Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower Review
An app-controlled fan that you can use all year round
Verdict
A powerful fan and heater, the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower can be used all year round. With a smartphone app giving a higher level of control than much of the competition, it’s a powerful product. There are a few rough edges, but if you’re looking for a heater that’s useful during the summer months, too, then this is a great choice.
Pros
- Powerful heating and cooling
- Useful smart app and voice control
- Doesn’t take up much space
Cons
- Doesn’t display fan mode on LCD
- Could do with a lower fan speed
Availability
- UKRRP: £199.99
Key Features
- Heat modeThis fan has a thermostat, so it will turn off automatically when the right temperature has been reached.
- Smart featuresConnecting via Wi-Fi, this fan can be controlled via app, Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant
Introduction
Including many of the more advanced features seen in models from some of the bigger brands, but without the matching price, the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower is a useful product that you can use all year round.
A handy, if not a little basic, app offers a greater degree of control than a standard fan heater, and there’s a remote control, too. Decent performance in both cooling and heating modes makes this an effective product even in larger rooms.
Design
- Sleek tower
- Black or white colour options
Available in both black and white, the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower looks neat and unassuming. Since this is a tower model it’s tall, but it doesn’t take up a lot of floor space at 1020 x 230 x 230mm. That’s quite a bit less space than you’d need for the Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde, although that model comes with a bigger base to hold the additional sensors and filters.
The other benefit of tower fans is that they don’t have any moving parts on display. Here, both hot and cold air (depending on the mode you set) comes out of the narrow slit in the main column.
Princess provides a remote control in the box, which enables you to adjust every feature. There are no controls on the unit itself, bar a power button – so don’t lose this remote. It’s only a shame then that there’s nowhere to store the remote on the fan’s body when it isn’t in use.
Features
- Remote control
- LCD shows current settings
- The smart app delivers control via your phone or voice
Once you’ve plugged in the fan, you can control it via the Climate app, available for both iOS and Android devices. Just follow the prompts in the app to get the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower connected to your Wi-Fi.
Once connected, the app covers all of the basics. In Fan mode, you can adjust the speed, in increments from one to 10. Switch to Heat mode and you get four options, plus you can set a target temperature, too. Both heating and cooling modes support oscillation – and the sleep timer, which you can set in one-hour increments up to 24 hours.
If you’d rather use the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower as more of a smart thermostat, it’s possible to set schedules for when it will turn on and off. You needn’t worry too much about the fan if you’re not in your home, since it will turn off automatically if it’s knocked over or if it overheats.
Both heating and cooling modes support Natural mode, which apparently adjusts fan speed up and down to make air feel more like a natural breeze. In reality, I remain unconvinced that such modes feel any better to the Standard mode, which uses a constant fan speed.
Using the remote control, you can perform all of the same functions, bar setting a schedule. There’s a simple LCD on the front of the fan that displays the settings, including the fan speed or heat mode and target temperature. There’s no indicator to show that Natural mode is turned on, although you’ll know because the fan speed becomes variable.
Changes made via the app are replicated on the LCD, and changes made via the remote are displayed in the app. Well, for the most part. Using the remote to switch between Cold and Heat modes didn’t always update the app with the correct settings.
Once the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower is connected to your Wi-Fi, you can use the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant skills. You can toggle the power and oscillate modes, and adjust fan speed, but you can’t set a temperature or switch between heating and cooling. Dyson’s smart devices offer far greater control.
Still, in Alexa, the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower appears as a proper device, so you can use it in routines.
Performance
- Effective heating and cooling
- Could do with a slower lowest fan speed
I put the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower through my standard tests. Starting with the regular fan, I measured air speed at 3.08m/s on maximum setting from 15cm away, falling to 1.31m/s at 1m. That’s not bad, although I have tested more powerful fans.
On the lowest speed setting, I measured the fan at 1.31m/s at 15cm, dropping to 0.4m/s at 1m. That’s quite a high low fan speed; a little more variation between minimum and maximum would have been welcome.
Switching to Heat mode, I found that the airflow measured from 15cm away was 40ºC in both the highest and lowest setting. There was a significant difference with air speed, moving from 1.9m/s at the lowest to 2.45m/s at the highest heat setting. With the highest setting, I could feel a column of warm air from across my test lab.
To prevent the ceramic heater from overheating, the minimum fan speed has to be high; that’s pretty standard for all fan heaters.
I measured noise at a maximum of 48.5dB on the minimum setting, up to a more powerful 60.1dB on maximum – both measured from 15cm. Effectively, this means that you will always hear the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower when it is turned on.
I measured power consumption at a maximum of 1983kW on Heat mode (in fan-only mode, power consumption topped out at just 28.8W). Given the average cost of electricity in the UK (18.9p per kWh), this means that the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower will cost a maximum of 37.48p per hour to run. Note that next to central heating, all electric heaters are comparatively expensive to run.
Of course, you won’t need to run this fan heater 24 hours per day, thanks to the accurate temperature sensor. Once the room was up to the set temperature, the fan drops to its cooling mode for a short while before switching the fan off. Once the ambient temperature drops below your set point, it turns on again automatically.
Princess states that this model can handle large rooms of up to 50m2 in size. I found that in my office, which is closer to 30m2, this fan was sufficient to heat the room. It can even work well in conjunction with traditional heating, with that column of warm air making you feel more comfortable.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
If you want a device that you can use at any point during the year, this smart fan and heater works well in the summer and in the winter.
If you want a device that can purify air, then consider alternatives. And if you’d rather have a silent heat-only device, then an electric convection heater may be a better option.
Final Thoughts
A decent all-round heater and fan, the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower can be used throughout the year. The Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde is more useful overall, since it’s an air purifier, too. Dyson also offers a better app, although its product is a lot more expensive.
At this price, the Dimplex MaxAir is a little more powerful, although its smartphone app is much less useful, being Bluetooth-only. If you’re after something different, check out my guide to the best electric heaters.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every heater we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main heater for the review period
We measure the fan speed (if available) using an anemometer so that we can accurately compare performance between models
We measure the heat output of the fan and its effect on our test lab.
You might like…
FAQs
It can be set to Fan mode, blowing cool air only, or Heat mode, where its ceramic heater can warm up the room.
This model uses a maximum of 2kW of power, which means it’s suitable for larger rooms, or it can heat up smaller rooms fast.
Trusted Reviews test data
Compared to the Dyson, the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower is noisier and less powerful, but there isn’t much in it, and the fan on review here is a lot cheaper.
Full specs
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
