The Duux Whisper 3 is a fan that puts silence front and centre. After testing it, it turns out it has plenty of other strengths as well.
Isn’t it lovely, in a country that’s as cool as an air fryer, to be drenched in sweat the moment you move? Thankfully, the people in charge of running the country are on hand to remind us to wear shorts and drink water. While we wait for a serious building-insulation programme, we’re left with the old standbys: air-conditioned places, fans, and hot-water bottles slid into the freezer. Because yes-dear politicians-blowing hot air on television cools nobody down, and it even gets some people riled up.
What does move air usefully, though, is the Duux Whisper 3. I tried it during the last heatwave and was able to compare it with my Rowenta Turbo Silence Extreme. In the end, these two pedestal fans-marketed in very similar ways-proved to be more complementary than competing.
And to top it off, both brands are European: Duux is Dutch, and Rowenta is French.
Price and availability of the Duux Whisper 3
The Duux Whisper 3 sells for 140 € and comes in black, white, grey, and greige-making it ten euros cheaper than its French rival.
Simple assembly for a lightweight design
Putting the Whisper 3 together is almost self-explanatory. The parts slot into place easily and are held together with a plastic tightening ring. There’s only one screw on the entire unit, which secures the front grille-reassuring for parents worried their toddler might try to poke chubby fingers through the blades. And if you don’t own a screwdriver, the right tool is clipped under the fan’s base, so it’s always there when you need it.
In short, it takes just a few minutes to assemble the Whisper 3. Once built, you’re looking at a compact fan: a maximum height of only 95 cm and a weight of 3.7 kg. By comparison, the Rowenta Turbo Silence Extreme stands at 1.4 m and weighs close to 9 kg-hardly a trivial difference. With something that bulky, you think twice before lugging it from room to room when it’s 35 °C. The Whisper 3, on the other hand, can be grabbed by its handle and carried around the home almost as easily as a hand fan.
That advantage naturally comes with trade-offs. First, the all-plastic construction makes it feel less premium. Nothing immediately problematic, but the real question is how it will cope over time-especially after winters stored in a cellar. Will the plastic yellow? Crack? After only 15 days of use, I obviously can’t answer that. The upside is that its modular design should make replacing a part straightforward. It’s also nice that the power cable isn’t hard-wired.
Another limitation is its modest height. You may already know a useful way to cool a home: at night, aim a fan towards a window. It helps push some of the warm indoor air out, creating slight negative pressure that draws cooler air in through another open window. It’s a stopgap, but it can be the few degrees that separate a rough night from a sleepless one. The catch for me is that my windows are 1.10 m high-15 cm higher than the Whisper 3’s tallest telescopic setting. Thankfully, the head tilts vertically, so you can still make it work.
Using the Whisper 3 day to day
On the Whisper 3’s stand, there’s a touch display for enabling Night mode and “natural wind” mode, adjusting fan power, setting the timer, and controlling oscillation (both horizontal and vertical). A key benefit is that the display almost completely turns off when Night mode is enabled. My Rowenta, by contrast, indicates the same mode with an LED that feels about as subtle as the Lighthouse of Alexandria in my bedroom when I’m trying to sleep. To be honest, I ended up blacking it out with a marker.
The downside is the control panel’s location on the base: you either have to bend down to use it, or develop a certain toe dexterity. For an older person or someone with a disability, that could be awkward. Fortunately, Duux includes a magnetic remote that can stick to the fan’s rear handle. All features are available on the remote, so there’s no disappointment there. However, it uses infrared and the sensor sits low on the fan’s column. That means you sometimes need to raise your arm and try several times to register a command if the fan is behind an obstacle-like a coffee table, a dog that’s chosen that exact spot for a nap, or the corner of a sofa.
My biggest criticism of the Whisper 3 is its oscillation (100° vertically or 90° horizontally). The first issue is that it’s extremely slow, with no option to change the speed. The second issue, closely related, is that you can’t reverse direction mid-sweep. If you want the fan to turn to the right after it has started moving left, you must wait for it to complete the full arc and return to its starting point before it will finally head the way you want. When you’re adjusting it remotely, it’s particularly frustrating.
I was also disappointed by the lack of connectivity, since I like controlling everything from my smartphone-or even my watch-with automations. After all, the Duux Flex 2 does have a version you can operate that way. So I did what I’ve done with my Rowenta: I plugged it into a smart socket so I could, at the very least, schedule on/off times. That let me set up routines and voice control, with the only drawback being that I still need the remote for other settings (power, oscillation, and so on).
Quiet airflow
Now to the Whisper 3’s standout feature: its airflow. With 26 speeds, it offers impressively fine control-light-years away from my Rowenta’s four modes, which are effectively limited to “bed-hair blast” and “tornado”. Here, the lowest levels give you a gentle breeze, while level 26 delivers a strong blow. It’s less intense than Rowenta’s Turbo mode, but still more than enough to feel cooler.
Better still, as the name suggests, it really does whisper. Duux has done a great job damping the motor and ensuring the airflow doesn’t make the front grille vibrate. Of course, moving air always makes some sound, but at a level I’ve simply not experienced with other fans. Below level 10, the Whisper 3 is remarkably discreet-almost silent. For a bedroom fan designed to run all night, that’s a significant comfort gain. In comparison, the Turbo Silence Extreme vibrates far more, even in “Silent Mode”, to the point where I can feel the pulsing through my floorboards-or even in the bed frame if it’s too close.
Even so, Duux hasn’t performed a miracle. At full power, the Whisper 3 still obeys the laws of physics. The motor and mechanism remain very quiet, but the airflow itself is still audible. Also, a fan isn’t an air conditioner: when the room is 40 °C, it will blow 40 °C air straight at your face-enough to make you feel like a chicken in a fan oven. In that situation, you probably already know the trick, but placing a damp cloth or bottles of iced water in the path of the airflow will slightly cool the air being moved.
Power consumption
Another strong point of the Whisper 3 is how little electricity it uses. At level 1, it draws only around 2 to 3 W. At level 15-the setting I used most-it consumes 7 W. At maximum, it reaches 16 W. From those figures, subtract 1 W when the screen is off (Night mode).
That’s extremely low. For comparison, my Rowenta uses a little over 60 W on level 1. In silent mode it’s around 50 W, and in turbo mode it’s close to 80 W-though its airflow is also much stronger.
Our view on the Duux Whisper 3
The Whisper 3 is a genuinely pleasant surprise. It’s light, quiet, frugal with electricity, and offers faultless fine-grained speed control. During a heatwave, it becomes a valuable companion that can follow you around the house and help you get a decent night’s sleep.
It still has a few minor flaws that Duux should address in the next generation-such as the infrared sensor’s placement and the oscillation speed-but in truth, those weaknesses are small next to its strengths.
Duux Whisper3
Price: 140 €
Overall score: 9
Value for money
9.0/10
What we like
- Quiet
- Fully featured remote control
- Easy to carry
- Excellent fine control
What we like less
- No smartphone connectivity
- Slow oscillation
- A bit small
- Poorly placed IR sensor
Buy the Duux Whisper3
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!
Leave a Comment