Elite Aria Smart Trainer Fan

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Curious to hear about others’ use cases for these fans. Do people want variable, I.e., lower fan settings in their workouts? As someone who is cold all the time and has good air conditioning in my training space, I have NEVER, needed to turn a fan down during a workout.

Sometimes I wait until after the warm up to turn them on, but once on, I never turn them down. I just run them max, except for some endurance rides I may put on low/medium. Beyond remote start and wind column shape I don’t see needing much that a $60 lasko can’t do. And you can buy 6 of them for one of these.

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Depends entirely on a person’s training environment and even personal preference.

I train in a basement with regular home temps, and low humidity of the Northwest-ish region in the US. I have 3 blower fans with 2 ported to an outside window for use when it’s cooler outside than inside. I run 2 fans all the time and kick the 3rd on for the harder workout days or any other reason room temp may be higher than normal. I sweat profusely without fans, but with this setup I rarely have a single drop hit the floor.

For people with cooler ambient temps, prefer more heat and/or sweat, lesser fans are fine.

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Anyone using this one? I’m waiting for mine to arrive. :eyes:

I’ve upgraded to the Vacmaster for this winter. Previously I was using a single fan with lower power and without remote control.

I’m training in the basement with poor ventilation. The single fan I’ve used before needed a bit of experimentation to position it well but then seemed ok to me. I’ve trained outside for a couple of weeks this year and noticed that it makes a huge difference compared to indoor training.

So, I’ve upgraded to the Vacmaster and have to say that both the increased power and remote control are awesome. You get very strong winds and positioning is not quite as critical as with the small, single fan I’ve had before. The remote control is great and being able to increase headwind while you are doing a tough set, then keep it on a little longer during cooldown is a real upgrade to my previous setup.

The smart fan is €250 more expensive than the Vacmaster. For €250, I’m more than willing to press a button every once in a while. (and this doesn’t even account for a body temperature sensor that I would still have to purchase on top)

The only downside of the Vacmaster is that the wind is so strong that I need to wear glasses even in the basement to protect the eyes. Otherwise they’ll be dry and sore after a workout.

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Thanks, @tigloo! It’s what I wanted to hear … except for the glasses part, huh! :sweat_smile:

$350? Hard pass.

My three fan setup cost barely half that and they keep more than sufficiently cool. I have two Lasko blower fans and one pedestal fan.

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I do. In the summer, yea, full blast all the way. But I train in the garage and get cold in the winter. So I’ll have the fans on the lowest setting just to give a little breeze. I have a cheap remote (on/off) and will usually turn off one or both fans during the rest intervals because I get too cold. So I would definitely get use out of a variable speed fan based on intensity.

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I’d like the ability to start the fans after I’ve got everything setup and have ridden for a couple of minutes, my trainer is in the garage and it will be freezing in there soon. I think a smart plug or a warm layer I can discard are probably a much simpler and cheaper way to do it.

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Yup…I ride in my basement, which is cooler than the rest of the house. I use that exact strategy….start with a sweatshirt on, no fans. After ~5 minutes, I ditch the top and hit my remote for the smart outlet and I am good to go.

For hard sessions, I hit another button on the remote to start the two floor Laskos.

Variable speed would be kinda nice, but not at those prices.

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The smart outlet is a fine solution, I also find these Vacmasters with built in remote to also work well and find the remote to be very convenient. Currently on sale at Amazon: https://a.co/d/5brIf3J

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I spent maybe $10-15 for a set of three plugs with two remotes. Simple on/off button.

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Since we are tossing in other fan options, I just got an email from Zwift that JetBack products are available there. Notably, this is the first opportunity I have seen to buy the fan they teased a while ago.

Another option I have nearly purchased is the Sharper Image one that is going for $100 USD on Amazon.

Both feature a remote and a price that is far more palatable than the Wahoo or Elite ones. I just don’t see using the linked features those offer anyway, so an integrated remote seems more than enough, for me at least.

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This is what I would love. I have the remote to go on/off but can change the speed/power. So what I end up doing is putting one fan on ā€œ1ā€ and the other on ā€œ2ā€, and then change them on or off in different combos to get the right setting. So I might do a 3 (2+1) during the interval and go down to 1 for the recovery. It would be nice to be able to just go up or down with the intensity.

Both of the ones I linked, and the Vacumaster (UK & EU buyers) have speed adjustments on the remote.

Edit: Upon checking, the Vacumaster seems directly available on the US side now, and is $76 with Prime Day Deal

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Yes, sorry. I should have clarified that the intensity switch on the ones you linked is what I was missing (and dearly want). Good find.

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Yup…if that had been available / had I known about it, I would definitely have gotten that unit over my Laskos for the remote function.

The Vacmaster pretty much gets you everything the linked fans provide, but at 1/4 the price. Easy decision.

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My Vacmaster doesn’t quite ā€˜cut the mustard’ at the moment (it replaced a gym fan) and is backed up by a remote control pedestal fan and two desk fans. It doesn’t feel much better than the gym fan but the remote control is neat and I’m basing it on a summers use when temps in my pain corridor was 21degC + and I am probably mentally comparing it to the gym fan in sub 16degC conditions.

I’ve had one for over a year now. It’s spot on, the airflow is great and the remote is really handy. My only real criticism is the lack of decent adjustability to refine the air flow. However a bargain compared to this one from Elite. The added bonus was it helped dry my carpet after a leak :grinning:

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I know the pros do it from the bike, but really, you shouldn’t be emulating that while on the trainer.

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