We have only had this fan now for about a week. I will come back and update my review as time passes, but I wanted to get some info out there.I have a toddler and an infant.Why I was not looking for a fan with blades:Fans with blades can be a danger, but so can the heat, so I decided on a tower style fan for our rather small apartment. Standing fans we have had in the past were easily tipped and the front metal plate or sometimes plastic was quick to pop off as it hit the floor blade still going strong. Very scary when your child is just 2 and has tipped the fan.My experience so far: *auto shut offThe first day I was quite worried as the fan had tipped (my husband the larger child in the home was playing with it) and it would not turn back on. I became very worried. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Sure enough this fan has a safety so that if it is tipped it will turn off. *durabilitySo far the baby has tackled it with his 26lb body and it has held up. It is just tall enough that my toddler can't yet push the buttons. *noiseI didn't really care if the fan was quiet or not, but it was an added bonus that it is very quiet compared to our Lasko box fan. If you aren't looking at the fan you would never know that it is rotating. Also make sure you get the screws in the right place. The diagram is poorly labeled. That may be the problem with some of the fans people are having noise with. There are more holes than there are screws and the diagram suggests that they go into holes that they really don't belong in. I will include a picture of the base so you can see. *cooling factorI was disappointed with the amount of air that it moved, and had I reviewed it on day 1 I would have only given it a 3 stars for that, but I have come to realize that while the air it moves isn't much, the air always blows out cool.I find that on hot humid summer days some fans are just blowing around the hot air. I was surprised to find that this fan seems to always have cool air. No idea how but it does.It also does a much better job cooling a room if you always have it on rotate. If not the air just kind of stagnates. *packagingI was very worried when it arrived as it was in the thin box the fan comes in rather than amazon packaging. It already had holes in it. I will be reviewing in my order the packaging as well and I suggest others do the same so they start packing it better. *ion thingTried it doesn't seem to change anything other than a blue light comes on. I have no idea what it actually does. Again bought this fan for safety reasons. *overallI am pleased and hope to buy another when funds allow.Update: It has been about a month now and while my toddler has tackled this fan with his full body weight it is still fully functioning. It has only actually crashed once of the many times hitting wood laminate floors. Now that the weather is warmer it is still blowing cooler air than any other fan in our home.Update: One year later; it is still running great and quietly. The toddler has finally stopped tackling it, but it has survived several falls over the year.Update: It is now June 2014 and we own two of these fans and both are going strong despite a toddler and autistic 6 year old who can now reach the buttons. They also survived a trip in a moving truck to our new home. We have more of an open floor plan now, so two doesn't really cut it for the kitchen/dining room/living room space. The air kind of gets lost, so what I do to help them better cool a room is put them on opposite corners and face them at each other. I plan to buy one more so I can have one in every room in the open space. It also doesn't help that our new home has very old crank windows that only open at an angle and only so far.Update 2018: nothing new to report. They all still work as before.