«Fine mist»? I don’t think so!
21.7.2026
Translation: Natalie McKay
Pictures: Valentina Sproge-Werndli
Camera: Valentina Sproge-Werndli
Cutter: Valentina Sproge-Werndli
I have high hopes that my hot weather saviour’s here. Will the Shark FlexBreeze Pro Mist with its misting function really cool me down? My test shows that this gadget excels at one thing – soaking me.
Note: as I’m writing this article (21 July), the FlexBreeze Pro Mist is «currently out of stock.» Just so you know, in case you’d like to buy this gadget despite – or perhaps because of – my review in the conclusion below. It will be back in stock at some point.
A water tank, a hose and two misting nozzles – this is what’s supposed to make the FlexBreeze Pro Mist something special. It claims to be more than just a traditional fan.
I want to give its misting feature a go. The theory behind it makes sense. When water’s forced through tiny nozzles under pressure, droplets are formed. And their diameter is so small that they evaporate almost instantly when exposed to warm air. In the process, energy is extracted from the ambient air – the physical principle known as enthalpy of vaporisation comes into play. Three factors are important:
- The drier the air, the stronger the effect.
- The higher the pressure, the smaller the droplets become.
- And the smaller the droplets, the better the evaporation.
I’ll just skip straight to the test results. The problem with the Shark fan is that the droplets it produces are huge. They have a diameter of 100 to 300 micrometres. That doesn’t sound like much, but professional systems used in the food service industry create droplets as small as ten micrometers. This gives you a dry mist that cools but doesn’t make things wet.
The pros would laugh at the FlexBreeze Pro Mist. It cools me down because it gets me wet. If I’m sitting just under two metres away, after two minutes I need a towel to dry my dripping face. I can hold out a little longer when there’s wind to blow the mist away.
Luckily, I tested the gadget on one of those hot days we had during the June heat wave. So at least my shirt dried again right away in the heat.
Drenched rather than cool
Shark writes that using chilled water can lower the temperature by up to six degrees. But the fine print states that the water in the tank must be refrigerator-cold for this, and that the result was measured in a «controlled environment.» Well, that’s obviously not the case for my test. Where the mist settles on the ground, the temperature drops by one or two degrees at most. And even a light breeze is all it takes to blow the mist off course. Choosing the more powerful misting setting doesn’t help either. I don’t notice any difference between the two speeds.
No matter which one I choose, the mist soaks me. Not just me, but the ground too. That’s why you should only use the Shark fan’s extra feature outdoors – on your balcony, patio or by the lake. By the way, the tank lasts for just under an hour.
At least I can quickly unhook it when it’s empty and refill it at the nearest water source. The carry handle makes this really easy.
I also remove the water tank when I want to move the Shark fan somewhere else. I can lift it by the head, but with the weight of the full tank, I’m worried about whether the structure will hold up. The connection doesn’t seem particularly sturdy. I also have to put up with the fact that the nozzles drip afterwards, just like my grandpa does when he goes to the bathroom.
The FlexBreeze Pro Mist is made almost entirely of a single type of plastic. The only exceptions are the brass spray nozzles and the rubber hose running from the tank to the nozzles. Oh, and the lithium-ion batteries, of course – they’re permanently installed. Two 10,000 mAh batteries, one in the head and one in the base. This means the fan is ready for mobile use and isn’t dependent on power sockets. At full power, the battery lasts for a good hour and a half. A little less than the two hours Shark states.
But the maximum performance using the battery is noticeably lower than when the gadget’s powered by the mains. You’ll need to be patient while charging, because an empty battery takes five hours to fully charge when plugged in. There’s no USB-C port, in case you were hoping for one, so you can’t extend the battery life with an external power bank either.
Design and use
As we all know, beauty’s in the eye of the beholder. The design of the FlexBreeze Pro Mist reminds me of a snow cannon. The fan’s head is quite thick, which makes it look particularly bulky. Especially if you remove the base and set the gadget up on a table using its fold-out legs. It will certainly draw a lot of attention there, and everyone will know it’s a Shark brand appliance. You can’t miss it – the brand name appears three(!) times. I prefer more subtle branding.
I don’t necessarily have to consult the manual to use the FlexBreeze Pro Mist. It’s only meant for people with very good eyesight anyway. They could’ve chosen a font size a little larger than 5 points.
There are four buttons on the device – on/off, speed, oscillate and soak. Oh sorry, I mean mist. A row of five LEDs indicates how fast the fan’s currently spinning or which type of mist is currently active. It also comes with a remote control that’s easy to use and attaches magnetically to the fan’s head when it’s not needed.
Strong breeze but fairly quiet
With all that being said, at its core the FlexBreeze Pro Mist is still a fan. So my test includes an assessment of how well it creates a breeze and how loud it is while doing so. Shark claims it has a range of up to 20 metres. That’s optimistic, to put it kindly. On the highest setting and from a distance of ten metres, I can still feel a gentle breeze if I really think about it. At five metres, on the other hand, I feel its full impact. It does a decent job, but other devices are easily on a par with it.
The low noise level is where the Shark fan really excels. On level 1, the breeze it produces is barely noticeable, but it’s also very, very quiet. I measure just under 23 decibels. That doesn’t bother me at all in my bedroom, for instance. On the highest setting (level 5) there’s some noise, but at 40 decibels, it’s still tolerable.
In a nutshell
Soaked rather than refreshed
2-in-1 devices are rarely ever a good idea. And Shark’s FlexBreeze Pro Mist is no different. This fan, which is decent in itself because it’s really quiet, has been equipped with a misting function. People in the UK will be used to this feeling from the weather they get there. But the mist produced by Shark’s gadget will make you think you’re taking a boat trip at Rhine Falls. The water pressure’s way too low, and the nozzles are too big – a bad combo. Mist-ifyingly bad!
Pro
- Versatile, because it can be used as a pedestal or tabletop fan
- Low power consumption
- Quiet
- Battery offers versatility
Contra
- Misting function can only be used outdoors
- Cheap, plastic appearance
- Unstable
- Very slow charging (7 watts)
- Short battery runtime
- Droplets produced by the misting function are far too big
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
These articles might also interest you
19 comments
later