Meaco Sefte Smart 36" Tower Fan review: Powerful, quiet and smart, but let down by its looks
A feature-packed smart tower fan that punches well above its price, even if the design feels a little dated
The Meaco Sefte Smart 36" Tower Fan is a powerful fan that’s whisper-quiet on lower settings, and boasts an impressive bunch of smart features for the price. While its dated, plasticky design lets it down visually – if you can look past the aesthetics – this is one of the best-value smart tower fans you can buy.
-
+
Surprisingly powerful airflow across 12 speeds
-
+
Near-silent on lower settings
-
+
Wi-Fi app, Alexa and Google Assistant support
-
+
Eco mode adjusts to room temperature automatically
-
+
Glow-in-the-dark magnetic remote is a fun touch
-
-
Dated design that looks cheap
-
-
Plastic build doesn't feel premium
-
-
Not available outside the UK
Why you can trust T3 Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
If there's one thing British residents have been looking at buying this summer, it's a fan. With multiple heatwaves blasting us with record temperatures across several months, the need for a continuous gust of cool air has never been greater. The problem is, the fan market can be a bit of a minefield as it’s impossible to know what fan will deliver on your needs.
Tower fans are usually the way to go for power, but they tend to come in two camps: either cheap ones that look the part but sound like a jet engine, or expensive ones from the likes of Dyson that are whisper-quiet but cost in the region of £500.
Meaco, the British brand that's built a loyal following with its Sefte range of air circulators, is trying to occupy the middle ground with the Sefte Smart 36" Tower Fan, a full-height tower with Wi-Fi app control, Alexa and Google Assistant support, 12 speed settings and noise levels as low as 20 dB.
All of that for under £100 sounds like a no-brainer on paper, but does it live up to its promises in real life? I've been using it for the past few weeks across the recent UK heatwaves to find out. Here's how I got on.
Meaco Sefte Smart 36" Tower Fan review: price and availability
The Meaco Sefte Smart 36" Tower Fan is available now in the UK, priced at £99.99 direct from Meaco’s webstore, as well as from all the big retailers such as John Lewis.
At the time of writing, it doesn't appear to be available in the US or Australia. For those wondering anyway, £99.99 converts to roughly $130 / AU$195, but without official availability in those markets, you'd be looking at import costs on top.
Sitting just under £100, it easily undercuts smart tower fans from the likes of Dyson (which start from several hundred pounds) and is about neck and neck price wise with fans like the Dimplex DuoCool (around £119 on sale), though the DuoCool offers cordless battery operation which the Meaco lacks.
Quoted running costs are listed at just under 1p per hour based on current energy tariffs, so with a maximum power draw of just 34 watts, you could even leave it running all day without really noticing a difference on your energy bill.
Meaco Sefte Smart 36" Tower Fan review: design and build
The first thing you’ll notice about the Sefte Smart 36" Tower Fan is the odd choice in design. It’s not the most beautiful fan you’ll have ever seen, that’s for sure. My problem isn’t with its shape, either – it’s nice and tall and slim. The issue is the fan’s beige-cream finish, which is very reminiscent of an early 2000s PC tower. And paired with the lightweight plastic construction, the whole thing looks and feels quite cheap.
That said, the fan is perfectly sturdy and nothing feels like it's going to fall apart, it's just that the materials don't scream premium, so not exactly something you want sitting in your living room. Next to a Dyson air purifier, for instance, it looks a generation behind.
Nevertheless, it does boast a couple of design features I enjoy, such as the size. At 925mm tall and just 263mm wide, the Sefte is slim enough to tuck into a corner without taking up much floor space, and a hidden carry handle in the back makes it easy to move between rooms.
The glow-in-the-dark magnetic remote control is another plus point. Not only is it a fun circular shape, but its inbuilt magnet means it clicks neatly into place on top of the fan when you're not using it, so you've always got somewhere to stow it.
Another design detail I enjoy is the fan’s digital display on the front, which is super clear and easy to read, showing your current speed, mode and timer settings. Night mode dims and eventually turns off the display entirely, which is a thoughtful touch for if you’re using this in the bedroom.
Meaco Sefte Smart 36" Tower Fan review: performance and features
Whatever the Sefte Smart lacks in looks, it more than makes up for in performance.
For one, the airflow is seriously powerful. With 12 speed settings, you've got everything from a barely-there breeze on speed one to a full-on hurricane on speed 12. I've used Dyson tower fans at home, and I was surprised by how the Meaco outperforms them on sheer power. On the higher settings, the air reaches across the room with force, and during the recent heatwaves it made a real, noticeable difference when trying to cool down.
Noise levels are another positive. On speeds one and two, for example, it's near-silent. I've been running it overnight in the bedroom and it hasn't disturbed sleep once. Even at moderate speeds, the noise stays low and unnoticeable. It's only when you push past speed eight or nine that the motor becomes audible, and even then it's nothing compared to cheaper tower fans that sound akin to a jet liner taking off.
As for oscillation, you get four settings of 45, 90, 135 and 180 degrees. The widest setting sweeps the air across most of a room, while the narrowest focuses the breeze on a single spot. I should note that there's no vertical tilt, but for a tower fan that's pretty standard.
It’s the Sefte’s smart features that make this fan really good value for money, though. The Meaco app connects over Wi-Fi and gives you control of speed, mode, oscillation and the timer from your phone as well as working with Alexa and Google Assistant, so voice control is an option if you've got a smart speaker set up, which is handy.
The Eco and Night modes are cool features worth highlighting, too. While Eco monitors the room temperature and automatically adjusts the fan speed in response to the environment, Night mode turns off the display, mutes sounds, and gradually reduces the fan speed hour by hour as you sleep. Small yet clever additions that make this fan feel smarter and overall more intuitive across different uses.
Meaco Sefte Smart 36" Tower Fan review: verdict
The Meaco Sefte Smart boasts excellent performance with impressive noise levels, and a bunch of smart features that are hard to beat at this price. It's powerful enough to handle proper heatwave conditions, quiet enough to sleep next to, and the app and voice control add a layer of convenience that most sub-£100 fans simply don't offer.
The design, though, is the sticking point here. The dated colourway and plasticky build let down what is otherwise a seriously capable fan. If Meaco gave this the same design treatment it's given to its Sefte pedestal range, it would easily be a five-star review.
Nevertheless, if aesthetics aren't a priority and you just want a fan that performs brilliantly for under £100, the Sefte Smart is one of the best buys going.
