Dyson Pure Hot+Cool Air Purifier Review

With the rising levels of air pollution in India, many companies have started seeing great potential in launching air purifiers. One company whose name has gained a huge reputation in the air purifiers market is Dyson. The British company forayed into the Indian market with its Pure Cool Link model back in March last year, and there have been multiple new models since then. Earlier this year, Dyson brought its Pure Hot+Cool purifier to India. This new machine is claimed to not only address air pollution that makes it into your home, but it also helps you maintain your room's temperature to some extent – which could come in handy especially during the winter.

The Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier, similar to its siblings, has a premium price tag of Rs. 54,900. This new model is also touted to capture as much as 99.95 percent of harmful pollutant particles as small as 0.1 microns across. Additionally, it has a heating element to simultaneously heat the air while the machine purifies it in your room. Does all this justify the price of the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool, and how is it different from its competition? Let's find out.

Dyson Pure Hot+Cool design

Dyson is renowned for making bladeless fans. The design of the Pure Hot+Cool air purifier is a very similar-looking product, with the same capsule-shaped body from which air is blown, as we've seen on previous Dyson Pure Cool Link air purifiers.

Unlike the previously launched models available in Desk or Tower versions that are meant specifically to stand on a table or on the floor, the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool is shorter and can be placed anywhere, such as on a side table or on the floor. The cylindrical base of the air purifier is quite similar to those of previous-generation models. There is a mesh covering at the bottom through which air is pulled in. You'll also see a circular LCD panel that shows information about the air quality, temperature, and diagnostics.

Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier sports an LCD panel to display live air quality, temperature, and fan speed

Just like previous models, the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool can oscillate 350 degrees, which allows the machine to project purified air all across a room. The company has also added the ability to slightly tilt the air purifier. This helpful if the machine is placed on the floor or on a tall shelf.

Dyson says it has improved the airflow mechanism on the Pure Hot+Cool air purifier with a new diffused projection mode. The machine uses two separate apertures and can shift airflow from the front to the back with the press of a button. When purified air is pushed out from the back, it gets spread out over a wider space.

The heart of the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool, which makes it a full-fledged air purifier, is the pair of filters hidden under the mesh covering. Dyson has used a Glass HEPA filter covering an activated carbon filter. There are gaskets on both filters to look in particles and prevent them from leaving the machine. This fully sealed filtration system is claimed to help remove most of the harmful gasses and pollutants from your room.

Changing filters on the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool is not a cumbersome process at all. You just need to push two buttons on either side of the cylindrical base at the same time to take the mesh covering off. After that, you need to pull out the HEPA filter and then the active carbon filter, and replace both with new ones.

The Pure Hot+Cool air purifier has a single power button, and Dyson has resisted the temptation to have lots of controls, which is quite common on other air purifiers. Notably, this means you'll need to keep the bundled remote control handy, or install the Dyson Link app on a compatible mobile device to use all the features of the machine.

Speaking of the remote control, it has the same slim, magnetised design that we saw on previous Dyson air purifiers, but there are additional controls to adjust the air temperature and change the airflow from the default forward projection to the all-new diffused projection mode.

Dyson has bundled a magnetised remote control with Pure Hot+Cool air purifier

In terms of dimensions, the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier has a width of 205mm and a height of 764mm. The base has a diameter of 248mm. The machine weighs 5.71kg.

The design of the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool is quite distinctive, just like its predecessors, and lots of people will find it attractive. There are White/ Silver and Iron/ Blue colour options. We personally found the latter more appealing and premium-looking than former, and that was the version we got to test for our review.

Dyson Pure Hot+Cool features

The job of an air purifier is generally a no-brainer, and it simply filters the air in a particular room. However, Dyson doesn't want to be grouped with other options. The company has developed additional features for the Pure Hot+Cool model, and the most interesting is indeed the ability to heat air as it is purified, which is a new addition to this model.

The Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier has self-regulating ceramic plates that are hidden within the frame of the ring from which air is pushed out. These plates heat the air as it leaves the machine after going through the purification process. There is a thermostat control that can direct the machine to turn off the heating plates once the target temperature has been reached, to save energy, and turn them back on when the room temperature falls below that threshold.

In contrast with traditional space heaters, the prime advantage of the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool is safety. The machine is capable of increasing the room temperature to as high as 37 degrees Celsius, but the outer body doesn't get too hot to touch. Air flows in such a way that an entire room is heated evenly.

The heating feature on the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool does give it an edge over its competitors, but there are also various other features that Dyson boasts of. According to the company, the machine uses a high-quality Glass HEPA filter made with 9m of borosilicate microfibre pleated over 200 times. It is touted to remove 99.95 percent of allergens and pollutant particles as small as 0.1 microns. There is also a carbon filter that is claimed to have 300g of activated carbon, to capture gases and smells.

For both the filters, Dyson recommends to replace them once in a year based on 12 hours of usage on the Auto mode every day.

Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier comes with a single button that is meant for power on and off the system

Dyson uses three distinct sensors in the Pure Hot+Cool air purifier to detect airborne particles, including particulate matter rated PM2.5 and PM10, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and gases including Nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The machine uses proprietary algorithms to process the inputs it gets from the sensors, and display real-time reports. Users can check the air quality level through the LCD panel on the air purifier itself or use the Dyson Link app. The overall filtration process of the Pure Hot+Cool is quite similar to that of Dyson's previous models. However, the company says the sensors in the new machine are smarter and more advanced.

The Dyson Pure Hot+Cool is claimed to be able to project over 290 litres of air per second using the company's proprietary Air Multiplier technology. This is notably less than the claims for the older Pure Cool Advanced Tower model, which is rated to throw over 360 litres of air per second. Nevertheless, the new model's compact design might be worth the change for many buyers. Users can tweak the airflow by adjusting the speed of the fan between 0 and 10.

Even at its highest speed, noise is not an issue — something the company says is a key feature of all Dyson products. The Pure Hot+Cool is not as loud as a standard tabletop fan, but it delivers much better air pressure.

The device's Auto mode automatically adjusts the fan speed to either meet the target temperature level or just purify the air. Oscillation also pauses if your air quality target has been met, but you can override this and choose specific angles using the Dyson Link app.

Along with the Auto mode, the Pure Hot+Cool has a Night mode that dims the LCD panel and reduces the fan speed so you can sleep comfortably. The machine continues to monitor and respond to air quality in Night mode. There is also a timer to let you select for how long you want the machine to purify the air in your room.

The LCD panel on the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool shows live air quality and temperature reports by default. There's an ambient light sensor to adjust the display brightness as per the lighting conditions of the room. You can also check the filter's wear level and the Wi-Fi connectivity status directly from the LCD panel. Since the machine doesn't have any dedicated controls to let you select what is being displayed, you have to use the remote control to see all this information.

Alternatively, you can use the Dyson Link app on your Android or iOS device to see live air quality and temperature reports via Wi-Fi. The app also shows the temperature, air quality, and humidity in your city. The Dyson Link app offers an interface that looks similar to the physical remote control. You can visualise airflow patterns and adjust oscillation.

Dyson Link app lets you visualise airflow patterns and adjust oscillation remotely

You can set a schedule to turn the Pure Hot+Cool on at specific times of the day or night, using the app. There are profiles named Morning, All Day, Evening, and Night to let you set up a seven-day schedule, or you can select days, times, and settings yourself.

The Dyson Link app shows a graphical representation of indoor air quality over the course of a day or week. It helps you monitor the AQI level of your room even when you're away and the air purifier isn't being actively used. A bar graph shows how the machine has changed its fan speed over time. You can even see how long the machine was able to maintain your target air quality for.

You can of course set up multiple machines in the app, and you can also have multiple users controlling a single Pure Hot+Cool air purifier through their own mobile devices. You can even check the life of the HEPA and carbon filters and have the app remind you when they need to be replaced.

Finally, the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool is integrated with Alexa and just got a dedicated Siri Shortcut. This makes it possible to use voice commands to control the machine. You need to enable the Dyson skill in the Alexa app or add specific Siri Shortcuts to start using voice commands.

Dyson Pure Hot+Cool performance

The design and the features of the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool certainly make it an easily distinguishable option in the air purifier market, but of course, it is the performance that matters the most when making a buying decision. Unlike the competition, Dyson doesn't give much importance to specifics such as CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) when marketing its air purifiers. The company instead promotes its POLAR test, under which it examines air projection and purification in a room measuring 81m cubed using nine separate sensors.

You need to push the two buttons on either side of the cylindrical base of the Dyson purifier simultaneously to access the filters

Details of how Dyson conducts its tests are available online and we have examined them in our previous stories, which you can read here. In our testing, we observed that the Pure Hot+Cool was able to reduce the pollutants in an air-conditioned room (with a fan running), measuring 14 feet x 8.5 feet, from 83 micrograms per cubic metre to 46 micrograms per cubic metre in four minutes, by its own readings. To get from that level to 33 micrograms per cubic metre, the machine took 16 minutes. We also lit incense sticks in the same room, and the Pure Hot+Cool was able to remove the concentrated smoke in a few minutes, but it took around 30 to 45 minutes for the smell to disappear.

The “Hot” part of the Pure Hot+Cool will appeal to buyers, especially those living in areas with harsh winters, when air pollution tends to be particularly acute in certain parts of the country. We measured our room at 25 degrees Celsius before starting, and were able to reach our target temperature of 37 degrees Celsius in half an hour. We didn't have to deal with any uncomfortable direct heat being blown out of the machine. The experience was significantly better than with traditional room heaters.

The room was heated evenly at our desired temperature level, even when we checked opposite corners. The Pure Hot+Cool seems to be a safe option to heat a room with since the device itself doesn't get very hot. The machine also stops oscillating if you try to grab it. This is worth considering if you have young children in your home who might try to touch the air purifier while it's moving.

Of course, just like previous Dyson air purifiers, the Pure Hot+Cool is also capable of circulating "cool" air through a room. This notably doesn't mean that the machine has any technology to replace your air conditioner, or even a desert cooler — think of it as a giant table fan, except it's the one that circulates purified air.

All in all, the USP of the Pure Hot+Cool, which its ability to project not just pure air but also heat your room, makes it a good option, though it isn't the fastest or the most effective air purifier we've tested. 

Verdict
The Dyson Pure Hot+Cool is a premium household appliance that performs multiple functions and is also very good-looking, unlike most traditional air purifiers. The bladeless design and unique combination of features and usability make it convenient to use.

The ability to raise the temperature of your room specifically makes the Pure Hot+Cool a distinct product suitable for all seasons. However, this new model isn't very affordable. If your main priority is to improve air quality, the Xiaomi Mi Air Purifier 2S and Philips 3000 Series AC3256/20 do a decent job and cost much less.

Price: Rs. 54,900, replacement Activated Carbon filter and Glass HEPA filter priced at Rs. 2,490 each

Pros

• Premium design
• Warm air functionality is a convenient addition
• Compact yet solidly built
• Relatively quiet

Cons

• No onboard controls to access built-in features
• Not the fastest or most effective at purifying air
• Expensive

Ratings (out of 5)

• Design: 4.5
• Performance: 4
• Value for Money: 3
• Overall: 4