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4.5
Dreo vs Lasko Tower Fans--Which Should You Buy?Summer is coming, and everyone could use a little more cooling on hot summer days. Gone are the days of box fans or awkward top heavy circular oscillating fans. Today, when people need a little extra air flow, they go for a tower fan with a remote.As you might expect, there is a dizzying array of choices available. In this article, we’ll compare the Lasko 2511 with a new option on the market, the Dreo. 36” tower fan. Both of these fans offer a quality experience, but which should you buy?Air FlowAs you would expect, fan speed, or more specifically, the wind speed of the air leaving the fan, is probably the most important consideration when selecting one. You want something that will move air! Both the Lasko and Dreo tower fans offer multiple speeds to customize your cooling comfort.The Lasko has three speeds, the lowest bing really gentle, with the highest being significant enough to be felt 8 feet away. The Dreo, on the other hand, has four speeds available. 1, 2, and 3 are pretty comparable to the feel of the Lasko. However, speed 4 is noticeably more powerful than what the Lasko offers.It’s also worth mentioning that the Lasko oscillates over a 45° spread, while the Dreo has a 90° oscillation. So overall, the Dreo is going to move air over a larger area, but ultimately it seems like this difference is going to come down to a matter of preference.NoiseThe noise level of both fans is pretty comparable, with the Dreo being noticeably quieter at lower speeds. From three feet away, at speed 1, the Dreo registers at a whisper quiet 34 dB, while the Lasko is 44 dB. You have to get the Dreo up to speed 3 to hit 44 dB, and at that speed, the Lasko only goes up to 47 dB. Basically ,the Lasko doesn’t add much more noise at the different speeds.The Dreo does have that extra speed 4 that cranks up the noise a bit with the wind speed. At speed 4, the Dreo runs at 48 dB.The Dreo has an extra feature that Lasko is lacking. You can mute the button sounds. This is handy if you want to make adjustments without interrupting the quiet.DesignThe design of these two fans is similar, but also so markedly different that it’s hard not to remark on it.Lasko, as with many of their products, has opted for a functional, utilitarian design that gets the job done. It doesn’t look particularly bad, but it’s not great either. The light indicators let you know what your settings are, but they're just dots of lights next to numbers. In the case of the sleep timer, they even require you to do math to know what the timer is set on. And the numbers you’re looking at are printed on the fan, not backlit. So you’re going to have to turn on the light to check your settings if you’re in a dark room.The Dreo, on the other hand, looks like a work of modern art, with its all black design, and the big LED screen. You won’t have any problem knowing what speed the fan is set to or what the sleep timer is set on. No moving closer to inspect tiny numbers printed on the casing.The design differences carry through to the remotes. The Lasko remote is functional, if unsightly, while the Dreo is beautiful and sleek (and the Dreo remote also comes with a battery; the Lasko doesn’t).Ease of UseTo be honest, any fan is pretty dead simple to use, but some are easier than others.In the case of these two, the Lasko comes with fairly simple instructions: push the power button to turn on, adjust the speed, etc.The Dreo has similarly simple instructions, but also has some additional options (mute, auto mode, natural mode, etc.).Also, the Dreo instructions are delivered in a much more appealing and professionally polished package, which I can’t ignore. Providing an instruction booklet like this sends a message to your customers that you take their experience seriously.One feature of the Dreo that isn’t included in the instructions is the easy to remove and clean back panel. If you’ve ever run a fan for any amount of time, you know that you’ll be dealing with dust buildup. With the one screw panel removal, the Dreo makes that much simpler. The back panel on the Lasko looks like you’ll have to remove six screws, but I’m not sure if it’s really designed to remove and clean.ConclusionChoosing from a wide selection of very similar products can be daunting at the best of times. For something like a tower fan, there’s really just not that much to the hardware to differentiate one from the other, but Dreo does manage to bring a more compelling product to the market. With quieter operation, a large and bright LED display, more features, a more appealing design, and a better user experience, the Dreo 36” tower fan really does offer a better product than the Lasko 2511. And you’ll pay $10 more for that difference, as the Lasko only costs 59.99, while the Dreo retails for 69.99. Whether or not the upgrades are worth the extra expense is really up to you, but for a product that will last for years to come, my money is on Dreo.
