I have a similar issue at my house, I put up a thermal curtain at the bottom of the stairs with an extendable curtain rail that wedges between the walls and that mostly solves it.
this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2026
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you're looking for a radial fan, as opposed to the normal axial kind.
be warned though, they need to spin faster to move the same amount of air and so tend to be a lot louder.
Are they worth it vs just redirecting the input/output?
Redirecting the input from the designed direction will slow down the airflow and often increase the noise level as it struggles to draw the air in.
Ugh louder. That's not gonna go well with the spouse.
unfortunately as others have said, any redirection of the air flow will cause extra noise.
Centrifugal fans exhaust 90 degrees from intake and are very common. Could also search for blower fan. Not sure if sizes meet your needs though.
Centrifugal! That's a good word for this. Thanks.
try looking up "squirrel cage fan"
it sounds like I'm joking but it is really what they are called.
Or blower fan
I have a home air filter that pulls in through the front and blows out the top. Portable dehumidifiers can do the same on fan mode, blow air upwards.
Any fan from a laptop computer does this. They aren't too noisy nowadays.
The first sentence from OP "I'm trying to circulate air in my house". Your proposal: a laptop fan.
I love comedy.
I'd be sitting down and prototyping conduits with strong cardboard and sticky tape. And my desk fan in the middle.
The fan itself doesn't have to make the angle if it has the right kind of redirection around it.
If you have a central furnace you can close the outlet vents on one floor of the home. Downstairs in the summer and upstairs in the winter. Most air conditioners actually tell you to close the downstairs vents to keep the upstairs cooler, since warm air rises
Another term to search for is "centrifugal fan" - these are the type used where air flow restrictions are significant, as they can compress the air some unlike a traditional box fan. For noise, a larger fan at lower speeds is generally less intrusive.
Where's the return on your air handler? If there's more than one (one upstairs, one down), you may be able to cheat the system by blocking one seasonally.
Also most likely the air handler speed is set too high - installers are kind of lazy (they don't want callbacks) so they typically set the air handler to max speed. Since most instalsl are also well oversized, this means the system will short cycle and move less air during that short cycle. Lowering the air handler speed may help lengthen the cycle, moving more air in total.
You could also try just turning the air handler on (fan mode orn"Always On" on thermostat).
This probably won't solve your problem entirely, just maybe help.
Oh I don't wanna mess with the air handler myself. I'd break it I'm sure. I could call the ac people I use tho.
Centrifugal! That's a good word for this. Thanks.
Get Styrofoam blocks and plug vents seasonally. In summer plug the downstairs ones so AC feeds upstairs and drifts down, opposite in winter to make air heat the lower levels and slowly rise.
If you have a variable speed fan this is fine. If you don't then this can burn up the blower motor, so be careful with balance and flow when you do.
Dude's not going to be burning anything out, his furnace fan motor can't even adequately ventilate his house as it is right
That's not how it works.... But you be you.