The Snooz Breez White Noise Fan is Surprisingly Pleasant

The Breez is certainly a well-made gadget. But does it actually function well as both a fan and a white noise machine?

One important thing worth noting is that most room fans technically don’t produce white noise. Many people, myself included, tend to use the phrase “white noise” as a sort of catch-all term for any generic background sound. But in audio-engineering terms, “white noise” refers to a specific kind of fuzzy-sounding background hiss in which every audible frequency is heard at the same intensity. There are other noise “colors,” too, each with specific qualities and uses. Pink and brown noise, for example, put more emphasis on the lower frequencies, sort of like rainfall and a waterfall, respectively; they can help block out sounds such as the deep rumble of a garbage truck.

While electronic sound machines like our top pick, the LectroFan EVO, typically produce a wide range of tones across the entire rainbow of the sound spectrum, the Snooz sound machine installed inside the Breez can really make only one color noise. This is because the sound comes from an actual fan, instead of a digital sample or loop. That might be limiting for some people. Others might appreciate the more natural, analog quality of the white noise from the Breez.

And sure enough, it produces a solid white noise tone. Here’s what that looks like in the audio-spectrum analyzer app I used:

Notice how the peaks on the graph almost all hit around -80 decibels on the y-axis. The highest points of each frequency create a roughly straight line, which means they sound at roughly the same intensity — and if you’re looking for actual white noise, that’s what you want.

But if you’re using only the standard fan part of the Breez — the one that’s there to move air — you get a slightly different picture:

The fan is a little quieter overall, maxing out around 64 dB, in contrast to a 70 dB ceiling on white noise mode. Otherwise, the frequency distribution on the fan-only setting is a little more varied, though it isn’t a radical departure from that of the white noise fan. This time, notice how the graph slopes upward along the x-axis; there’s a little more on the high end, and a little less on the low end, except for that one peak around 400 Hz. It doesn’t exactly fit the technical definition of white noise, but it comes pretty close.

The real benefit of the Snooz Breez is that it lets you find your own preferred balance between wind and sound. I personally find the white noise machine setting to be a little harsh — but when it’s combined with the primary fan, I can dial in the right level of high and low frequencies to make my personal white-ish noise mix. That looks sort of like this:

Again, it isn’t a huge difference, especially for a sound that I’m specifically trying to ignore. But in the right circumstances — such as when I’m sleeping — it’s a nice option to have.

I can’t necessarily prove that I sleep better with a little white noise boost underneath the usual fan tone of the room. But sometimes it feels that way. For particularly sensitive sleepers, I could see a real benefit here; it has definitely helped my 4-year-old stay in his own room later into the night, which is quite an accomplishment.