Sunday morning about two AM, someone ran off the road and knocked down a power pole and we were without juice for about seven hours.

My wife can sleep through stuff like that but as soon as my fan goes off, I'm up. I have tinnitus and a quiet room is anything but quiet for me. The circulating air helps, too, although we were sleeping with the windows open that night. But, there will be times that cooling off is more important.

I wanted to perform a web search for a reliable battery-powered fan but this always goes the same way- if you make the mistake of searching for a "best" of something, you'll get hits. Click on any of them and they take you to a site that lists ten of the widgets you're looking for. Not only is this the same stuff you can find on Amazon, these sites provide you links to the items on Amazon (for which the site gets paid)

Try it on youtube and it's the same- lots of hits, and they lead to videos which use weird near-lifelike computer voices. Just useless.

The reviews for these fans on Amazon are discouraging. I realize that all of these fans will be made in China, Taiwan, Vietnam, somewhere in Asia, and that they could never be classed as durable goods. I'm not asking for much and I don't expect much, but it needs to actually function and provide at least a reasonable life- say, 300 hours before failure. Like I said, I'm not asking much. One reviewer on Amazon referred to these little fans as "semi-disposable" and I get the impression that's about right, but when it's 3:30 in the morning and I can't sleep...

The ones I've looked at on Amazon- ten inch blades, take six D cells, then there are smaller models.

These are also referred to as "camping fans". There's gotta be something out there that works. Any ideas?

My first thought would be something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/ryobi-fan/s?k=ryobi+fan

That uses the same batteries as your cordless power tools.
But, I have no experience with these.

Jumped at Ryobi, since that's what my yard tools are, my hand tools are Bosch. Surely, the big names have similar.

Wife bought one of these for her office to provide air movement and cooling, she uses it late at night when she can't sleep, not real loud but enough fan noise to help with the tinnitus issue.

Link

It charges via USB, and on low runs all night, you could use the portable cell phone charger bricks to recharge it when the house power is out.

The remote would enable you to change speeds without getting out of bed and you wouldn't have to put your donut down...

How big of a fan are you looking for? Something to cool the whole room of smaller for personal use.
I bought a fan at Harbor Freight. It is a small personal two speed fan that I used to take with me on IDPA matches. I built a table that goes in my cart and I put it on the table.
It uses the same battery's as their Bauer battery powered tools.
This is the link to the product. You do have to buy the battery separate and they do have different sizes.
https://www.harborfreight.com/...tml?_br_psugg_q=fans

Who can sleep with an unconsumed doughnut in your hand?

What somebody should make is a ceiling fan with a battery backup, charges while the power is on, runs when the power is off. Even better, a kit that can be retro-fitted to an existing fan.

Dewalt makes a few.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=dew...C87&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

I use the Dewalt version because I have plenty of those batteries for other tools. Works great.

https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-...an%2Caps%2C87&sr=8-3

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 1s1k,

Off topic: I hang with a community of musicians who all suffer tinnitus.

Have you ever thought about trying bioflavonoids? Basically vitamin C and citrus fruit rinds in a pill. No harm in trying.

I know all the things that make it worse though.

Here is an idea:

A friend purchased one of those battery powered jump starter box things. I think it is made by Schumacher, but not for sure on that.

He uses it as a backup for his CPAP when the power goes out at night, and he says it works really well. I think his unit also has a built in LED light on a flexible thing, which seems pretty handy to me.

You'd just have to find a fan, either 12 or 110 volt, that doesn't draw too many amps/watts over the 8 hours or so that you sleep, and select a jump box that has sufficient power to run it that long.
.

Milwaukee also makes a portable fan and it's one that will last. Downside is that it does take a moderately large battery and those are not cheap at 199.00 for a 5 amp hour M18 battery. Note, I've seen these batteries on sale for less but sales are a lot less frequent post covid. As for the fan, that's 99.00 dollars so it's not a throwaway item. My experience with Milwaukee is that they are expensive up front but if you get 10 years of hard use out of a tool they turn into bargains.

I'll also note that Milwaukee typically offers battery, charger, and tool packages that are marked down a lot compared to this bundle at True Value.

For example this package deal, 2 M18 5 AH batteries and a 2 port charger for 199.00.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Mi...-59-1852PD/316779758

https://www.ryobitools.com/pro...tate=pg%3A2%2Fct%3Ar

Gets used often ... gardening, drying wet carpet, drying painted walls, at the rifle range on summer days, etc.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RichardC,

I couldn't help but think of this:

What's your battery powered tools brand color? I think all the major ones make them, I didn't know about that until a couple months ago and we were doing a Cub Scout camping trip with 85 degree night temps and a friend suggested it. I had some Rigid tools with batteries already so I bought their fan and it worked well. I had 2 2amp battery packs and each lasted about 4 hours on full blast high if I remember. It was miserable sleeping, but the fan took the edge off quite a bit. I wouldn't mess with the C and D battery powered ones for anything long duration, the cordless tool ones put out alot of wind.

I could use one of those as well. The battery operated lanterns served me well for several days when Zeta knocked out our power. Katrina left us witout power for over two weeks in blistering 90 degree heat. A fan would have helped.

Thanks for the replies. So, these DeWalt/Ryobi jobsite fans seem the way to go. The batteries they take- they're designed to fit an assortment of gadgets, yes? And if I charge two of these batteries and store them unused for say, nine months or a year, how much of a charge might these batteries be holding after that time?

I have dewalt tools but have some Bauer from Harbor Freight. I bought two of their fans for baseball season. They are dual power so you can use an extension cord if you want.

I have been extremely happy with these fans. I have the 3.0 mah batteries and they run for 8-10 hrs on the lower setting. Harbor Freight Bauer fan

You can also consider buying a Lithium power bank that can run a normal electric fan.

The power bank would hold a charge for a long time (I believe over a year) with very little discharge, and more importantly it should run your fan all night without a recharge or a battery swap.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Thanks for the replies. So, these DeWalt/Ryobi jobsite fans seem the way to go. The batteries they take- they're designed to fit an assortment of gadgets, yes? And if I charge two of these batteries and store them unused for say, nine months or a year, how much of a charge might these batteries be holding after that time?

Depends, NiCd, no, Lithium, yes

Link

Does it hurt DEWALT batteries to leave them in the charger?

No. The DEWALT chargers have a maintenance mode which allows batteries to remain in the charger, maintaining a fully charged pack until the user is ready to work. If DEWALT NiCd batteries are stored outside of the charger, they will discharge naturally, 15-20% the first 24 hours, 7-10% the next day, and about 1% every day there after. NiCd batteries lose the bulk of the capacity when outside of the charger in the first 3 days.

In fact, it is better for the battery to leave it in the charger to be sure it goes through Equalization and Maintenance Modes.

One of the benefits of DEWALT XRP™ Lithium Ion batteries is that they have limited self discharge. Storing DEWALT Lithium Ion batteries outside of the charger will not result in loss of charge. Learn more about brushless tools technology.

20 volt DeWalt batteries will hold a charge very well.
The big box stores have specials on them from time to time and is the only time you'll want to buy them.

Lowe's has a sale right now for two 5 ah batteries for 99 bucks.

I'm a big fan of the DeWalt 20 volt line of tools. As well as the 12 volt Milwaukee line up (speciality tools which DeWalt doesn't offer yet).

I just saw one of these yesterday for the first time. Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but pretty darn cool.