Just realized that $80 portable fan I bought last summer was a total waste

I picked up this tiny USB fan at a street vendor in Austin back in June because it claimed to have 12 hours of battery life. On the first real hot day I took it to the park and it died after maybe 2 hours of use on medium speed. Tried charging it with three different cables and it still barely holds a charge now. Has anyone else fallen for those compact fans that just don't deliver?

2 comments

2 Comments

jessicad981mo ago

Got the exact same thing at a flea market in Phoenix for $75. Lasted maybe 3 uses before the battery started dying after 20 minutes. I even tried leaving it plugged in overnight and the charging light stayed red the whole time. These companies just slap a fancy label on the cheapest parts they can find and hope nobody returns them. The sad thing is I still see the same vendor selling them every summer with the same fake specs on the box. Honestly feels like a right of passage at this point, wasting money on a portable fan that barely works.

morganhayes1mo ago

Huh, I gotta say I'm surprised you had that bad of luck with it. My neighbor picked one of those up at a market last year and it's still going strong, even survived a trip to the beach getting sand all over it. Maybe the quality just varies a lot from batch to batch.