Vornado ARA review: best ambient light

The Vornado ARA is our Best Ambient Light pick: vortex air circulation with a dimmable amber glow at the base and a remote, for around ₱18,900 as of August 12, 2026.

What is genuinely good about it?

The brand’s engineering philosophy, and one well-judged design feature.

Vornado has built air circulators as its core product since the 1940s, not as a sideline to a fridge-and-washing-machine range. Its vortex circulation approach aims to keep a room’s entire volume of air turning over rather than pointing a narrow stream at one person. That is a real design philosophy with decades behind it, and in principle it means you feel a breeze wherever you sit.

The ambient light is better judged than most such features. It is a dimmable amber glow at the base, warm rather than blue-white, so it works as a night light without the cast that keeps people awake. If the fan lives in a bedroom and you would otherwise plug in a separate night light, it genuinely consolidates two devices.

The build, a matte black tower with a top touch panel, looks considerably more expensive than most of this category.

What is the problem?

Everything you would need to justify the price is missing.

No wattage. No airflow figure. No oscillation angle. At nearly ₱19,000, that is difficult to defend. The Xiaomi Smart Tower Fan 2 costs roughly a quarter as much and publishes 24W, an independently measured 494 m³/h, 150-degree oscillation and noise figures at both ends of its range.

And there is almost no owner feedback on this listing to check the claims against, which leaves the brand’s reputation as the only evidence available.

That combination, a premium price with no published specifications and no owner base, is why it ranks where it does. The engineering may well be excellent. We simply have no way to show it, and neither does the listing.

Is the Vornado tower fan sulit?

Around ₱18,900 as of August 12, 2026. Check the latest price on Shopee.

If it lasts eight years, which is plausible for a specialist brand’s circulator, that is roughly ₱197 a month. That lifespan is our expectation, not a published warranty term, and it is doing a lot of work in the arithmetic.

The honest position: you are buying Vornado’s reputation and the ambient light. For a buyer who knows the brand from abroad, values whole-room circulation over a directed breeze, and wants the night-light function, that is a coherent purchase.

For everyone else, the Asahi TF-007 at around ₱7,600 publishes its wattage and airflow, carries a 5-year motor warranty, and has nearly 700 owner ratings behind it. That is a lot of certainty for ₱11,300 less.

Who the Vornado tower fan suits

Buy this if you specifically want whole-room vortex circulation from a specialist brand, and the dimmable ambient light solves a real problem in your bedroom. It suits someone who already knows Vornado and is buying on that basis.

For most Filipino buyers we would point elsewhere. Not because the fan is bad, which we cannot claim, but because nothing on the listing lets you confirm it is good, and cheaper fans document themselves properly.

See how it ranks against the rest in our best tower fans in the Philippines roundup.

If the Vornado tower fan is not right

Want a premium design fan that publishes its numbers and can actually be cleaned? The Dyson Cool AM07 states 500 L/s at 56W and has no exposed blades, at around ₱7,700 more. Want published specs, a long warranty and a large owner base for far less? The Asahi TF-007 is our Best Overall pick at around ₱7,600.