I am reviewing something extraordinary today, which is a $180 neck fan. I’m going to find out why it’s so expensive and if it’s worth the cost, let’s get started in today’s review.
Before I get started, I will walk you through the unboxing and see how that went. Coolify 2 comes in a box with a lovely presentation. It kind of looks a little bit like a robot vacuum almost. Open opening up the box; it looks like the cord and instructions are there. I’ve never seen instructions quite like this before with some mysterious QR code; who knows what that goes to.
1.0 Features of Coolify 2
And then you have the main unit of the Coolify 2. It is very heavy, and it’s much heavier than I expected. It claims it has two cooling plates, each at the end of the unit. They say that it can lower the temperature by 27 degrees Fahrenheit.
2.0 Thermal Imaging on Coolify 2
Let’s take a look at the Coolify 2 with one of my favorite new toys, which is a thermal imager. As per my observation, the plates are very cold, and the rest are actually warm. So, you can see how that would fit around your neck. If I touch any plastic parts, for example, the backside end of it, you can see that my hand warmed it up significantly. So, to test the cooling mechanism’s effectiveness, I’m going to touch the cooling plate with my hand, and I’m going to hold on to it. The result showed that the plate did not warm up. So, if it’s sitting around your neck, your neck will not warm up, and the cooling will not be affected.
3.0 Control and Performance for Coolify 2
Next, we will look at the controls on the Coolify 2. You have the power button, and when it first goes on, you can see it says “one”. And then it shows the battery power, which is 93%. On the other side, the button will control the mode so we can go from fan to cooling mode. The fan mode is just the fans blowing. The cooling fan is switched back and forth. If I hold it down, it changes the mode to heat.
The plates are actually lovely and warm when it’s in heating mode. For your information, the fans don’t run in heat mode. By the way, they mentioned a couple of other features: one a half-inch bladeless fans. The cooling can run for one to two and a half hours or three hours. The heat can run for three to five and a half hours. Finally, the fan can run for four to 18 hours, and hitting the power button will toggle between the three cooling modes and then go off.
I wanted to compare the Coolify 2 to the Arctic Air Freedom and a generic one from Amazon. The Arctic air freedom just has fans and no cooling effect at all. The Amazon one has a little cooling plate in the back, and of course, we will test how each one performs. So I went out in the desert for the test and sat in a hot car to try them out.
4.0 Hot Outdoor Test
I got three different neck fans. I’m going to test it out. It’s kind of warm out there at the time. It’s over a hundred degrees, with no wind, and it’s scorching.
4.1 Arctic Air Freedom
For Arctic Air Freedom, it really just kind of pushes the air. This doesn’t feel much cooler than the air outside. At least it provides some air to your face, but it’s not cooling at all.
4.2 Amazon Neck Fan
Next up is the generic neck cooling fan you can purchase on Amazon. This one’s a kind of a little bit older where the battery’s kind of not so great on this anymore, but it still does work. This one has a cooling plate on it.
The fans are adjustable and can kind of blow up towards your face. I think I paid 60 bucks for this, but the last time I checked it, it was about 40 bucks. After some time, the cooling plate has been engaged and is starting to cool. This one is definitely better than the Arctic Air Freedom, but I could already tell you that that metal plate feels real sticky, like a piece stuck to your neck, and you peel it off. It’s like when you’re attached to the back of a chair, and it’s not comfortable. It’s kind of moist, and It feels cool, but it’s like an uncomfortable cool.
4.3 Coolify 2
Now. It’s time for the start of the show here. I’ve got high hopes right away. I liked the way this one just hugs your neck. The other ones don’t really embrace, but they’re adjustable, but the adjustable makes it less huggable. As less adjustable, but as this isn’t happening, because it just hugs your neck so well, you got the fans blowing up, which feels nice, but it’s not where the main feature to me, the main feature are those two cooling plates in the side.
They don’t feel nearly sticky just because of the material; clearly, there is a big difference between this one and the two; even though they look similar but are a lot more expensive, they are also a lot better. It is so cool compared to the other two; Coolify 2 moves the air around, which is excellent.
4.4 Conclusion for Hot Outdoor Test
The Amazon neck fan provides cooling, but it’s only a tiny spot in the back of your neck and a bit sticky. Coolify 2 gives you the best of all the worlds and just in time for a breeze to arrive. For the Amazon fan that I tried out, the plates are only a couple of inches long. It does feel nice, but it’s not enough to give you the cooling effect.
While, on the Coolify 2, the plates each are double the size; thus, it can provide a nice cooling effect. So, you gain about four times as much cooling plate area as you are with the Amazon neck fan. So, it’s a lot bigger and bumped it up to cooling level too. I certainly needed that cooling, and I feel cool and comfortable from the neck down to the rest of my body.
It’s still pretty warm using the Coolify 2, and there’s a slight stickiness to it, but not nearly as much as the Amazon neck fan. In addition, it has more surface cooling on your skin and is undoubtedly better. So despite the high cost, I’m pretty happy with it.
5.0 Hot Car Test
Let’s try a hot car test; I’ve parked my car and turned it off. I got no air running into it, and the vehicle’s completely dead warm air. It’s in the nineties Fahrenheit outside, and It’s already getting really hot and stuffy in a short time. So it’s like, there’s just dead hot air, and it’s getting hotter every minute.
5.1 Arctic Air Freedom Performance
Let’s go down the test with these three; start with the Arctic Air freedom, It is on low, and it feels like warm air blowing up my ears. Then, on a medium setting, still, warm air blowing up my ears a little bit stronger, and on high, it’s much stronger, but that’s not cool air at all. It is just blowing air but has no cooling effect at all.
5.2 Generic Amazon Neck Fan Performance
Time for the Amazon neck fan test. The cool air was enjoyable on my neck and was quite comfortable. But these fans are just kind of not working right because the back feels nice and cool against my neck, but the front half feels like warm air being blown up against me. Better than dead air, but it could be better. This Amazon neck is lovely, but it’s just minimal. So, you have a small area cooling in the back of your neck. This feels cool but sticky and moist on your neck.
5.3 Coolify 2 Performance
Next is Coolify 2, the star of the show. Cooling level one immediately feels better than the other two. The fan portion doesn’t impress me as much as those cooling places do, but let me turn it up. On medium level, this Coolify 2 neck fan tends to hit more of my jawline. The low setting seems to hit more of my ears, and the medium setting will cover the ears and jawline area.
Coolify 2 is also not nearly as loud as the others, whereas the other two neck fan is kind of loud. This one is not as loud, even on a high. What’s weird with this one is I don’t even feel like it has to be on as high as the medium setting feels good already because the cooling plates are so large. The fan is just a little bit of extra airflow.
It doesn’t seem like they add as much as the plates do. But, the plates are at war with the big selling point, and they do. So, just keeping this on low or medium seems to work well for me while I’m sitting in the car.
5.4 Conclusion on Hot Car Test
I will say that I cannot test this in the humid air. I don’t think it would make a difference because of the technology involved, but I honestly don’t know if this would be as effective in a human environment, and I can’t test that. So, unfortunately, I can’t report on how that performs in that environment. However, I know it works pretty well in the desert air. So, something is interesting that I have observed after sitting there for a while.
Once the skin on your neck is cooled down to a specific temperature, it doesn’t feel as cool anymore. That’s because the temperature of your neck and the plate is the same. It still feels cold if I take it off and put my hand on there. My neck is actually still pretty cold.
So, you kind of start feeling like maybe it’s not cooling as much anymore, but it’s just because your neck is not as hot as it was when you started. It feels cold again if I turn it off because it’s such a different part of my skin. One of my favorite new toys is this Kline thermal imager; I pulled it out to show how the neck fan keeps my neck cold and compare it to the other neck fans.
6.0 Thermal Area for Cooling
And here’s how that went. First, the test shows us that the Arctic Air Freedom doesn’t provide much cooling. It’s really just a fan. So there’s not a lot of cooling that goes on, and when I switched over to the generic Amazon neck fan with a cooling plate, I could see that the back of my neck has a nice big rectangular, cool spot.
But then, when you compare it to the Coolify 2, you can see how much bigger of an area is cooled by them. It covers both sides of my neck, going all the way around. So it provides a much bigger cooling area than the other one. I should also point out they have one more model that is even more expensive than this one. They have one with a bigger battery that’s 5000mAh it is priced right now at $199.
7.0 Pros of Coolify 2
So, let’s look at some pros and cons for the Coolify 2; the pros would be that it feels very durable and well-made. I really liked the way that just kind of hugs your neck. The cooling plates are very good. They’re huge, and they cover a lot of areas. The noise level is much lower than the other fans I’ve used. And the fact that it provides that’s kind of a nice touch.
8.0 Cons of Coolify 2
There aren’t a lot of cons for Coolify 2, but there is something to consider, and that’s the fact that the battery only runs one and a half to two and a half hours and maybe three if you get the one with the bigger battery. So if you’re working outside in the heat and you want something like this, you’re not going to have it running for a long time.
It’d be nice if they had an option, some sort of either a replaceable battery or a battery pack externally, or some way you could run it longer than that. I think that’s really the only drawback and an otherwise lovely design.
9.0 My Final Verdict on Coolify 2
| Coolify 2 | Arctic Air Freedom | Amazon Neck Fan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $199 | $29.99 | $39.99 |
| Dimension | 8x7x3 inches | 8.27x7.72x2.09 inches | 7.08x7.87x2.36 inches |
| Weight | 0.81 pounds | 0.9 pounds | 0.68 pounds |
| Battery Capacity | 4000 mAh | 1800 mAhx2 | 1800 mAhx2 |
| Charge Time | 3 hours | 3 hours | 2 hours |
| Running Time | Fan Mode: 4-18hours, Cooling Mode: 1.5-2.5 hours, Heating Mode: 3-6 hours | 6 hours | 4-8 hours |
| Cooling | Yes | No | Yes |
| Speed Level | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Adjustable | Yes | Yes | |
| Cooling Plates | 4 | None | 2 |
| Warranty | 180 Days | None | None |
| Check Price | Check Price | Check Price | |
So that takes us to the ultimate question: Is the Coolify 2 worth $180? I honestly can’t say that I would spend $180 on something like this, but because I have it, I’m definitely going to use it. But if you’re looking for a top-of-the-line neck fan, the best of the market, Coolify 2, might be something to consider.