Arlec Rialto Tower Fan Manual and Review

I bought an Arlec Rialto Tower Fan (ATF212) at Bunnings in Brisbane (Australia). I wish I hadn’t.  Here’s the link to the item. For summer 2017 we wanted a new fan for our bedroom. It was advertised as having “seven quiet speeds” and sleep mode and so on, so I thought it would be ideal. The fan was $129 ($99 in 2019) – which seems a lot for a fan with no heating or additional cooling, so for that much money for a fan I expected it to at least live up to the claims on the box. Frankly, we were terribly disappointed. Not only was it terrible as a fan (even on the higher settings it struggled to move any air), but their definition of quiet must be in relation to say a construction site or a major airport. It was high pitched and loud. Very annoying and impossible to sleep to. The construction also seems flimsy – wobbling unsteadily on its base.

Overall I think it’s a complete dud. After one night I returned it and replaced it with a pedestal fan that does a better job and is a lot quieter – and cost $100 less!

Owner’s Manual: On the plus side, I managed to scan a copy of the instruction manual in case anyone else got stuck with one of these. Sorry the quality isn’t great. The instructions are printed in black and white on cheap (greyish) paper.

Feel free to let us know how you went with this fan…

9 thoughts on “Arlec Rialto Tower Fan Manual and Review”

  1. Purchased this fan for office and bedroom…waste of money.
    Box states ” 2 modes -sleep and normal” but manual and fan only show “normal and breeze”. Breeze is automated passing through light breeze to full on wind.m then reversing the process…very noisy when it gets to the highest speed. On normal mode, even on 1, it was still noisy.
    Unless you have it on speed 3 or 4 (mid range) you can’t even feel it.
    Its flimsy on the base, making it quite unstable, although I don’t think it would topple (although we have had it on speed 7).
    Simply, a waste of money…

    Reply
  2. The one I bought is great, maybe you got a dud?
    Works exactly as it states and is no noisier than any other tower fan. Puts out more air speed than the Aldi one I bought

    Reply
  3. This Arlec tower fan is junk, so sorry I bought it. I have a pedestal fan which cost way less and it’s super quiet and has a remote control. Couldn’t get another one the same so I thought I wud try the tower fan, big mistake!!!

    Reply
  4. Purchased this fan today at Bunnings. Looks good, but, not up to scratch when compared to other fans I’ve purchased. The fan is very quiet on the lower settings of 1 and 2 – but it produces nothing in the way of breeze!

    From then on, as the settings speed increases, the noise grows expedentionally.

    To produce the maximum breeze from this fan (the maximum breeze is still lower than the lowest speed on my other fan) there’s no doubt the noise it emits will be far too loud for sleeping.
    The price I paid was $99.
    Will attempt to return this fan and purchase another type at the first opportunity I think!

    Reply
  5. Not noisy at all and does have a sleep mode . You need to press the mode button for it. Very stylish and quite fan. Could have done with it being 5inches taller.

    Reply
    • No sleep mode on mine…only have normal mode and breeze mode.
      The box states it does, but even the manual doesn’t mention t6ge word “sleep”.

      Reply
  6. Hi Daniel,

    thanks for the review. you saved me a tonne of time buying it and then returning it. It looks very nice so i thought I will buy it next time i go bunnings, but it wouldn’t be any good if it is noisy.

    Reply

Leave a comment