If it wasn’t obvious before, the ongoing lockdowns have given us a very clear-cut picture of just how much pollution is released into the air. As cities get back to work, air pollution levels are rising again, and this is particularly true in Asian countries where safety standards aren’t quite as airtight. In India, pollution levels are known to cross hazardous levels and an air purifier or a few is a must-have.
The Dyson Pure Hot and Cool, however, strives to be more than just an air purification tool. With a design and a price that is bound to raise an eyebrow, we find out if it brings more to the table in the Android Authority Dyson Pure Hot and Cool air purifier review.
Design: Futuristic minimalism
There are two schools of thought when it comes to consumer durables. You can either go discrete, as Xiaomi did with its Mi Air Purifier 3, or go the whole hog and create a device that becomes a statement piece in itself.
The Dyson Pure Hot+Cool HP04 sits squarely in the second camp. This is not a product that you can or want to hide away in a corner. The former, because, well, you want it to function effectively as a fan, and the latter because, in my eyes, it is downright gorgeous.
It is rare that you see this level of thought put into a device as simple as an air purifier. From the symmetric cut-outs on the air intake to the chamfer-like edges on the bladeless fan assembly, Dyson’s air purifier stands out. It’s about 30 inches tall, which makes it hard to tuck away in the corner.
The base is slim at 9.5 inches and it doesn’t occupy too much space in the room. The distinctive design certainly generates visual appeal; the Dyson air purifier would be a good fit in any home.
Much of the futuristic design is dedicated to the bladeless fan assembly. I didn’t expect much beyond a conventional fan here, but the Dyson caught me by surprise. There’s a fair bit of flexibility to the abilities of the Dyson air purifier. The bladeless fan affords 350 degrees of oscillation for maximum coverage and can be configured at degree intervals using the app, we’ll talk about that later. Additionally, you can set four different preset oscillation levels.
There’s no active cooling here, but a steady breeze of air can be refreshing on a hot and humid day.
The HP04 offers two modes. There’s no active cooling per se, but if the weather permits, a steady stream of air can be quite a relief on a humid day. The Dyson is powerful enough to blow air halfway across a moderately-sized room at full blast, but I found it to be a bit too noisy at that level.
If you prefer not to have a directed stream, it is a cinch to switch over to the rear ambient cooling mode. This is a particularly neat trick that gives you most of the cooling benefits, albeit with a diffused stream from the rear-facing vents.
The real magic lies in the heating abilities of the Dyson Pure Hot and Cool. The Dyson pure hot and cool uses ceramic plates built into the ring frame to heat up air as it passes through. With the ability to set the temperature as high as 37C, the heating function alone is a good enough reason to invest in the Dyson if you find yourself pulling out space heaters during winter.
The space heating function of the Dyson Hot and Cool air purifier is a genius addition.
The ambient temperature in New Delhi has been hovering close to 40C this summer, so I haven’t had much reason to turn on the heat, but the air purifier did a superb job of producing heat and I have no doubts it will suffice when the weather calls for it.
The included remote is equally well designed and includes all the essential functions. Since it is powered by a standard CR2032 battery, you can expect it to last a long time. I’m very prone to losing remotes, so the fact that Dyson’s remote can be magnetically attached to the top of the air purifier was a welcome surprise.
How well does the Dyson Hot and Cool work as an air purifier?
Cooling and heating aside, the primary function of the Dyson Pure Hot and Cool is to serve as an air purifier. Living in a city with high ambient air pollution, I’ve gotten accustomed to having an air purifier in every room and obsessively monitoring the air quality in my apartment. During the course of testing, I replaced the Mi Air Purifier 3 in my living room with the Dyson and found it just as effective, if not more so.
Dyson’s air purifier employs a pair of filters to cleanse the air. This includes a HEPA glass filter and an activated carbon filter, which, combined, are rated to purify 99.7 percent of air pollutants. The HEPA filter is responsible for cleaning out particles as small as 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, the activated carbon filter scrubs gases, and any untoward odor from the room.
I ran the Dyson Hot and Cool air purifier all day for two weeks and, despite the smaller size of the filter, the air purifier did a great job at keeping the PM2.5 levels in the room in check.
To give the purifier a proper test, I opened up the windows to bring the ambient PM2.5 levels to about 160. PM10 levels were around 90. The Dyson Hot and Cool air purifier set to auto mode took about 30 minutes to bring this down to 23µg per cubic meter. Meanwhile, the PM10 levels came down to 25. I found to it be particularly effective at removing odor as well.
The Dyson air purifier has a digital meter on the front of the unit that provides an up-to-date readout of pollution levels. I compared the Dyson’s readings with the values from a dedicated air quality sensor and found it to be accurate within a very small margin of error.
Smart app control
Like most modern appliances, the Dyson Pure air purifier ships with an app to control it remotely. The app is particularly robust. It doesn’t include merely the essential functions, but takes it up a notch. For example, the oscillation function can be set to a specific angle by tapping on the display. The heat can also be set to the exact temperature you want.
The app also displays granular data on air pollution levels in the room. It can track PM2.5, PM10, NO2 values, as well as temperature and humidity levels over the course of the day. Additionally, you can set the Dyson air purifier to a timer in case you want it switched on before you get back home.
Further, there is smart home integration with Amazon’s ecosystem but not with Google Assistant, which is a curious omission. Regardless, you can call on Alexa to set most of the primary functions of the air purifier using your voice.
Is the Dyson Pure Hot and Cool air purifier good value?
- Dyson Pure Hot and Cool (USA) – $669
- Dyson Pure Hot and Cool (India) – Rs. 55,900
Priced at Rs. 55,900 in India and $669 in the US, there is no doubt the Dyson Pure Hot and Cool air purifier is expensive. Is it the right one for you? It really comes down to what you want from your household gadgets. If you are the kind of person to tuck away consumer durables like streaming boxes or air purifiers in the corner, the Dyson just doesn’t make sense for you. There are more affordable options that do the job just as well. This modern-looking air purifier is a statement piece unto itself, and simply cannot be hidden in a corner.
The Dyson Pure Hot and Cool is meant for those who want to integrate their gadgets into the overall aesthetic of their home. The additional features, such as the fan and space heater, come in handy too, making it a jack of all trades. There’s not much traditional value for dollar to be found here. Yet the Dyson Pure Hot and Cool is a classic example of a device where you are paying for clever engineering and a fantastic design. I, for one, am all in on that.
Dyson pure hot and cool