Top 5 Best Misting Fans That Will Keep You Cool and Comfortable

Misting fans are magical things. They articulate moisture in such a way that it refreshes and cools your skin on a sweltering day, without saturating your clothes or hair.

They reinvigorate when you’re feeling sluggish and bogged down by the heat. If you’re the grill master general in your household, preparing for the approaching summer, a misting fan should be a serious consideration.

Sure, you may be a surgeon with a spatula or a blackbelt in burger flipping, but can you ever really master the sun?

That molten ball of fiery heat can feel like it’s ten feet from your face when you’re sweating over the velveteen embers of the charcoals.

The last thing you want is to pass out from heatstroke before your burgers could even be considered medium-rare.

So, to keep you refreshed and in control during your family BBQ, we’re going to have a close look at five of the very best misting fans available at the moment.

We’ll even run through an in-depth buyer’s guide and brief FAQ section because your family needs you! Well…they need delicious grilled food, and you need a misting fan!

In a hurry? Have a look at our top picks directly below.

 

5 Best Misting Fan

 

1. HydroMist F10-14-011 18” Shrouded Outdoor Wall Mount Oscillating Fan 

Preventing you from cooking quicker than those chicken drumsticks, at our number one spot is an awesome wall mounted fan with four 18 inch fan blades and an oscillating head.

It comes with a wall mount bracket for easy installation. We’d appreciate it coming with the required screws, but it’s not hard to source them from a hardware store. With stainless steel, chrome-finish caging, the build quality is second to none.

Flustered and desperate on a burning summer’s day, something a lot of people forget to think about when shopping for fans is the running volume.

Well, this fan is surrounded by a black metal shroud that both focuses airflow and keeps noise to a minimum. You shouldn’t have to choose between beating the heat and a mind-numbing drone.

By far the best thing about this fan is the 3-speed control dial, letting you choose between 3500, 4200, and 5100 CFM. The first setting is powerful enough on its own.

The middle setting is more than enough on a blistering day. The final mode will have you feeling like you’re literally inside a storm cloud, which may be a little unnecessary, but equally as awesome.

It’s not all good news though. The fan doesn’t actually come with the misting equipment. The misting ring and nozzles are sold separately for retroactive fitting.

We were a little disappointed as it’s an already expensive product, but it retains the number one position because once it’s fully set up, the flexible refreshment it provides can’t be beaten.

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2. O2COOL Deluxe Misting Fan

Our second purveyor of particulates is a far cry from our number one spot and may be just the thing you’re looking for to prevent your burgers from being seasoned with sweat.

It’s a really simple, ever so clever handheld design. In a nutshell, it’s a mini fan mounted on a spray bottle.

The fan is entirely plastic and doesn’t have a cage, but the blades are really soft and flexible, preventing cracks if anything were to come into contact with them whilst they move.

To give yourself a good misting, all you need to do is aim the fan and pull the trigger of the spray bottle. The translucent bottle gives you visuals on your remaining water levels, and a large cap at the base of the bottle provides an easy refill system.

The bottle itself is really sturdy. It could probably withstand a fair few drops. The problem we foresee is dropping it when empty.

Without the weight of the water, it might be a little top heavy, and the fan enclosure isn’t equipped to deal with heavy knocks. A weighted bottom would have been nice, but we also appreciate how lightweight this design is.

This is an awesome fan for barbecuing as you can have it handy with a few ice cubes in. You won’t have to leave your post, which is perfect when you’re smoking or grilling meat to perfection, and you get 1000 mists from one bottle, and it’s so controlled that there’s no risk of turning your grill into a sauna. 

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3. Lasko 7050 Misto Outdoor Misting Fan

Saving you from jumping into your water feature for a bit of relief from the heat, at our number three spot is another unique design reminiscent of smoke machines.

This design sits on the floor or a platform and emits mists upward, reducing the local air temperature by up to 25 degrees.

Unfortunately, there’s no lateral oscillation with this fan, just a 90-degree vertical pivot, but it’s not a bulky design. It could be shifted manually without a fuss. 

Using your standard garden hose to provide the flow of water, and a 3-speed dial, the Misto nozzles, fan, and automatic louvers have some pretty good range.

We’re talking beyond 10 feet. It’s also a pretty quiet machine as the fan is completely enclosed, perfect for garden parties or quiet catch ups on the patio around a relaxing fire pit on a hot summer night.

Our biggest hang-up with this fan is that the water particles aren’t as fine as we’d like them, and there’s no way to change that. If you try turning the hose down, there’s not enough pressure for misting and the nozzles start to drip.

All in all, though, it’s a really solid construction that’ll definitely take the edge off those days you could barbecue on the sidewalk let alone on a grill.

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4. Geek Aire Outdoor Misting Fan

Tempering your molten skin at number four we have another great floor fan. It’s battery-operated, but the battery comes included and it’s fully rechargeable, which we love. It takes around 3 hours to charge and gives you up to 23 hours of misty goodness.

Much like our third pick, the water’s supplied by your garden hose, and the fan takes care of the rest, providing you with a 15000CFM airflow. Using the three nozzles in the perimeter of the shroud, this Geek Aire fan will emit mist up to 30 feet.

To control the speed and conserve energy power, you can use the precision dial. Rather than having 3 or more preset speeds, you can turn the dial smoothly from 0 to 100% power.

The 11-inch, plastic fan blades spin in a full metal enclosure propped up by a sturdy metal frame. The fan head has 360-degree swivel capabilities, but there are no automated movements; it’s all set by hand.

If you’re looking for portability, then this fan is perfect for you. It’s lightweight, sturdy and folds down well for storage. The setup instructions are a little confusing, but other than that, it’s a brilliant, no-nonsense misting fan.

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5. Cool-Off Island Breeze Oscillating Misting Fan

The fifth and final installment of our misty list is a top of the range fan with a huge water capacity capable of reducing the volcanism of mid-summer to a very bearable simmer.

Water is held in the domed base of this fan, 12 gallons of it to be exact. It will mist through about a gallon an hour, giving you a full day of heat relief. Another perfect option when you’ve gotta have that perfect summer smoked brisket. 

It’s a 78-inch design with three speeds and a 26-inch oscillating fan. Combine all that with a full-copper, super quiet motor and you have a massive mist range of over 40 feet.

Unlike our other fans with three nozzles, this has four, which should provide you with a more fine and even mist. The centrifugal misting process also prevents the clogging of nozzles, reducing the amount of maintenance this fan requires.

It’s advertised as a portable misting fan, and it is to some degree. It’s fully mobile, with two large back wheels and one smaller front wheel.

You could push this thing anywhere as long as it’s a smooth surface. The problem we see here is that it’s so big and heavy, that moving it beyond the confines of your own patio may be quite difficult.

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Best Misting Fan Buyer’s Guide

Fans are one of those things you never really consider the price of until you absolutely need one, then when you’re confronted with the prices, it almost hurts as much as your sunburn.

Let’s breeze through some of the factors you should be considering before you make that final decision, to make sure your money is well spent.

 

Budget

Coming up with a rough budget is a great way to zone in on realistic options really quickly. You may be swayed to go lower or slightly higher from there, but it’s a great starting point.

 

Range

The two main contributors to the potential range or CPM of the mist are the size of the fan and the power of the motor. 

Think about your grilling setup when considering range — just because it has a long range doesn’t mean you need or want it. A fan installed just next to your built-in kitchen doesn’t need to go as far as if your grill is halfway across the backyard from the hose, for example! 

Also, a fan with a lot of power and a very long range may well put TOO much airflow and moisture over your meat, making it soft where you want a little toughness. Think how you’d damage a perfect sear or rotisserie on your infrared grill if things got over-moist! 

 

Blade Length and Number

Generally speaking, the larger the fan blades or the more of them there are, the more air it’s going to shift. This means it’ll be able to carry the water vapor further.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take an industrial-sized unit to get some pretty good range. Even a fan with 12-inch blades should be able to hit the ten-foot mark as long as they have a decent motor, which brings us to our next point.

 

Motor

The motor is ultimately going to define the power of your fan. It’s also the thing that enables speed settings. It’s quite common for them to work in three steps: low, medium, high. But there are stepless versions out there like our number four spot.

So, the motor isn’t just about power, it’s about control and customization, the ability to fine-tune the function of the fan to fit any situation. 

We recommend having as much control over the fan as possible if it’s going to be used near a grill, as the mist will douse your charcoal or pellets and you’ll have to re-ignite to keep cooking.

That said, If speed settings sound overcomplicated for your needs, you can save yourself a bit of money by opting for a misting fan with a simple on/off function and one running speed.

 

Oscillation Vs Static

Most upscale models will have some sort of oscillation, meaning they’ll move automatically up and down or side to side as a normal fan does. Usually, fans that oscillate also have a stationary setting, so you get the best of both worlds, but they tend to cost a lot more. 

 

Power Supply

Where is your grill stationed, Chef? If it’s situated on your patio, you can look for misting fans that plug into your mains. If it’s further afield or you want to travel with your special hot-bbq-improving fan, it’s a good idea to look into battery-powered options. 

 

Volume

Fans are noisy machines. Anything that moves a lot of air quickly is. But you can get fans that run a lot quieter than others.

Our number one fan for instance has a deep shroud that dulls volume. Our last pick offers peace and quiet with a silent motor.

 

Fineness of Mist

Mists come in different densities. If you want an exceedingly fine mist, make sure you look for a fan that expressly states it has that quality.

 

Durability

Misting fans are outdoor appliances for obvious reasons, so they need to be able to handle the rigors of a life exposed to the elements. 

For portable fans, this just means they need to be resilient in heat, as they’ll be in storage the rest of the time. For mounted fans, it’s a different ball game. They need to be completely weatherproof and rust-resistant.

You also need your fan to be built well. A floor fan should be able to handle a good kick or two, and an upright fan like our last pick should be able to survive toppling over once in a while.

 

Removable Nozzles

This is something that flies under the radar a little when it comes to misting fans. If you live in a hard water area, a residue will build up and eventually block the nozzles.

You’ll need to be able to remove the nozzles in order to clean them from time to time. Some fans will allow this, others will have a fixed construction.

Another way around this is to use only filtered water in your mister, but that means avoiding any that take water from your garden hose.

 

Water Consumption

It’s always good to have a clear understanding of how much water a misting fan goes through. The last thing you want at the end of a lovely, misty summer is an enormous bill.

Misters that connect straight to your garden hose are great designs, but they tend to use far more water than their tank laden counterparts. If you’re a particularly eco-conscious water conservationist, it’s best to avoid these designs altogether.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Do misting fans work in high humidity?

Perhaps a little bit, as long as it’s a powerful fan, but you’re much better off using a high-pressure misting system.

 

What’s a misting fan?

A misting fan is a normal fan with integrated nozzles that draw on a water supply to spray extremely fine water particles into the air to bring down a localized temperature. They refresh and soothe the skin without saturating clothes.

 

How much water does a misting fan use?

It depends on the water connection. Fans that use garden hoses tend to use quite a lot of water to maintain adequate pressure for misting. Others with their own tank are far more measured in their water consumption.

 

Final Thoughts On The Best Misting Fans

Barbecuing is the best! There’s nothing better than striking out into the yard to enjoy the weather and some delicious food.

A good misting fan will keep the heat from driving you back indoors, so as long as you wear plenty of sunscreen and stay hydrated, the feast can go on!

We have rated the products on our list, but it’s all subjective, and we like to think they’re all amazing misting fans, each perfect in their own right for different applications.

So, was there anything on our list that appealed to you?