With the release of the Dyson Pure Cool air purifier, Dyson has basically made their standard tower fan into the iPhone 5 of the family—sure, you serve a purpose and still look good, but your siblings just do it so much better. Not only does the bladeless Pure Cool blast out air from its vertical oblong design, it promises to remove 99.95 percent of the nastiness in your air—even particles as small as .1 microns. Since I’ve only been using it for a month, I can’t necessarily attest to how powerful the filter is (I haven’t had to change it yet), but I can say that it has made the other fans in my home look pathetic.
First of all, the oscillating Dyson Pure Cool simply looks fantastic. Like its predecessor, the standing tower features a round base with a power button and display screen (this is where the air is sucked in), and a long vertical top that pushes the clean air out. The fact that it doesn’t have any spinning blades of disaster (I may have had my hair sucked into a fan once; it wasn’t pleasant), makes the Pure Cool a much safer option to have around children.
Priced at $499, the design uses Air Multiplier technology to remove bacteria, pollen, allergens, pollutants and odors from the air—all of which can build up in your sinuses and lungs. According to Dyson, these particles are linked to strokes, heart attacks and skin aging. If an air purifier uses too much force to push air through its filter, harmful particles may be able to get through, whereas the low velocity of Pure Cool keeps them stuck in its glass HEPA filter. “Constructed from 11.8 square feet of borosilicate microfibers [and] pleated 254 times,” the filter is “densely compacted and woven together.” Though I haven’t had to swap it out yet (it will last six months with continuous use), it is super easy to remove by just unsnapping the top fan and then lifting the filter off to slide a new one on.
The Pure Cool’s cylindrical shape means that it pulls air in from all directions so you can place it anywhere in the home (I have it in the corner of my bedroom). It has a built-in sleep timer and 10 settings, all accessed by the small controller that magnetically attaches to the top of the fan. The lowest three settings are perfect if you just want the purification benefits without a breeze, but the higher ones actually do a great job cooling a room down without being noisy.
Aside from it making my home hospitable during a heat wave, my favorite part of the Pure Cool is that unlike other standard fans, I haven’t woken up in the morning with uncomfortably dry sinuses. I can only imagine how much nicer it will make life for someone who has really bad allergies. I also have two cats and though I typically pride myself on having a home that doesn’t smell like litter, it’s sometimes impossible to avoid when the furry creatures use their box as a playground. When placed in the same room as the offending area, it’s impossible to detect the presence of pets by odor alone, which is a pretty big deal.
Overall, $499 is a really small price to pay for clean air. It’s also important to note that right after releasing their Pure Cool, Dyson unveiled their first humidifier for $499, but more on that one later.
