The fan in my laundry room, which had been running almost every day for six years, summer and winter, started making a grinding noise. So I bought the same one again. The siroca SF-C151!

  • Small enough to sit in a laundry room without getting in the way
  • The head tilts all the way to vertical, so it can push air at the ceiling while laundry dries
  • Tilted back to horizontal, it works as an ordinary fan for cooling off after a bath
  • It lasted six years (well done, old friend)

A note on the links in this post: siroca is a Japanese brand and I could not confirm this model on amazon.com, so they point to amazon.co.jp. The listing is in Japanese, and it is worth checking whether it ships to your country before getting attached to the idea.

siroca DC Circulator Fan SF-C151

siroca DC Circulator Fan SF-C151

View on Amazon.co.jp

What the SF-C151 is

It is a DC-motor fan from siroca, a Japanese appliance brand, and it sits somewhere between a living-room pedestal fan and a circulator. The body measures 28.8 cm wide, 28.0 cm deep and 56.9 cm tall, which makes it noticeably more compact than a typical pedestal fan, with a smaller footprint. A footprint this small is unusual for a fan of this type, I think.

The siroca SF-C151 seen head-on against a white wall, showing the round front guard, the circular base and the control panel on the base

The distinctive part is the head. It goes from blowing parallel to the floor all the way to pointing straight up. The pole also collapses so the fan can be made quite short, and the blades can run in reverse.

I have not verified the finer specs like the number of speed settings or power draw, so please check the manufacturer’s product page for those. What I can say is that it is a cute little thing with a lot of genuinely useful features packed into a small body.

The siroca SF-C151 with the head in its normal position, front guard facing forward
The normal position. This is how it points at you after a bath.
The siroca SF-C151 with the head tilted straight up, pole extended and the airflow aimed at the ceiling
Same spot, head tilted straight up. This is the setting that pushes air at the ceiling while laundry dries.

Six years in the laundry room, nearly every day

My laundry room has a Hoscreen, a ceiling-mounted pole for hanging clothes to dry indoors, and this fan lived under it permanently. It did two jobs.

  • Drying laundry: point it at the ceiling. Once the laundry is hung, I tilt the head straight up and let it run. The air hits the ceiling and circulates around the room. Beyond drying laundry, I also lean on it heavily for airing out the laundry room and the bathroom.
  • After a bath: point it at yourself. In summer there is a second job: cooling off after a bath. I tilt the head back to horizontal and use it as a regular fan. It also gets plenty of use while doing makeup at the sink.

This is where having a bit of height matters. If all you want is to move air at the ceiling, a squat floor-level circulator is the obvious choice, and I suspect that is what most people use for this. But a fan that low does not reach you when you are standing there dripping after a shower. A full-size pedestal fan would, but it is too big for the room. The SF-C151’s compact size means it fits the laundry room and still reaches you standing up.

And my laundry room is not large. Being a size down from a normal pedestal fan, with a smaller footprint, quietly made a real difference. It can also be collapsed to a much shorter height. That small size is just as welcome when it goes into storage.

This is the spot it lives in. There is an outlet on the wall right there, so it simply stays plugged in.

The siroca SF-C151 running against the wall of the laundry room, plugged into a wall outlet
Its permanent spot in the laundry room. Tucked against the wall, this is about all the space it asks for.

I looked at other fans. I still bought the same one

I am the type who likes to use a favourite thing for as long as it lasts, which means it stings when something breaks. That is exactly why I try to stick to long-running standard products, so that “I can just buy it again” is an option. Even so, I did not expect a six-year-old appliance to still be on sale. And however much I liked it, buying an appliance that long after its release gave me pause. So I did look at other fans.

I had three requirements: the head has to point straight up, the footprint has to be small, and it has to reach a reasonable height. I never did find anything else that ticked all three. For pointing straight up and staying compact, a circulator was an option, but I really wanted a fan. I ended up back at the same product.

Thank goodness it was still around after six years. I am grateful.

Downsides and things to know

Of course, there were a few things that bugged me over the years.

  • The touch controls are hard to read. The buttons are touch sensors rather than physical switches, so it is not obvious whether a press registered. I got used to it and it no longer bothers me, but if you like a definite click, you may not love this.
  • I never used the reverse mode. The product page pitches the reverse-rotation feature as a selling point, and yet I cannot recall ever actually running the blades in reverse in six years. My house is not the tidiest, and running it in reverse just… kicks up dust.

Summary

The siroca SF-C151 ran in my laundry room nearly every day for six years: cooling off after baths in summer, circulating air for drying laundry the rest of the year. Nothing else met the same set of requirements, so I bought the same one again. If you want one unit to cover both jobs in a small space, it is worth a look — though I have only ever used it in the laundry room, so I cannot say whether it replaces a full-size fan. Here’s to many more years of faithful service.

siroca DC Circulator Fan SF-C151

siroca DC Circulator Fan SF-C151

View on Amazon.co.jp