Dyson Pure Hot+Cool Purifier Fan Heater Review

After a scorching summer, New Zealand is now beginning the slow descent into winter. I don’t know about you, but I find Autumn a particularly frustrating time. Nights can still be baking hot, and bizarrely, some evenings are freezing cold.

This hasn’t escaped the attention of Dyson, who have this sorted with their newly launched Pure Hot+Cool Purifier Fan Heater, which might look a lot like their earlier air purifier, but it’s kitted out with a tonne of clever tricks. In addition to the cooling function, there’s also state-of-the-art air purifying, and heating-plus comes with Wi-Fi connectivity.

Dyson’s thinking behind the Pure Hot+Cool Purifier Fan Heater is that it can manage the quality and temperature of the air in your home all year, regardless of the season. That, and the addition of a smartphone app gives users a lot of control over how it works, too.

It might look a lot like previous iterations, and it still runs loud when set to max, but it’s the most futuristic back-to-the-future fan to date, looking rather like a prop out of Space 1999. Sleek looks aside, it’s also a doddle to pull apart and clean, and its bladeless design makes it far more child safe than other fans/heaters.

Being a Dyson product, clever design flourishes abound. Most outstanding is the magnetic remote-control unit that seamlessly attaches to the top of the Pure Hot+Cool Purifier Fan Heater. If heating up (or cooling down) a room is your thing, the “night mode” button on the remote will most likely prove to be a godsend. It dials down the fan force to keep things quiet, and the small OLED air quality indicator is also turned off so there is no distracting light in your bedroom keeping you awake. It can oscillate and get tilted to direct cool or warm air where needed.

While the cool part is not air conditioning, the steady breeze provided does help make hot nights more bearable. The heating function is reasonably efficient and is thermostatically controlled. I was able to warm up a largish room in under five minutes. Setting the Pure Hot+Cool Purifier Fan Heater to the desired temperature sees rooms evenly heated, with the fan then using only the energy needed to maintain the pre-set temperature.

A particularly smart feature is Wi-Fi connectivity, which adds to the usefulness of the Pure Hot+Cool Purifier Fan Heater. Not only does it give you full control over the fan, but you also get weather conditions. Most handy of all, the app allows you to drive the fan whether you’re home or off-site. This proved helpful for pre-warming a room before I got home on colder nights.

As I don’t suffer from hay fever, and the air quality in Wellington is usually good (pollutants usually get blown south or north) it was hard to truly measure the Hot+Cool’s impact on my home’s air quality. That said, a convenient front-mounted OLED line graph display plus the readout on the mobile app provided me with a real-time overview of air quality.

One of the big issues many people in my area have is pollen, with the many pines in Wellington’s town belt being a source of misery for hay fever and allergy sufferers. Depending on which way the wind was blowing (and it always blows in Wellington), the Hot+Cool picked up pollen. It was also interesting to note that applying aftershave or deodorant saw volatile organic compound levels spike too.

The mobile app kept a constant log of temperature, humidity and air quality, and that improved when the fan was doing its thing. Rules can be set to keep the Hot+Cool  operating on a schedule, and it can automatically fire up to clear pollutants outs. As handy as this was, I was disappointed to note that its Amazon Alexa integration in New Zealand was absent. As an Alexa powered home, being able to use my voice instead of reaching for the remote would have significantly added to its usefulness. Hopefully, Dyson will soon remedy this.

The Hot+Cool uses a Glass fibre/carbon HEPA filter which Dyson says can capture up to 99.95 per cent of airborne particles, odours, fumes and gases. Unlike Dyson’s great vacuum cleaners, the filter is not user cleanable and must be replaced after around 4000 hours – the app tracks this, which adds to its ongoing cost.

If animal dander, pollen, volatile organic compounds or other air pollutants are driving you nuts, and you want to stay warm or be cooled, Dyson’s Pure Hot+Cool Purifier Fan Heater could be just the thing.