Meet Dyson’s New Triple Threat

Everything you need to know about Dyson’s new humidifier, purifier and fan

Dyson’s new Pure Humidity and Cool device delivers three functions in one: humidifier, purifier and fan. Consider—since we’re all spending so much more time at home—facts like these: a single person can lose up to nearly one million skin cells every day; cooking on a gas stove can cause nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide to be released into your air; and fragrances from cleaning products and hand soap often contain volatile organic compounds that, when exposed to sunlight, can develop into ozone pollution. All this inside your home.

Check out how Dyson’s latest can help…

This is a statuesque device, standing at 91 centimetres high with a footprint of 29 centimetres in diameter, and weighing almost 9 kilogram (without water). While you can move it, it’s heavy once the water reservoir is filled so you’ll want to find a permanent place for it and keep it there. Just by looking at it, you can easily see the three functionalities stacked one atop the other: the water reservoir at the bottom, the filtration chamber in the middle and the signature bladeless oval fan on top. There’s a lot of technology and functionality packed into this one unit, which helps explain its significant price tag.

Adjust the functionalities by either using the traditional remote control (which perches elegantly atop the crest of the oval when not in use, secured by a magnetic connection) or through their app, which allows you to control everything from switching between manual and auto mode, degree of oscillation, airflow speed, timer, night mode and more.

Do your eyes feel dry by mid-afternoon? Or do you get itchy by the end of the day? Ever wake up in the middle of the night with a cough or tickle in your throat? The ability to adjust the humidity in your air can significantly improve how you feel during the day and even how you sleep at night. You can set the humidity level (up to 70 percent) or have it on auto mode.

The benefits of humidifiers aren’t new. But Dyson’s UV-C light is a game-changing development. It’s housed with the water reservoir, removing 99.9 percent of the bacteria in the water in just one pass, preventing any bacterial growth. This means that the humidity that’s being pumped into your home is completely hygienic. This has never been the case with other humidifiers, where slime and gunk can grow pretty quickly, even if the water is moving frequently.  After using the Dyson device for a couple of weeks, the water remains crystal clear. The water reservoir is actually made from a clear acrylic, so you can literally see right through it, without any distortion caused by cloudy water.

The reservoir holds up to five litres, which—depending on how high you set your level at—can last a couple of days. Refilling is easy, as the reservoir is on wheels, so it glides out smoothly, and there’s a top handle that lifts up for easy carrying to the faucet (like you’re carrying a picnic basket). And yes, unlike other humidifiers that require distilled water, you can use regular tap water here. And when your device needs to get rid of any mineral buildup, just use the cleaning solution that comes with your device and set it to auto-clean, which runs a 60-minute deep clean cycle.

It is overwhelmingly satisfying to hear the Dyson Pure Humidity and Cool suddenly ramp up its filtration power. When it’s on auto mode, it sits quietly until it detects pollutants, which you can track in real time on your phone through their app. There’s a colour coded system to quickly tell you when air quality is good (green), fair (yellow), poor (red) or severe (purple). It’s surprising how often it needs to spring into action when someone’s cooking in the kitchen or when a neighbour two floors down starts smoking. And it does so before you even realize there’s anything in the air to clean.

The device has a sealed, 360-degree filtration system that contains an activated carbon filter that removes gases and odours and a HEPA filter that captures 99.97 percent of particle pollutants as small as 0.3 microns. (For reference: human hair is about 70 microns thick, pollen grains are 30 microns, cat allergen particles are 20 microns and tobacco smoke is 1 micron.) Tiny allergens and pollutants can absolutely build up in your home, easily evading your vacuum cleaner. A sealed filtration system can suck it all out of the air.

Note that the filter isn’t washable, so depending on how much it’s working, it’ll need to be replaced approximately once a year ($99.99). Your device will let you know when it needs a new filter.

There are three fan modes available with this device. Two are already available on other Dyson devices: the fan mode (stream of cool air coming from the front) and backwards airflow mode (airflow is diverted through the back of the device to purify and humidify, without cooling). What’s new and exclusive to this device is the breeze mode, which uses the two vertical jets located on either side of the air amplifier loop, which use algorithms to vary the airflow so it mimics a natural breeze. It actually does work and really does feel more like a gentle wash of cool air rather than a steady blast of forced air. And on hot days, the “biostatic evaporator” absorbs heat energy and converts it into cool air. This concept is similar to the very low tech, less elegant hack of putting a bowl of ice cubes in front of your fan.
$999.99; Available online