1. Specifications
2. Portability
3. Cooling powers
4. Noise levels
5. Ease of use
6. Verdict
This Fivangin Portable Air Cooler review puts one of Amazon's bestselling air coolers through its paces to see if the super compact and super affordable design can actually help you to beat the heat at home.
Unlike portable air conditioning units which use refrigerant and a compressor to lower the temperature in a room – and as a result are expensive, heavy, awkward to manouevre, often noisy, and require a window and window sealing kit to vent the extracted hot air outside – an air cooler is an altogether more user-friendly affair.
Smaller, cheaper, and more portable, an air cooler uses cold water and a fan to create a cooling breeze. But can it match a portable air conditioner in terms of cooling performance?
I’ve now reviewed a number of portable air conditioner units in a family home setting, so I’ve learned what makes for a more practical and effective cooling experience. As such I was eager to put the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler to the test to see how it could perform against the competition. I tested the unit over a couple of weeks, assessing its performance, noise levels, ease of setup, and ease of use. Read on to find out how it performed compared to the best portable air conditioners on the market.
Fivangin Portable Air Cooler review
Specifications
- Dimensions: H24cm x W15 x D10.8cm
- Weight: 830g
- Water tank capacity: 600ML
- Recommended room size: not specified
- Noise levels: 30dB (although in my tests using a sound monitoring app on my phone it measured approx 34dB to 45dB from 1m away)
- Speed settings: 5
- Modes: fan or spray
- Timer: yes
- Remote control: no
- Other features: 7 colours of night light
How I tested the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler
Unboxing
When the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler arrived on my doorstep I was initially shocked at its size.
Having recently tested two big and bulky portable air conditioners that required two people to heft them through the doorway and into the house, the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler is tiny in comparison, measuring smaller than your standard shoebox.
Inside the box, the packaging, and thus waste, is minimal but sadly not eco-friendly, with two rectangular pieces of foam and a small plastic bag around the cooler.
On unboxing, my first impressions were that Fivangin Portable Air Cooler felt lightweight, but not flimsy. It looks more sleek and stylish than I expected, with a matt white exterior, rounded corners, and the brand logo subtly written on the front in small grey letters. There's also a grey leather-look carry handle on the top of the unit.
The adjustable air fan outlet at the front feels sturdy and the rotating base is a nice additional design feature.
Assembly
Always a welcome surprise on unboxing – the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler is ready-assembled so you can start using it immediately.
It comes with a USB charging cable which is approximately 120cm long.
Set-up
To set up the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler you simply untwist the cap on the water tank and then fill the tank with water.
The manual suggests adding ice cubes to the water tank to increase the unit's cooling powers further.
You then connect the power cable to the rear of the product and attach it to a USB charging point (or in other words a 5V/2A adapter). Once you’ve connected it to a power source, the screen will light up and then turn off.
Portability
The Fivangin Portable Air Cooler could hardly be any more portable.
It’s smaller than a typical shoe box, measuring just 15cm x 10.8cm x 24cm, and at 830g when empty in weight it’s less than a bag of sugar! Of course, it’s worth noting that it weighs more than this once it’s filled with water – that adds another 600g by my calculations.
There's also a built-in leather-look carry handle to make moving it from room to room even easier.
Its compact size means it fits neatly into a carrier bag, and whilst we were testing it we took it out on a number of occasions when my two boys were having sleepovers with family and we wanted to make sure would be cool at bedtime. We’ve previously taken a fan to put next to their bed, but the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler's rectangular design was much less awkward and fitted easily into their shared rucksack.
My only gripe on the portability front is that the unit does need to be plugged into a power socket to be used. A rechargeable battery would be a great addition so you weren't tied to an electricity point. It could then be used when camping or in locations around the home where there isn't easy access to a socket.
Cooling powers
Once it's plugged in, just press the power button on the front of the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler and it will start working at the wind speed of L1.
The cooler has five wind speeds in all, each increasing in power. I found the lowest Wind Speed Setting, L1, was effective enough to be felt up to 5 metres away.
In terms of cooling ability, the manual suggests that the cooler can decrease the temperature by 2-6 degrees Celsius within 5m of the device.
I tested it out on Cold Wind Mode to begin with which on the LED display panel looks like three water droplets.
On this setting, you need to make sure you have the water tank above the minimum water level. You can then see a mist of water being sprayed out as the fan runs. There are two options on this setting – low and high atomisation. On the higher setting you could see slightly more of a water mist being sprayed out, but the difference was very subtle.
For an appliance so small I found the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler's cooling powers incredibly effective. When I positioned a thermometer 1 metre away and put the device on Cold Wind Mode Setting L2 the air felt immediately cooler, but after around twenty minutes of use it brought the temperature down by approximately 1-2 degrees Celsius in that location.
Overall, I found this unit was perfect for cooling one particular area, or a person. For example, it was great when directed towards the bed, or sat on a desk when working. However, we found it wasn’t as effective at cooling an entire room as a portable air conditioner.
Potentially the air cooler is also likely to be more effective in dry heat rather than in muggy weather. In high humidity, its misting feature is going to be less effective, and one of the best fans on the market will likely do a better job of creating a breeze to evaporate moisture from your skin and cool you down.
Noise levels
Having struggled a little with the noise levels of most of the portable air conditioners we've tested, the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler exceeded mine and my family's expectations when it came to and noise – or rather lack of it!
First of all, we tried varying the Wind Speed Setting, by pressing the fan symbol on the LED display panel. The lowest Wind Speed Setting, L1, was so quiet that it was barely audible, but still it was effective enough to be felt upto 5metres away.
On the L1 Wind Speed Setting I used a sound monitoring app on my phone to measure the volume from one metre away and it measured at approximately 34dB. In real life terms this wasn’t much louder than the low hum that our fridge-freezer makes, which gives you a good idea of how unobtrusive it was.
On L2 Wind Speed Setting it went up to approximately 37dB, on L3 it was approximately 46dB, L4 was 40dB, and the highest Wind Speed Setting of L5 was only 45dB (still from one metre away).
In Cold Wind Mode the unit emitted a very quiet hiss alongside the water spray, but still the sound readings weren’t much louder.
Oscillation mode was a tiny bit noisier, with a very slight ‘buzzing’ sound as the fan rotates, however, we didn't find it much of a disturbance.
To most people, I’m sure that the notion of dB is quite hard to imagine, but supposedly 50dB is the sound of ‘moderate rainfall’ and 60dB is the noise level of most dishwashers, so that gives a more tangible idea of how quiet this cooler actually is.
My family certainly found it quiet enough to use in our bedrooms on hot nights and it's currently a permanent feature on the bedside table.
Ease of use
The Fivangin Portable Air Cooler is extremely easy to use and required little input from the manual to work out how to operate it, meaning it would be suitable for people who aren’t techie at all.
The LED display on the front is a nice feature and easy to read. The only slight downside of the LED control panel is that sometimes we found the buttons a bit temperamental. The on/off button especially required quite heavy pressure to work at times.
Beyond the fan mode there are also some great additional features that give this affordable air cooler a lot of bang for your buck.
The Oscillation makes the air cooler rotate on its base, casting the cooler air through a 90-degree angle from side to side. We found this function really useful when the cooler was on the kitchen table whilst we were eating lunch, as it meant that all four of us got a blast of cool air as it oscillated around.
The Timer setting allows you to set the amount of hours after which the cooler will automatically turn itself off. I found this really useful at bedtime when I set it for an hour so that it would be on whilst my son was getting to sleep, but would then turn off without me entering the room, meaning I wasn’t wasting electricity.
And lastly, the Colourful Light setting is a fun bonus feature. This can be turned on by pressing the circular sunshine/lightbulb symbol. When activated a light glows from behind the fan, this automatically glows through a sequence of seven different colours. This light can be controlled individually even if the air cooler isn’t on, which my children really liked for a bedroom night light even on nights when they didn’t need cooling. By holding down this button for a longer time you can also turn off the screen display.
Maintenance
There is a removable water tank at the base of the unit, which is a slide-out clear Perspex drawer. It can be easily slid out at the rear of the unit and the manual says that it’s to store the water that may leak from the top water tank. This needs to be emptied whenever it gets full.
I didn't find I needed to empty it during my tests, but there doesn't seem to be any warning light or indicator to alert you should it get full, so you would just need to check this sporadically.
How does it rate online?
The Fivangin Portable Air Cooler is rated at 4.7 on Amazon, with 2,592 ratings. Although it received 4.7 overall, 86% of the ratings are 5 star.
Overall, purchasers like it due to its low price point, compact and lightweight design, and how easy it is to use.
One reviewer syas, ‘Living in an urban area I have to keep my window closed at night due to noise, this fan helps a lot with staying cool at night and is very quiet at lower fan speeds. It has 5-speed settings and on the 3rd setting gives a slight high-pitched whining noise and at the fastest speed this is very loud, but I'd only use this speed setting when exercising at home anyway so it's not disruptive. There is a slight buzzing sound when it is oscillating but I don't use this function at night. The mist spray gives a quiet hiss which actually can be beneficial as white noise to block out other sources of noise.’
Similarly, my family found the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler very quiet. We also experienced a very slight ‘buzzing’ sound on Oscillating mode, however, this wasn’t a problem for us because it wasn’t very loud.
Another reviewer says, ‘I read lots of good reviews about this little cooler fan and was on the fence for a while. It turned out to be surprisingly good, the fan function on its own is just a normal small little fan, but once you put on the misting option becomes so much cooler. It felt cooler than the normal fan.
I love the touchscreen buttons, and the fact that it’s so compact. I’m glad I bought it'.
We concur that it did feel much cooler with the 'Cold Wind' misting mode turned on, and although we did love the touchscreen buttons, found that occasionally they were a bit temperamental and sometimes needed pressing quite hard to respond.
Another happy customer notes this air cooler isn't only good for humans! Saying, they ‘got this air cooler for our labradoodle who really struggles with summer. Despite its small size, this little gadget provides the perfect amount of cooling. It has some handy rotation and water mist features are great to have. The rotation can be a bit noisy but our pup doesn’t care. We will be getting one for our guest bedroom as well because the size and performance is absolutely spot on.’
Verdict
After testing, there's no question that I would happily invest in the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler for my own home, and probably four times over so that we could have one in every bedroom! We're always looking for ways to keep a bedroom cool in the summer months, and this mini air cooler worked a treat.
Whilst it's less suitable for people wishing to dramatically reduce room temperature or to cool a larger room, or those whose main problem is struggling with humidity – my air conditioner vs. air cooler research shows you do need a portable air conditioner for that – I think the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler would suit anyone wishing to achieve quiet and efficient cooling in a localised area.
It's great for turning on and directing towards you to cool you down whilst working at a desk, sitting on the sofa, or going to sleep at night, and its compact size and light weight means it’s also perfect for packing up and taking on holiday too. It can easily fit in a rucksack, suitcase, or in the boot of a car. In fact, you could even carry it to work on your bike! The only downside is that it isn't battery-operated, so you do need access to a power source to plug it in.
It's also easy to store and didn’t take up much room when not in use, making it ideal for anyone with space at a premium.
On testing, my kids and I all loved the 'Cool Wind' mode that delivered a fine mist of cool water when the tank was topped up with ice cubes. Plus, the fact that it was so quiet meant that my children both loved having it in their bedrooms when they were going to bed at night and found it much less obtrusive than some of the large portable air conditioning units we’d previously tested.
What's more, at well under £50 the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler is an absolute bargain compared to a portable air conditioner where prices range from £300-£1000.
You also get a lot of functionality for that price, with the misting function, five-speed settings, a timer, oscillation, and the colourful nightlight feature that my kids loved. All in all, I think the Fivangin Portable Air Cooler is a great buy.
