Heller 30cm Box Fan HBOX30S
VerifiedMPN: 6932144 reviews
Had an earlier model - was great. Purchased latest model but was faulty on arrival and would not engage without utilising the timer switch, which was unaligned and not correctly seated. Also very noisy and unsteady. Got a refund but store didn't want it returned. Threw it in the trash. Would not recommend.
Purchased in for $61.
WARNING: Contains a manufacturing fault, do not buy! A step down from an originally excellent product by Heller. I bought two of these units HBOX30 from the Australian distributor thinking that these were the same as previous functional units, they are not. The unit shakes with a vibration so bad that it moves around on hard floors and the vibrations shake the front grill into an insufferable buzzing noise.
Seeing that winter is upon us and these fans are no longer a Winter stock item, I decided not to return them but to investigate the performance fault myself. Besides the very cheap construction, I found the fan blades itself was out of balance due to an ignored injection molding fault, a warped spindle. This results in a severe wobble when spun, throwing the fan into an unrecoverable high RPM shake... but it is simply solvable!
I do not recommend this home fix, but a quick removal (unplugged) of the back cover and one nut removal of the fan allowed me to spin the fan blade itself on a pencil. I observed the warp and placed a small sticky button weight on the opposite side of the observed warp, inside the cylindrical part of the fan.
After a few attempts to get the right spot, the fan eventually spun smoothly on the pencil. After a quick reassembly of the unit and test; the unit functioned without vibration at all speeds... main issue solved.
Now that the unit is functional, the only major criticism is the fan is too loud, as it goes way too fast.
The unit should operate as such... 1. setting should be a slow gentle breeze 2. a breeze 3. a stiff wind.
So the power of the fan speed needs a 50% reduction at least, as most people just require a gentle movement of air and not aircraft style revolutions!
So unless you were desparate to get a fan like I was, beware that this product is not of merchantable quality and could in fact be dangerous unless repaired immediately!
PS, my two fans are now working smoothly but are still too loud, but at least they are safe to use.
Senior Industrial Designer
Purchased in for $50.
Hell of a noise – The fan works okayed has the features you would expect, 3 speeds, timer, rotating louvres. Unfortunately it is noisy. I bought it for my home office and its simply too noisy, it is so noisy it impairs communication.
Purchased in at JB Hi-Fi Online Store for $24.
Cheap but very noisy – This has to be the noisiest fan I've ever used. I have an old Kmart box fan that's far quieter, even when comparing the lowest setting on the Heller vs. the highest setting on the Kmart fan. The noise is primarily from the fan blades and/or the motor, turning on or off the rotating grill seems to make little difference.
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Unit I purchased (HBOX30) is seemingly different to the unit pictured on the main thread.