I bought three of these units in the spring of 2011, all 3 have performed flawlessly over the past year. Overall the units are very quiet (except on high mode, but then again no fan is quiet when maxed out) and the medium/low setting are barely noticeable and much better than the competition. If the quality product design wasn't good enough, I recently accidentally knocked over one of these fans (it fell 6 feet, something I expect anything made of plastic to not survive unharmed) and broke one of the fan blades. Customer service was very helpful and despite my admission that it broke due to my fault, Vornado is sending me a replacement fan blade assembly free of charge. This is the type of quality and service that is lacking in many products these days and I highly recommend this fan. Plus it is the easiest fan to clean I have ever owned, overall a very well designed product.