Dimplex DuoCool review: A slick pedestal fan with a twist

Dimplex has long been a manufacturer of solid and effective fans, but this year it seems to be going all-in on innovation, matching more inventive brands like Meaco, Dreo, Duux and Shark. We saw it first in the Dimplex FlexBlade, its ingenious rotating bladeless fan, and now we have the DuoCool, with its own dual-mode design. Sure, it looks like just another pedestal fan, albeit one with a cool, modern look. But hidden in the base is a secondary stand that transforms it into a compact floor fan. What’s more, it can run without the power cable plugged in from an internal Lithium Ion battery.

Is this the one fan that covers all your cooling needs? I spent a few seriously hot days in June and July finding out.  

Dimplex DuoCool review: What do you get for the money?

Most of the time this is a fairly compact pedestal fan, available in an unobtrusive two-tone grey and black finish or a more striking white and black. It stands at just under 92cm tall on its chunky round base, and measures 36cm across. The fan head has a 55 degree manual tilt and can oscillate through 60, 120 or 180 degrees on the horizontal, so it’s capable of spreading its airflow across a wide area.

The rather spare touch controls are positioned on the top of the fanhead. The power/standby button doubles as a fan speed button, toggling through the five available speeds with a quick tap. The oscillation button does the same through the three different oscillation settings, plus off, while the timer button switches between one hour, two hour, four hour and timer off. There’s no digital display as such, just three sets of LED indicators, which cease their glowing after a few seconds of the controls being left alone. The same controls are mirrored in a four-way ring on the bundled compact remote control, though you also get speed up and down buttons plus a button to activate the Turbo mode.

Nothing too exciting so far, but the base conceals a secret. Behind a pair of rubber flaps on the rear are two parts of a four-legged stand. These attach to the bottom of the fan head, which can be released from the stalk of the pedestal when you click in a mechanical button at the rear. Fit it all together and – hey presto! – your ex-pedestal fan is primed for lightweight floor fan duties: just tilt the head at the desired angle. And if you’re ready to go tall again, remove the legs, stow them away behind those rubber flaps, and click the head back into place.

Unusually, the DuoCool has two power inputs; one for the included wall-wart charger, and one USB-C port at the rear. The latter is only supposed to be used to top-up the battery before cordless use, and a sticker on the rear warns you against using anything that can dish out more than 10W. I found that you can run the fan from a 45W laptop charger, but it doesn’t charge while active and you might not want to try this at home, just in case. 

What features and settings does it have?

Beyond the five speed settings, there’s a Turbo mode for increased airflow, plus a Natural Breeze mode that varies the speed for a more wind-like feel. The shifts in speed and noise can be distracting, but it works well enough at the lower settings. The Sleep mode dims the LED indicators then runs the fan at speed 3 before decreasing it one notch every 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the timer shuts the fan down after one, two or four hours.

You can open up more options by connecting to the fan to the Glen Dimplex Connect mobile app, via Wi-Fi. In addition to remote control features, this gives you access to five, six and seven hour settings on the timer. You can also schedule the fan to turn on/off at different times during the day or over the week. The app is simple to use but it doesn’t offer any more sophisticated controls for working with temperature sensors or motion sensors in your home. That said, the fan is compatible with Alexa and Google Home, so you can set up routines through the relevant app. You can also turn the fan on/off or switch speeds and modes through voice commands.

How I tested the Dimplex DuoCool

I carry out the same tests across all of the fans I review, measuring air flow, noise levels and power consumption. 

I use an anemometer to record air speeds (in m/s). With the anemometer positioned a metre away from the fan, I take readings for its lowest, medium and highest settings, plus any settings I want to check for additional data. I then use a smartphone meter app to record sound levels (in A-weighted decibels, dBA) at the fan’s lowest and highest settings, also from one metre away. Finally, I use a plug-in energy meter to measure power consumption.

These standardised tests allow me to better compare fan performance across different brands and models. However, I also make sure I test the fan anecdotally through day-to-day usage, taking note of how well it keeps me cool on hotter days, how easy it is to use and how useful any modes or smart features are. 

How well does it perform?

As far as airflow goes, performance is very solid. You don’t get the ‘blow the papers off your desk’ extremes of the Meaco Sefte Pro and Sefte 10in pedestal fans, but you can still feel the 3.6m/s airflow at speed setting five from three or four metres away. Meanwhile, the 2m/s I recorded at the fan’s medium setting (three) and the 1.5m/s at setting two are pretty effective at close to medium range. I’ve even found the 1.2m/s minimum speed useful with the fan on its low floor stand sitting about 1m away.

Better still, it’s virtually silent at settings one and two, putting out just 25.7 to 28dBA. Even on setting three, where it puts out 32.3dBA, I didn’t find the low whisper obtrusive. At max speed it puts out a more noticeable 44.5dBA, but that’s nothing shocking. The boost mode ramps up the airflow to 4.1m/sec, but also the noise output to 53.6dBA, so I’d only use it in an already noisy environment where you really need the extra puff.

I was also impressed by the fan’s energy efficiency. On its lowest setting it uses just 1.6W, and even on setting five you’re looking at under 17W. This climbs to over 28W in Boost mode, but most of the time you won’t be adding much to your bills by keeping this fan on. It also helps when you’re running it on battery power. In practice, you’re only going to get the advertised 45 hours of cordless use at minimum speed, but in testing I found I could get over 16 hours of use at setting three from a single charge.  

Is there anything we didn’t like?

Just niggles, really. There’s a recessed handhold at the back of the fan, but it’s hard to get a good grip on it and carry the fan in floor-fan mode single-handed.

While in that mode, the four legs tend to flop around while not holding the fan weight, which is a bit annoying when you’re trying to put the fan back down after you’ve carried it somewhere. 

Should you buy the Dimplex DuoCool?

Yes. In fact, I’d say it’s one of the best pedestal fans we’ve tested, even without its transforming gimmick. It’s powerful enough for normal use, but quiet enough to use while snoozing, and it became our household fan of choice at night during the recent heatwave. 

The airflow seems to be focused, but still soft enough for comfort, and the oscillation does a great job of spreading it around a larger section of the room. The smart features are nothing special, but they give you more options for voice and remote control, while the ability to remove the head and place it on its folding legs really does make the fan more versatile.

Written By

Stuart Andrews

Stuart Andrews has been writing about technology and computing for over 25 years and has written for nearly every major UK PC and tech outlet, including PC Pro and the Sunday Times. He still writes about PCs, laptops and enterprise computing, plus PC and console gaming, but he also likes to get his hands dirty with the latest gardening tools and chill out with his favourite movies. He loves to test things and will benchmark anything and everything that comes his way.

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