Bionaire Thin Window Fan with Manual Controls(BWF0502M-WM)

UPDATE May 2018: I've now had this fan for 3 and a 1/2 years and use it almost daily for 1 - 3 hours and it is still working great. I don't know what I do without it - it keeps me from having to use my A/C all the time to cool down my bedroom. Anyway, it is still working great so I still highly recommend this product. Really impressed with it. Best thing about it is how light it is - I can pick it up with one hand. UPDATE Feb 2017: I've had this for about 2 years now and I still love it and think it works great. I use this very often and have had no problems. The one thing I've noticed is that the temp gauge is not accurate to the interior of the room, but honestly it couldn't be since the gauge is part of the fan, so it is measuring right where the wind is and not the whole room. Would be a great feature for new ones to have a remote temp sensor! Anyway, for me this is not an issue since it's easy for me to look at my temp gauge and then just calculate - add 10 degrees or whatever. But I hardly ever use the temp auto off thing anyway since I just blast it for a while before bed to cool the room down and then shut it off. I use it all seasons except summer now because my place is so hot (heat is central to building) so I need to cool the room down when I get home. The fan will cool the room quickly - I can get it from 75 to 68 in about an hour usually, which is faster than my AC! Because it's so light I have also used it in the living room which is a huge open area with the dining room and kitchen and it works well in there too, even though it's a lot of space. I love this fan and would still highly recommend it. I'm buying another one for my mother today which is why I decided to come back and post an updated review.I will start with the caveat that I've only had this a very short time (a month-ish) and have only used it about 10 times so far. I will come back at the start of winter and update this review, after I've used it for a while. I know one of the complaints with the new version is that it breaks down quickly so we'll see about that. Also, I've only needed to use it for a couple of hours before I go to bed, then I turn it off, so I don't know how it is overnight. I have a ceiling fan so after this fan cools the room, I just use that overnight. So I really have a limited view for this review, but I'll tell you what I can. The pros: It's really, really light weight-wise, which I wasn't expecting. I live alone and am not strong, so this was good for me. It cooled the room very quickly and very well - down from 80 to low 70's in about an hour. I've only used the feature that blows air in with both fans. I don't really understand how blowing in on one fan right next to blowing out on another fan would make any difference - seems to me that just blowing in as much cool air from the outside as possible would work best so that's what I did. I had it on high with the temp on the lowest setting - the fans really blow hard so I liked that too. It didn't cool the room below 70 even though the temp outside was cooler than 70, but it made it totally comfortable each time I used it. I didn't find the noise a problem - sounded like my AC unit. I guess it;s not quiet but I like white noise anyway so if noise is an issue for you, you should check out the guy who posted a review with the sound clip to see if it's too much for you. I found it very easy to install (I never have the patience to look at directions and am horribly not handy nor mechanically inclined - actually I'm so mechanically challenged that I put this thing in the window upside down at first!). I just put it in the window and plugged it in, then pushed the buttons until it did what I wanted (i.e. turned it to the coldest setting 64 degrees and high fan blowing in). I like that it is shallow enough that I can put it my window with the screen still in so I dont' have to worry about bugs or birds, etc. But maybe this is true for all of them...The cons: You can't use it sideways so it will only fit in the big windows horizontally, like in the picture. Maybe this is an unfair con but I wish I could use it the other direction so I could have it in the small window now that I have my AC unit in the big window. I did try using it on a very warm (74) and sticky night and it did not do the trick. I didn't really expect it to but it didn't in case there are people looking to use this to replace an AC unit. But there are many nights I come home and my bedroom is 80 and it's nice out and I know I could just use the fan to cool it down but I can't because of the AC unit in the big window. It's not quiet but I didn't find it terribly loud, either. But as I said I like white noise so this doesn't bother me, but it might bother others.So far I love it. I think if it breaks down after not much usage then I would change my mind so I'll come back (if I remember...) and post another review after I've used it for a while.

This is a great fan. I had been using a Holmes fan in our bedroom Holmes Dual Blade Twin Window fan with One Touch Thermostat and decided to get a new fan for one of our bathrooms that does not have a ceiling exhaust fan, so that we can remove all of the steam and humidity from taking showers and baths. I decided to try this Bionaire and see how they compare. I ended up putting the Bionaire in our bedroom and the old Holmes in the bathroom, for a few reasons.This Bionaire has more power and sucks the hot air out of the room better. The motor must be stronger because I can tell that it doesn't struggle when wind is trying to blow inward. On the Holmes, if it is windy and air is trying to blow into the window from outside, it struggles and the fans slow down. On the Bionaire it basically keeps functioning as normal with no struggling.The Bionaire has 3 speeds, whereas the Holmes only has 2. The medium setting on the Bionaire almost seems as good as the high speed on the Holmes. The buttons on the Bionaire are better too. The Holmes button is sort of already pressed in and feels almost like it is broken... a sort of cheap feel. Bionair buttons are nice and durable feeling and easy to use. They click nicely when you push them, and you know you pushed them and they "took." The Holmes button sometimes needed pressed more than once and never felt like it pressed correctly.I like that this unit has the temperature display too so you know how hot or cold it is in the room and you can tell if it is working or not or which airflow direction is working better... If you set it at exchange and see the temp go up after a few minutes, you know that is not the setting you want, etc. My husband doesn't understand the concept of setting the fan to exhaust to suck out all of the hot air and pull the cool air from the air conditioning from downstairs. He thinks it should always be set to bring air in (so he can sit in front of the dammm fan and feel air and say it's cooler that way.) So, now with the temperature reading right there I can prove to him that bringing in HOT air from outside is not helping the situation and you need to remove the hot air from inside by setting it to exhaust. When he sees it go from 80-some degrees down to low 70's and 60's now, he believes me. Of course there are times when exchange will be better or it will be cool at night and bringing air in is fine, but for the most part in the heat of summer, during the day, you will want to set it to out, to exhaust the hot air to the outside. This fan does a great job of pulling the cool air from the rest of the house too, as long as we leave the bedroom door open.The remote on this one is a nice bonus too because if it starts raining during the night and pulling rain into the room, you don't have to get out of bed to switch the fan direction or otherwise change the settings as needed. I keep the remote right in our nightstand drawer beside the bed and never have to worry about it. If it gets too chilly or whatever the case is, I can just grab the remote and not have to get out of bed.I will see how well the Holmes does in the bathroom, but if it seems to not get rid of the humidity and steam so well as we get into hotter and more humid months, I will buy another one of these Bionaire fans.Overall it is great quality and great performance. Changing the settings is easy and straightforward - pick your speed and pick your airflow direction and that's all you have to do. On the Holmes, you have to press the same button a million times to cycle through all the settings when you want to change it or even to turn it off. It gets to be a pain in the rear after a while. You can also set this one for specific temps etc so it will shut off when your desired temp is reached and kick on again if it gets hotter or colder. Just a great unit all the way around.

I wanted an expandable window fan for my garden shed, and this worked out perfectly. My windows are 48" tall x 36" wide, so I was concerned about the expansion width being enough to fit. I used the 2 solid expansion panels on the left side, and pulled out the sliding panel on right to fit the opening.This fan is relatively quiet, and puts out a good airflow. A real plus for me is ability to fit into the window in front of the screen with no issue. The slim width easily allows for this, as you can see from last photo, taken from outside the building.You can see from photos the fan fits nicely into opening, but there are very small gaps where insects could get through. Since I have a screen on the window anyway, this is no issue for me.The only thing I see that could use design improvement, are the locking tabs on the expandable side. they are pushed outward to unlock, and inward to lock. this is fine on the top side, but basically impossible on the bottom side, since you have the fan placed in the window opening against the bottom edge! I was able to manage it eventually, but wouldn't want to repeat it more than necessary (like once or twice a year!)I also though a remote was dumb and just another thing to keep up with, but have actually grown to like using it from my potting bench to adjust the air as needed.I had considered getting 2 of these - one for each side that could blow in and draw outward, but now I do not feel that is necessary. If I do end up trying that configuration at some point in the future, I would certainly purchase another like this one.Sure, the price is a bit more than the majority of the other brands (typically around $39), but well worth it for decent quality.I am happy with this purchase!