This is fan I can’t gatekeep — it’s a godsend for night sweats

Sometimes, you stumble across the best products by accident. I spent the whole summer looking for a fan that could keep me cool in hot weather and through night sweats and where did I find it? In a gîte in rural France.

When you find out that the fan in question is made by Meaco (it’s the MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan for the impatient amongst us), you might not be surprised that it’s one of the best cooling fans of all time. The brand are famous for their excellent air technology, but there’s so much that I have to tell you when it comes to this fan.

On holiday, in a converted barn, in France, without aircon, the air gets stuffy and hot. I knew it as soon as I stepped into my room that I would need to practice all the different methods for staying cool at night. However, I slept better than I have all year thanks to this marvellous fan. In fact, it’s so good, other people started stealing from my room it to help with night sweats and hot sleep. I gatekept it as much as I could on holiday, but now I’m ready to shoot the breeze.

MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan review

The MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator is one of those fans that actually feels like a little luxury rather than just a practical buy. It’s designed to move air all around the room, so instead of just blasting you in one spot it creates a cool, breezy circulation that feels softer and more natural.

With a super-quiet motor and a sleek, minimal look, it’s perfect for bedrooms, home offices, or anywhere you want to stay cool without the noise. Plus, it comes with a handy remote control and multiple speed settings, so you can tweak it exactly how you like. It’s the kind of fan you’ll keep out all year rather than shoving in a cupboard once summer’s over.

MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan Specifications

Who would the MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan suit?

You might not expect a small, desktop fan to be powerful, but this is the exception to the rule. The blast of air was rustling papers across the other size of the 80 m² room, so if you need fast air flow, this is for you.

I like it as a fan for night sweats and hot sleepers, because it really gears up for keeping you cool in the dark. The control panel switched the lights off, there was a timer delay that could turn the fan off after a few hours, and it stays virtually silent, even when it’s on full blast. As a hot sleeper myself, I actually got too cold with this running cool air over me.

I also like it for sleep because of its size and portability. This fitted easily on the bedside table, but I found myself lifting the strap and carrying this around the house with me throughout the day. It’s great if you work from home and want to tackle hot flushes at all times of the day.

What is the MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan like to use?

There are lots of elements about the MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan that are really thoughtfully designed. First, you have the handle on top, which is thick, nice to carry, and makes what could be a cumbersome fan really easy to use walk around with.

Next, there’s the remote. This is magnetic and sits in the middle of the fan when you’re not using it, but you could sit on the other side of the room and have full access to all the fan’s functions in the palm of your hand. The tactile buttons are easy to read, although those of us who pop a pair of glasses on for reading might need to wear a pair of specks to get a good idea of the buttons the first time around. T

hen, for whatever reason, if you’ve misplaced the remote, the base of the fan doubles up as a control board. From here, you can change all the fan’s settings using a sensitive, clear screen. I liked that the buttons were much bigger and illuminated, which makes it very easy to use at night and when you’re in a hurry to get the fan going.

From a cooling perspective, this is exceptional. There are twelve speed settings, although I didn’t actually need to go past six. You’ve also got the option to set the fan oscillating from side to side or up and down. There’s an eco mode, a night mode, and a timer, but we’ll get into those later.

The lowest speed setting (1) is the closest any fan will ever come to being totally silent. I wouldn’t have known it was even running, but I held a sheet of paper in front of the fan and could see a light ripple. It’s really gentle, which is nice if you want a very light breeze.

I’m not one for delicacy, so when I wanted to get the fan going, I clicked up to speed setting six. This is still pretty quiet: my phone logged it making 19 dB of noise, which is quieter than a whisper, but it was enough to cool down the skin on my face.

I placed it on the table beside me and felt that it did a great job of making my skin feel fresh in 28 degree weather. The beauty of fixing it in place meant that my book pages weren’t being blown in all sorts of different directions. However, when I had it oscillating, it was moving other loose, light items on my table, including receipts.

The test that made this fan really stand out was how it performed at night. There’s a night mode and timer, which you can select to make the fan stop a certain amount of time after falling asleep. Luckily, the light display and buttons all turn off at night, so you don’t end up with any extra light flooding into your house.

I was testing this in a hot country and I’m already a hot sleeper and I was a little apprehensive when I heard we didn’t have air con. However, with night mode on and this running on oscillation at speed 7, I was actually too cold to sleep without the sheet on. The image above has the fan on its top speed setting (12) which was blowing the bed sheet that I'm holding so that it was vertical. I was actually really amazed at what a petite powerhouse this is.

The morning after I used the MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan, I told the family about how impressive it was. One of the ladies I was with struggles with night sweats and hot flushes, so she asked whether she could take it for one night.

In the name of product testing, I swapped my MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan with hers and it was a struggle to get it back at all. She had it running on 11, which isn’t even the top speed setting, and it was blowing curtains and notebooks on the other side of the room. “The breeze over my skin was icy cold. Even though I woke up sweaty, the Meaco gave me near instant relief,” she said. After the holiday, I was sent a screenshot of the order confirmation that she bought one before we had even arrived back in the UK.

Cleaning the MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan

In the two weeks that I had this fan by my side, it didn’t really need cleaning. On inspection, some dust seemed to collect on top of it, but that wiped off straight away. Cleaning between the blades after longer use might need some more attention, but I don’t imagine that will be a regular or particularly demanding task.

There aren’t any filters that need replacing either, so you can pretty much sit back and enjoy the Meaco’s breeze. And, if you need some extra help, we have expert tips on how to clean a fan over here.

How does the MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan compare?

If you were to look at the MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator, you’d probably call it more traditional than the slim tower fans we usually recommend. While its design is sleeker than most desk or pedestal models, it still feels a little clunky in the context of today’s ultra-minimalist fans. But as a portable, desktop fan for tackling night sweats, it’s outstanding. In our tests it produced one of the strongest breezes we’ve recorded and did so almost silently. It’s a distinctly European approach to staying cool on hot nights.

If you're looking for alternatives, the Shark FlexBreeze HydroGo is perhaps the strongest competitor to the Meaco. Although slightly more expensive, it’s completely cordless and adds a misting function. That extra moisture is a real advantage in hot, dry weather, and it’s gentler on skin than prolonged airflow alone. It’s also highly portable. Our tester even took it outside to stay cool while sunbathing.

That said, I prefer the MeacoFan’s remote control and found it significantly more powerful on its top setting. If raw cooling power and whisper-quiet operation matter more to you than cordless convenience or misting, the MeacoFan is the standout choice.

Should you buy the MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan?

If you want to take a leaf out of the French book, the MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator Fan seems to be the one to go for. It did an exceptional job of keeping me cool at night and offers better portability than other fans of comparative power. It might look a little more retro, but it works.

How we test fans

At woman&home we have a standardised process for how we test cooling fans. This one is slightly different, because it came in as a recommendation. I test all of our other fans through research and calling them in to my home for testing. This is one that I stumbled across on holiday, so we don't have a section on what this is like to unbox, because it was already unboxed and set up when I saw it.

I used this for two weeks, which is about how long our other fans are tested for before they get a review written up. I made sure to test it in the night and day, running it through the same checks that all the best cooling fans have to go through before they get a formal review.

I've also compared it to similar models and done more research post-holiday, so you get a really good idea of what this is like to use. If you want to find out more, you can visit our dedicated page for how we test cooling fans.