The Best Neck Fan We Tried Looks Like Something Out of a Sci-Fi Movie

So it makes sense that CR staffers have been seeing neck fans everywhere lately. Walking the dog, getting groceries, taking the baby to day care, and any other activity that requires being outside (which, when you live in a very pedestrian-oriented place and don’t have a car, is a lot of them) are exceedingly difficult. At outdoor sports tournaments and amusement parks, it’s reasonable to assume they’re nearly mandatory to withstand those high temperatures.

Neck fans, which look somewhat like headphones but with fans instead of audio equipment in their ends, promise to be the solution to my (and much of America’s) misery. One listing claims it will “keep you cool always.” Another will “[keep] you cool all day long even in a power outage or on the go” and “is safe for children or even pets.”

But will they keep you cool all day? I dug into the research and braved the heat, which hovered between 80° F and 90° F on the days I evaluated, to see how cool I’d stay when wearing these fans.