Our pick
This comfortable, durable neck fan has enough battery to last most of the day—plus some color-changing lights, just for fun.
The Gulaki Neck Fan has everything you need to make your personal climate bubble just a little more comfortable: With easy-to-use controls and three fan-speed settings, it offers a wider range of power than most competitors yet isn’t excessively loud. Last but certainly not least, it offers an optional LED light show on the side.
It’s also durable enough to withstand a few falls from a fast-moving bicycle, as we learned.
The Gulaki fan doesn’t dramatically stand out from competitors, and its generic craftsmanship is unlikely to win any design awards. But this competitively priced, reliable performer is a good entry point into the neck fan world.
Runner-up
A sleeker-looking model with an even bigger battery, this neck fan can get a little loud on the highest settings.
The Hotsales Neck Fan YP-06 has the best battery life we’ve found on any neck fan, so it should be able to get you through a whole day.
The battery life is not so great when it runs on high, but you probably wouldn’t want to do that anyway, because at that speed it gets annoyingly loud.
Otherwise, this neck fan is reliable and durable, and if you don’t require LED lights on your neck, you could argue that it’s slightly cooler-looking than our top pick.
Also great
Thermal chips effectively improve this fan’s cooling performance, but its battery lasts a fraction of the time of its more basic competitors.
If you really want to feel your body temperature drop, the Egopp 1S Cool Down Neck Fan will get the job done thanks to a pair of thermoelectric semiconductor cooling chips. These small metal plates press against your skin like a cold can of soda, offering almost instant relief from the heat.
They also eat up the battery: Whereas our fan-only picks lasted all day on a full charge, this model was good for only a few hours of cooling action.
Although it can last much longer on its fan-only setting, it doesn’t cool you down nearly as well like that, and its fan performance isn’t as strong—in airflow or battery life—in comparison with our other picks.
The user interface is also pretty frustrating, so you’ll probably want to find your setting and stick to it.
Upgrade pick
With thermal chips that heat as well as cool, plus Bluetooth connectivity and a fancy carrying case, this is the priciest—but clearly the nicest—neck fan we’ve tested.
If you happen to have an extra $200 earmarked for personal climate control, the Torras Coolify 2S Neck Air Conditioner is by far the nicest neck fan we tested.
It’s easy to use, with a handy digital display that shows the setting and battery life, and a cooling-chip coverage area that’s three times larger than what you get with the Egopp fan.
It has Bluetooth connectivity too, so you can control the fan settings through your phone.
You can even use the thermal chips for heating purposes if you need to warm your nape on a cool autumn night.
These are distinct differences. Do they make this neck fan absurdly expensive? Yes. Do they possibly make it worth the price? Also yes. But it isn’t a risk-free investment.
