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Kate’s new Vornado “Vintage” VFans — now available in 4 sizes, 4 colors

Kate - July 13, 2016, Updated: May 9, 2019

retro fanEver since our story about Vornado’s VFANs based on Richard Ten Eyck’s 1945 design, I’ve been pining for one. So when heat and humidity returned to Wisconsin for the summer, I casually mentioned my want to my husband. He is a self-heated furnace of a man year round, and instantly agreed it would be a good purchase. So I went on Amazon (affiliate link) to order one and discovered that Vornado now offers four sizes and four colors of this retro fabulous fan.  vintage fan

I initially wanted this fan to sit on our dresser and circulate air in our bedroom to help us sleep more comfortably, so I decided that the VFAN Jr. would be a good choice for this smallish room where we just wanted a little breeze to help us drift off to sleep.
vintage fanNext I noticed that in addition to the Green, Red and Chrome color options that were initially offered by Vornado, they had also added a nice Vintage White color, which fit in best with the color scheme in our bedroom — VFAN Jr. in Vintage White it is!

retro fanThe Vornado VFAN Jr. in Vintage White is super cute and is perfect perched on the edge of our Broyhill Brasilia dresser in our bedroom. It has two speed settings — low and high — and is almost silent on low yet generates that gentle breeze we were hoping for without any trouble at all. The fan itself feels very substantial, well made and is really a thing of beauty, especially for a midcentury loving girl like myself.

retro fanBefore we set up the fan in our bedroom however, we decided to test it out in our large living/dining room space first. Our fan arrived just as the late afternoon sun was beating onto the large windows in this room on an oppressively humid day. With the fan set on high, we noticed an immediate cooler feeling — even this small VFAN Jr. was able to generate refreshing air movement in our large room. For how small this fan is, I was totally impressed by the amount of air it can move!

retro fanThe following evening, which was equally warm and humid, when we settled down into our living room for the night, we were sadly missing the VFAN Jr. that had been moved to our bedroom. After a brief discussion, we decided to order yet another VFAN — this time the original size — to keep us comfortably cool in our main living space.  

retro fanI decided to go for the red this time — quite an attractive paint job if I do say so myself.

retro fanWe decided on the next size up so we could have the extra fan speed and since the VFAN Jr. did a pretty good job of cooling our living space on the high setting, we figured the next size up would work well on medium speed, which is still quite quiet and not disruptive while watching TV, though even the highest setting is not terribly loud. 

retro fanI’ve had these fans for several weeks now and we use them every day and night. I’ve really noticed a difference in the comfort level of our home, especially during hot, humid days. Even when the AC is not on, the house feels much cooler and fresher because of the air circulation these two small fans provide. It is safe to say that I’m ‘a huge fan’ of these vintage Vornado VFANs.

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35 comments

Comments

  1. Jay says

    Saw a vintage green one yesterday in an antique mall for $ 90 but alas it had several dents on the top of the housing, no telling how well it was maintained. Sometimes it’s best to buy new.

  3. Connie says

    My family had an original vornado pedestal fan, original green, over 55 yrs ago. It was a wonderful fan and served almost daily use during the long hot summers before cental air. Mom finally sold it 30 yrs later. Wish I had it back. Now I’m considering buying one. Just love the quality of the old one.

  4. Karen says

    I recall a window fan of similar configuration that was in my parents bedroom window throughout the summer. Very efficient. A few key strokes just told me that Penney’s and Target carry the Vornado. Target is online only, Penneys has a large selection though their prices are higher even with them currently being on sale. Unfortunately, I have so much paper around that a Vornado wouldn’t be practical:(

  5. Jessica says

    They sell these at Bed Bath and Beyond also. I got the the big green one on the stand this summer and had one of their 20% off coupons which made the $199 price tag much easier to accept! Love these!

  6. Michelle says

    We bought the green one last year (Jr. size) for our bedroom for the same reason and I love it, not only does it keep it cool and the air moving, the sound lulls me to sleep. Highly recommended and they are indeed gorgeous!

  7. Sam R says

    I used to know of an antique shop that had a battered original floor stand Vornado. Never could get them to sell it to me, and they closed/cleaned out on short notice a while back. 🙁

    I do have the standard 10″ model in an ancient original, after a tiny bit of switch repair it works perfectly.

  8. Kim says

    Perfect timing–my 20+-year-old, filthy, plastic, Big Box Store pedestal fan finally disintegrated last week. My green Vornado version is already on its way! 😀

  9. tammyCA says

    Oooh, I like the green color..matches my clock. How are they for cleaning? I have several fans & it’s such a pain to take them apart to clean the dust that accumulates in them (terrible dust here).

    • Kate says

      I’m not sure how hard they are to clean TammyCA, I haven’t had them long enough for them to get dusty, plus we’ve been using them every day so far — no time for dust to accumulate! I think the manual has cleaning information, but I haven’t tried yet.

    • Jukesgrrl says

      TammyCA, That’s where the expensive (but modern and sculptural) Dyson fan excels. No blades to clean. You could dust it while it’s turned on. I have one in Southern Arizona and it’s much easier to deal with than a normal fan. (Mine has a heater unit on it, too, so I can heat the room I’m in without turning the furnace on … which I only need about three months of the year.) It’s not as cute as this Vornado fan, but it looks OK with MCM decor.

    • Michelle says

      Our place gets really dusty, I used a can of electronics air cleaner with the red straw and it blew everything out and off of the blades nicely.

  10. maria says

    Very cool! (pun intended 🙂

    Nice to know these are fairly quiet. I have some original fans, not this brand – one is a Zero, that look great, but sound like an airplane is in the room with you. Will need to check these out!

    Thanks!