A Dyson fan costs around $400, which is to be expected from a brand known for status-symbol appliances. But what if I told you there was a fan that costs even more?
Though the brand may not be a household name in the US, Tokyo-based Balmuda is well known in Japan for its high-end, minimalist appliances like The Brew and The Toaster (there’s also The Clock, The Speaker, and … The Teppanyaki). Its latest release, a pedestal-style fan, is not called “The Fan” but rather the NatureWind Studio. It retails for $429 and is available in black and white.
The NatureWind Studio looks a little like a caged windmill on a wide tripod. It doesn’t include a remote, have any smart features, or correspond with any app. It has but a single objective: mimicking a natural outdoor breeze. One could argue that most fans can achieve this simply by operating at a low speed. But the patented dual-blade design of the NatureWind Studio results in an output that is gentle, fairly wide-ranging, and effectively silent.
Balmuda rates the NatureWind Studio at just 9 decibels on its lowest setting. I couldn’t independently verify this, as my home’s ambient noise floor is higher, but I can say that, in an otherwise silent room, the fan was completely inaudible. This is impressive, but after using the NatureWind Studio in the middle of my living room for three weeks, I’m just not confident its features justify the premium price tag—especially without a remote.
Built to Last
Unlike most pedestal fans I test, which typically only include a base and a stalk, the NatureWind Studio arrives in multiple pieces. I had to attach blades to the motor, assemble the guard housing, and slide on the sturdy tripod legs. This process wasn’t tricky, but it did take me about 20 minutes to ensure I connected everything correctly. The bonus of the setup, though, is that I know how to easily disassemble the parts for cleaning—a miss on many pedestal fans. Several of the NatureWind Studio’s components, including the blade and motor housing, are metal and feel precision-built, which is to be expected at this price point but still nice to see.
The NatureWind Studio isn’t a new model for Balmuda; it’s been available in Japan since 2010 (where it is called the “GreenFan Studio”), but it is new in the US as of early June. Its marquee feature is dual-blade technology, where a slow-moving inner blade and a faster-moving outer blade create a combined airflow that aims to feel more like—as the marketing materials put it—“wind through an open window than a mechanical fan.”
While the fan’s height does not adjust, and the NatureWind Studio does not have an onboard rechargeable battery to operate cordlessly, it does have an impressively long, 10-foot fabric-wrapped cord, for which there’s a little hook on the back of the fan’s stalk for looping excess length.