Latest news with #ThomDunn
New York Times
5 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Midea Is Voluntarily Recalling Our Favorite Air Conditioner
The Midea U genuinely changed the window air conditioner world, providing quiet, efficient cooling without holding an entire window hostage for the summer. But in the first few years after its release, we began hearing from readers who had noticed mold growing on a fan visible inside the unit just behind the grille where the air flows out. To be fair, this can happen with any air conditioner. 'I'd venture to guess that upwards of 70 percent, maybe more of the AC units and mini-splits we encounter, if you took a flashlight and looked at the fan, you'd see mold,' Gabriel Erde-Cohen, CEO of We Clean Heat Pumps, told us. 'Sometimes, the mold is just more apparent.' We began reporting on this concern in summer 2023. We tried and failed to replicate a mold issue ourselves, and we disassembled our own Midea U in order to better understand its airflow and identify some problem points. We also reached out to Midea to ask about the issue. The company's answer confirmed our findings: The fan, and thus any mold growth on it, is more visible in the U than it is in other ACs. Also, the problem can be more prevalent in rooms where people have installed oversize air conditioners, a practice that we discourage. We then wrote that the remedy, for many people with an appropriately sized AC, is to keep the fan running to dry out moisture and make sure the AC is tilted slightly backward to help with drainage. The blue, barrel-shaped fan on the Midea U is visible through the grille — and getting past the bars to clean it is difficult. To help prevent mold growth, keep the fan running regularly. Thom Dunn/NYT Wirecutter The internal fan is harder to spot in traditionally shaped window air conditioners, such as this GE Profile model. Thom Dunn/NYT Wirecutter The Midea U, like most window ACs, should tilt back slightly (on a secure mount) to help excess water drain out, discouraging mold growth in the base pan. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter The blue, barrel-shaped fan on the Midea U is visible through the grille — and getting past the bars to clean it is difficult. To help prevent mold growth, keep the fan running regularly. Thom Dunn/NYT Wirecutter Meanwhile, complaints to Midea persisted. At least two people filed formal complaints with the Consumer Product Safety Commission about the mold problem. (Many such complaints are posted publicly at We don't know when Midea started looking into the issue, considering that it's been evident for years, or why this particular action is happening now. But we did speak with Jonathan Midgett, PhD, the consumer ombudsman at the CPSC, who serves as a sort of public liaison for the agency's internal processes. Although Midgett wasn't familiar with this particular case, he did say that a two-year timeline would be reasonable for a company to investigate these sorts of complaints and develop a plan of action to address the problem. 'Sometimes complaints do take years to get traction,' he explained. 'You get one or two and just ignore it, then there's three or four, and now it's looking like there might be a pattern.' Companies do have some responsibility for mold mitigation, according to the CPSC. 'I know that it sounds like it's not a mechanical failure, but it is a mechanical failure if there's something wrong with the plastic or there's not enough airflow to prevent mold growth,' Midgett told us, citing a 2013 mold-related recall of nearly one million Fisher-Price Rock 'n Play sleeper cribs. We tested multiple sizes and types of air conditioners to confirm: A too-big AC can't balance heat and humidity.
New York Times
02-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
With the Vornado ARA, I Finally Found a Tower Fan I Love — Because It's Also a Lamp
I hate tower fans. I know I'm in the minority here. Plenty of other people seem to love them, because every year, when I'm scouring the internet for new fans to test, the bulk of them are tower fans. Even at a glance, you can tell they all suffer from the same problems that make every tower fan so unbearable. There's the narrow, wobbly structure, like the leaning appliance of Pisa. The tall, slender stream of wind that never quite satisfies. The oscillating system that always seems to squeak or break or both. And then there's the air filter. Every fan requires semi-regular cleaning, but tower fans turn it into an absolutely miserable process. You can vacuum up the dust outside of the machine, but you can never quite find a way to get the gunk inside. The dust and hair and tiny flecks of who-knows-what build up over time, making the paltry draft even more deficient and weighing down the already-perilous pendulum swing of the breeze. But every year, I still give tower fans a shot. I find a few that pique my interest and call them in for testing. Every year, I try to find a tower fan that isn't terrible. And every year, I end up disappointed. That is, until last summer, when I tried out the new Vornado ARA, and it literally brightened up my life. This quiet, reliable tower fan also works as a lamp, providing pleasant ambient lighting while it keeps the air moving through the room. It's still not that easy to clean, though. Vornado makes some of our absolute favorite fans, to the point that we've been consistently recommending the same basic model since 2017. So when I saw that the company was releasing a new tower fan, I figured it was worth a look. At first glance, it seemed like any other tower fan, with a sturdier build and an actual metal grille around the fan blade. But the LED light ring running around the base and up the back made me raise an eyebrow. Who is this for? I wondered. Why would anyone turn to a tower fan for mood lighting? Thom Dunn/NYT Wirecutter I soon found the answer as the summer settled in. We often rely on a relay of fans to circulate the air conditioning. So on one particularly sweltering day, I set up the Vornado ARA in the kitchen as a temporary respite. It was basically right in the middle of our home, right next to my 4-year-old's bedroom. And it has not moved from that location since. In fact, we rarely ever turn it off. The Vornado ARA has a warm white LED light ring around the base, and there's another lighting stripe along the back of the handle. Thom Dunn/NYT Wirecutter The fan on the ARA moves the air around 2.7 mph on the lowest setting and up to nearly 13 mph on high. Even during the winter, that low setting helps to move the heat around and to prevent the scents of the kitchen from seeping into the kid's room. (He has a very sensitive nose.) And since its volume is less than 40 decibels, we barely even notice it. If we have to crank the fan up even higher — in the summer, for example, or when someone burns the popcorn again — it's still slightly quieter than what's typically considered a 'normal conversation' volume of around 60 decibels. This fan doesn't use that much energy, either, thanks to its energy-efficient DC-powered motor. With the fan and the lights both on high, it uses 50 watts of electricity per hour. But on the lower settings, which is where we usually keep it, the ARA pulls only about 10 watts. That costs me less than $20 over an entire year, even with the lights on 24/7. And speaking of the light, the Vornado ARA has a weirdly wonderful ambience, with a nice warm color temperature. During the daytime, it helps to brighten up the awkward corner between the kitchen and the bedroom. At night, it gives off the perfect level of illumination to get us where we're going. Whether my wife is coming home late from rehearsal, our kid has a bad dream and wants to come into our bedroom, or someone needs a midnight bathroom break, the ARA offers just the right amount of pleasant low lighting to guide you through the darkened house without overwhelming your pupils. The Vornado ARA's easy-to-clean exterior metal grille/air filter is more durable than what you find on other tower fans. But it can still be difficult to get at all the dust inside the fan. We did appreciate the magnetic remote-control storage cradle on the top of the device, however. Thom Dunn/NYT Wirecutter Of course, at the end of the day, the Vornado ARA is still a tower fan. And that means the cleaning process is still pretty lousy. The durable metal grille does catch most of the dust and hair, and it's easy enough to wipe down or vacuum. But there's still no way to get inside the machine to do a real deep cleaning. On the bright side, the ARA comes with Vornado's reliable five-year warranty. This gives me some confidence that it was built to last — or, at the very least, that you won't be throwing your money away if anything does go wrong. And that's good because this thing costs a whopping $250. When I asked the company to explain the price, a representative told me it was due to a combination of the fan's bigger size, the more powerful airflow, the 'elegant metal details,' and, of course, the accent light. That makes a certain amount of sense, though I suspect an old economics adage also comes into play — that the price of something is just as much as anyone's willing to pay for it at any given time. The Vornado ARA provides just enough ambient lighting to guide you through a late-night snack run, without having to worry about stubbing your toes on the edge of a table. Thom Dunn/NYT Wirecutter If you'd asked me a year ago, there's no way I would have ever told anyone to spend $250 on a tower fan. But in that time, the Vornado ARA has become a centerpiece of our home. It's a functional piece of decor that literally keeps the flow going, day and night. That's not something I can say about any other fan I've ever tested, towering or otherwise. Then again, the ARA isn't just an attractive, powerful, well-made fan — it's also a lamp, with a guarantee to last for at least half a decade. When you put it like that, the Vornado ARA feels like a genuinely good value. This article was edited by Harry Sawyers and Maxine Builder.
