Williwaw: We tested the most expensive fan in the world – 20 minutes
- With the hot weather, sales of fans are likely to ignite and rise as quickly as the mercury in the thermometer.
- Sold for 849 euros, Williwaw is perhaps the most expensive connected fan in the world, but it knows how to make a difference.
- Materials, manufacture, durability: this French device exudes quality and stands out in the field of performance.
A little freshness in a scorching world. Thinking of investing in an air conditioner? Unless the fan is the solution?
Williwaw, which costs the price of a good smartphone, wants to prove that the alternative is possible. French and proud of it, Williwaw claims efficient, silent and energy-efficient ventilation. This is what “20 Minutes” verified.
A project that was initially aborted
Williwaw is the idea of designer Stéphane Thirouin. It was initially an aborted project in his former company, a national giant of household appliances, where the concept of this fan was abandoned because it was considered too expensive. Severance pay in his pocket, the creator was able to leave with the mold of the fan under his arm. “I broke my piggy bank, liquidated my stakes and got started.” Two years of development, six months of manufacturing process and a gold medal at the Lépine Competition and here is Williwaw blowing its new wind on the fan market.
Nine blades to stir the air
Behind its look of an aeronautical product, the device hides a propeller 40 cm in diameter. This is equipped with nine blades, against three for a conventional fan. If it is three times heavier, the propeller is driven by a motor brushless (brushless) which allows the rotation speed to be perfectly adjusted. Nothing to do with conventional fans whose carbon motor starts at high speed and then stabilizes. And a motor brushless runs without friction, therefore without wear.
Connected and self-managed
Instantly connecting via Bluetooth to a smartphone weighted with the Williwaw application, the fan gradually reveals its secrets. It is possible to manually adjust the speed with the button on the front, to orient more or less the oscillation, but also the inclination thanks to its swivel head, but with that, nothing that is really out of the ordinary .
With two temperature probes, Williwaw can on the other hand manage itself. The Bluetooth sensors to be placed in the ventilated room (one near the ceiling, the other close to the floor) will thus influence the fan so that it maintains a stable level of temperature within a range chosen between 1 and 5 ° C. . This function seemed particularly useful to us for significantly reducing the heat at the top of our stairs. Also to be tested in winter, when the heat from the fireplace rushes upstairs … To do this, simply orient the fan upwards so that it brings down a little of these precious lost calories. .
Pleasant feeling of freshness
Williwaw is also programmable. It can be activated and deactivated when desired, be controlled remotely from a smartphone and various users. We regret on this point that the Williwaw application seriously lacks ergonomics, but it should be revisited soon. Above all, the fan can move the air very slowly, without being heard. Standing five feet away as we wrap up this article, it appears to be at a standstill. However, a light permanent breath of air diffuses a pleasant sensation of freshness, without ending up feeling cold, as is often the case with fans which run at full speed and which make the papers fly on office.
To say that in our attic room overheated by the crushing sun the Wiliwaw was appreciated during the last nights would be a pleonasm… Programming its extinction in the middle of the night, we fell asleep with it, without sweating profusely.
The price of quality … and taxes
Sold for 849 euros, Williwaw is “the most expensive fan in the world,” says Stéphane Thirouin, its designer. If we check on the site of Darty, the device is indeed the most expensive in its category. On the podium of strong prices, it is preceded by a ceiling fan currently in promotion at 858 euros. For Stéphane Thirouin, the high price of Williwaw is explained by an extreme concern for quality.
In addition to the particularly successful design of the fan planted on wooden feet that must be assembled, the device requires 90 minutes of assembly in the workshop. No gluing, no clipping, no welding which would have reduced the cost, but 114 screws which also allow it to say “stop” to planned obsolescence. Suddenly, “the durability of the fan is total, everything can be dismantled”, explains Stéphane Thirouin. This guarantees the mechanical parts of the fan for ten years and its electronic parts for two years. This ethic goes so far as to be housed in the packaging of the fan, a large “fully compostable” box.
Of course, Williwaw is made in China, but according to Stéphane Thirouin, “if I had made it in France, it would have cost 1,700 euros. Today, of the final 849 euros, 55 to 60% all the same returns in various taxes to the French State ”.