7/10
Open rating explainerInformationWIREDInteresting style and refined build quality. Inaudible at its lowest speeds. Air movement is effective yet gentle. Has a generous 10-foot-long cord.TIREDThe assembly process is involved. Tripod design has a large footprint. Has no remote and few features.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.
Photograph: Kat MerckYou may need more of this cord length than you’d think, due to the wide tripod design, which is effective for keeping the fan totally still but requires about 3 square feet of floor real estate. Because of this, I had more trouble than I expected in finding a place for it.
I usually have no problem slipping a pedestal or tower fan between pieces of furniture, but the NatureWind Studio, with its splayed legs, had to sit right in the middle of my living room, forcing my family to walk around it for the duration of the testing period. No one ended up minding too much, however, because the fan’s presence made sitting on the couch heavenly; given its light output and lack of perceptible sound, the breeze did indeed feel oddly natural.
Photograph: Kat MerckHowever, not having a remote control proved incredibly inconvenient. If the air is hot enough to need a fan, it's hot enough for you to not want to get up and walk across the room to change the speed or activate the side-to-side oscillation (unlike many other pedestal fans, the NatureWind Studio does not oscillate vertically).
Worth the Wind?
Video: Kat MerckWhen I first read the NatureWind Studio’s description, I was a little concerned that its “natural, outdoor breeze” would essentially be the same as the “nature mode” setting on a lot of new-release fans. Nature mode typically works by increasing and decreasing the fan's speed at random intervals. It’s supposed to be refreshing, but it’s actually (to me) intolerably distracting. Perhaps some people enjoy their pedestal fan speeding up and slowing down audibly and unpredictably, but I have not met them.
The NatureWind Studio’s wind is instead consistent and wide; you’ll feel it all over the room, but you won’t have to worry about it ruffling your book pages. However, you’re also not going to get the kind of bulk air movement you’d get with a high-velocity air circulator like Vornado’s feature-packed EOS 9 ($150), which can push more than 1,400 feet per minute (fpm)—helpful for open-concept spaces and high ceilings. Even on its highest setting, Jet Mode (indicated by a little airplane icon), the NatureWind Studio’s output topped out at 925 feet per minute on my anemometer. That’s respectable for a design-forward fan meant for smaller spaces, especially since the decibel level on the highest setting wasn’t much more than 50. But it’s nonetheless not powerful enough to get air moving in a meaningful way in a larger space.
Photograph: Kat MerckI also appreciated the lack of lights on the front of the unit; there are two rows of four dot-sized LEDs on the body of the fan to indicate the speeds and timer lengths (one, two, three, and four hours). But otherwise, it’s impossible to tell whether the fan is turned on, which makes it suitable for use in a bedroom at night.
Overall, it's a refined fan with solid build quality and a distinctive look, but is it worth $250 more than similarly low-decibel pedestal fans like Dreo’s TurboPoly 765S ($160), which have a smaller footprint and come packed with features like a remote, vertical oscillation, adjustable height, and Matter connectivity? Further, Vornado’s vintage-inspired VFan ($209) and sleek, backlit Ara ($290)—though both are significantly louder and pump out a rougher, more obtrusive airflow—have a more memorable look than the NatureWind Studio and notably longer warranties at five years to Balmuda’s two years.
And, of course, one must consider that OG of high-design fans, the Dyson Cool AM07, which, with its $400 MSRP, is itself $70 less than the NatureWind Studio. It’s bladeless, so it’s safer to use around small children and pets, and the ellipse silhouette is iconic. However, the AM07 is louder at 31 decibels on low speed, and it has a narrower airflow. If I were deciding between these two fans, I would probably go with the NatureWind, as it produces one of the nicest breezes I've ever experienced from a household fan. I'm just not sure that alone justifies its top-of-the-heap price.
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$429 $365 at Amazon$429 at Best Buy
