware Reviews of Honeywell HW-628 Enviracaire Twin Window Fan
Customer Review: EXCELLENT product for what it's intended to do.
Summary: 5 Stars
Sadly I bought this item from a link in google that took me to Amazon and didn't list all the sources ON Amazon that sold it. I ended up paying $15 or so more than necessary for it, since Their price was more than Target's SHIPPED price. I bought it at Beach Audio, through Amazon for $33.07 with a shipping charge of $14.35, for a final price of $47.42. Had I realized I should have RE-searched on Amazon for the brand and model number I would have found it from Target at the $25 listed price and shipping under $7!!! A substantial savings.
HOWEVER, sad as I am that I could have saved a few of my Social Security bucks, I'm totally amazed at the job this tiny fan is doing for me. Here's my situation, and though I'm sure yours is quite different, you can see the value of the appliance:
I'm a retired person, living upstairs in a tiny living quarters with someone else living downstairs who is in control of the heating and cooling of the house. During the fall and spring when it's nice outside, the house heat is turned on and migrates upward to become trapped in my tiny living quarters. If I open a window, the heat goes out and the heating system comes back on to make more, I'm sure this causes their electric bill to skyrocket. I found that if I become uncomfortable, I can close my door and my air conditioning vent and crack a window for fresh air, allowing the heat transmitted through the floor to warm the room. This works pretty well, but sometimes not much air comes in the window... and occasional birds and insects to find their way in.
The little Honeywell fit one of my windows perfectly and can be set to quietly blow air in and out at the same time, and it's thermostatically controlled so it can hold the room at exactly the temperature I like. If I want to smoke a cigar or my pipe, I can set it to exhaust through both fans, or to circulate in and out faster, so I don't have to worry about poluting the air throughout the house (be sure the door and a/c vent are closed before doing this, they WILL notice :).
The fan blades are plastic, but well enough made so the low setting is not objectionable at all. I had tried a 20" box fan to exhaust air before, but that was extremely noisy even at the lowest setting. The low setting on this one makes no more noise than my computer fan and still moves air so well I immediately feel the fresh air.
I paid too much for it, but it's worth twice the price to me. I'm a happy old man and very pleased with my purchase. I hope it lasts a long time!
Customer Review: Superb!
Summary: 5 Stars
Installation:
Practically instant. Open the window, set the unit down on the frame, in a push-pull (or wiggle) motion jiggle the unit and it will almost click into place. Center the top of the unit while lowering the window and it fits together like bread in a toaster.
Overall:
This product is wonderful. I bought two units to put in my two windows (one room) - one unit blowing in and the other out. As a smoker, big user of electronics and someone who despises heat I must say they work unbelievably well.
Winter:
In the winter both units blow out, keeping air fresh and the smoke out. Granted for some this may be extreme, but for others who're hot blooded as I am this cannot be overlooked. I would guess the temp to sit in the upper 60s in the evening, and lower 60s at night in New York.
Summer:
However, summer time is closely as effective. Essentially, these units will diffuse accumulated heat until the inside temperature stabilizes with the outside. In the room I have three desktops, one laptop, a large TV and an Xbox360 - it gets HOT. The units do a wonderful job at removing the heat and restoring a comfortable temperature. The optimal situation is if you can create cross ventilation by using the units to suck the heat out, when done, this is amazing.
Rain:
Not that I recommend using the product while it's raining, but I have a few times - mostly by accident. The product boasts water resistance and it works great provided the fans are blowing OUT of the room. On at least 2 occasions the fan was blowing in and it rained during the night, the inside (most of which is concealed by the housing) was drenched, but the fan showed no signs of wear or damage.
Would I buy it again?
Without a doubt I'd buy this fan again and in fact, probably will. Since I bought mine last summer they've almost never been turned off - they are literally on 24 hours a day. Though currently in perfect condition, I do not expect them to endure this type of abuse forever, especially when factoring in the spontaneous weather. My advice to you? If your room is hot and your AC isn't doing it's job BUY IT.
Good luck!
Customer Review: airflow!
Summary: 5 Stars
right off the bat, i feel i should mention that the air-moving ability of this fan is maybe six to eight times stronger on the low setting than the high setting on the Holmes Window Fan w/ Accutemp Plus, HAWF3095-U, which i reviewed last week. since part (or arguably all) of a fan's responsibilities involve moving air, i think this fan is the bee's knees.
which brings me to my next point. bees. it sounds like what you might hear if you were standing by your front door while there was a swarm of bees on the porch. a muted general buzzing. not a rattling or a defective kind of buzz, rather a round, soft sound, but noticeable. i might look elsewhere if this were for the bedroom, den, library, or study, if i had any of those rooms, although on low it's not too bad. i'm using it in the kitchen, though, where i expect it will perform admirably as an exhaust fan and where noise isn't as much an issue. it has already accomplished the goal of creating airflow and sucking the living room's air conditioning into the kitchen, cooling it right down. a longtime goal finally achieved! i really like that you can rotate the output vents (or intake vents, as the case may be) to control the direction of airflow. a simple touch but a nice one.
this, in combination with our new samsung air conditioner (which, incidentally, is quieter than this window fan!), has in twenty minutes' time transformed my city apartment from a stagnant cement greenhouse into a breezy atrium. i think, finally, that this summer i'll be able to deal with the heat all this asphalt collects, and that i'll actually feel civilized while i'm about the house.
as to cleaning, i just took down the holmes model which i cleaned maybe a month ago, and which is again already covered in city-schmear. i'm looking forward to being able to simply pop off the fan covers on this model, and wipe them down.
definitely recommended!
Customer Review: If its cold outside, it works
Summary: 5 Stars
Hello, this is my first time writing a review, but lets get down to business. Your window fan really will not work if it is not cold outside, so do not expect to put your window fan on when it is 90 degrees outside, and expect coldness. I run my window fan at night, and one night, with the help of my clock that reads my rooms temperature, I saw my room drop down 4 degrees. A couple of nights ago, it was 76 degrees in my room, so I turned on my window fan, and went to sleep. When I woke up, I was cold. It was 68 degrees in my room, and I was very happy.
People may complain that it may be to loud, but as I am writing this review, I have it on high, and it really does not bother me. Medium you hear slightly less, but on low, you really forget it is there.
My own personal Positives and Negatives
Positive: It has a temperature reader built in, and a dial, so you can set how cold you want your room to be, so it will automatically turn off when it reaches your desire. It turns back on when it needs to get cool again. The 2 fans can each individually set as blow in, or blow out, making it good to get hot air out, while getting cool air in. You can take the screen off your window, and then pull out a built in screen from the window fan itself, making it able to blow more air in. You can also make it stick on to your window, by closing the window itself, so it squeezes the window fan, so it will not fall.
Negative: The dial you use to set your temperature does not really display the temperature you want to get in your room, rather having it at high for cold, and low for warmth. I wish the power cord was a bit longer, because some people may not have an outlet under their window.
In total, Totally worth it, for a great price. It really helped me out, when my room used to be 85 degrees.
Customer Review: Cooling with the Air Exchange method
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a small room with a computer running at all times, and the temperature gets very warm, very fast without the fan.
What I have found most effective, is to put one fan blowing fresh air in, and the other exhausting old air out. This creates an Air Exchange which in my case, makes a noticable differnce over simply having them both blowing in the same direction. It also keeps the room smelling less stale than when they are both on exhaust.
The grills covering the fans have a slight angle to them, which you can see if you look closely at the slats. If your fan is mounted horizontally, turn both grills slightly to that the left one is pointing to the upper left corner, and position the right grill so that it is pointing to the upper right corner. Pay attention to the subtle slant of the slats to make sure air is blowing in or being sucked out from the top. This allows them to still be pointing upwards, while still pointing away from each other a little bit so that the contrasting air flows don't conflict. This is best for the "One In/One Out" Air Exchange method.
You may find slightly better results if you keep the exhaust fan on a slightly higher speed than the intake fan when using the Air Exchange method.
Also, if you keep your blinds closed to the level just above the fan to block out sunlight it will help keep the room cooler and make it easier for the fan to keep the room comfortable.
If your room is small, try keeping the door closed, so the fan only needs to cool a smaller space, rather than drawing air in from the other parts of your home.