Best air coolers 2023: Evaporative fans tried and tested from Princess, JML, Igenix and more

Evapolar’s Evalight Plus is is an engineering marvel. The tiny box-shaped “personal” air cooler is a portable air cooler, purifier and humidifier all in one, and can be plugged into the mains, a laptop or power bank using the included USB cable. It’s intended to be placed on your desk or bedside table and worked a dream when it came to delivering a strong, cool breeze directly to our face.

There’s a cartridge on the inside which absorbs the water from the tank, then the fan blows the evaporating water through the vents on the front. The filter on the inside is made from inorganic fibres, which Evapolar says should stop mould and bacteria forming (though this does need to be replaced every six months). We loved that we could just pull up the water tank attached to the side of the air cooler to fill it up and then slot it back in. No fussing with a lock pump. That tank also turns into a soothing nightlight when it’s on with different colour options.

The super modern control wheel on the top can be turned clockwise to increase the fan speed and anti-clockwise to lower it. The display, used to control the LED light, also shows you the temperature in your room and what temperature it’s blowing out (for us it showed 31C inside and 23C blowing out). It does get a little loud when on the highest setting, but it worked really well, and it’s intelligently designed. It will also last about an hour before needing another refill of water.

The only real downside is the price. Full-size tower air coolers cost less, and the vent also doesn’t automatically oscillate – you have to direct the grills towards your face manually.