Clear the air: Dyson’s Pure Cool Link reviewed

Hot days need cool fans, and the Dyson Pure Cool Link might be the coolest, integrating an air purifier with some much needed smarts.

The weather is getting warmer and that means its time to put those heaters away and get the fans out. We want cool air and cold air, and we want it brushing over our skin.

But hold up, because in our crazy modern world cold air isn’t enough; we also want clean air.

It might seem crazy, but clean air doesn’t come naturally, and with so many different particles, chemicals, and allergens and such, there’s a good chance you’re breathing in things you really shouldn’t. They’re not likely to affect everyone, but if someone in your home is more susceptible, clearing the air is of major importance.

So what can you do, and is there an appliance that can kill two birds with the one stone? Believe it or not, there is, and it even has an app.

Design and features

When Dyson first unveiled the bladeless fan of the Air Mulitplier, there were gasps of amazement: how did Dyson do it, and wow, we can put our hands through a fan.

These days, much of the amazement has worn off, though only because we’ve all become acclimatised to it: it’s not that the Air Multiplier is normal, but it’s fairly common to find them, with Dyson’s bladeless fans in more places than you might expect.

This time, it’s in a tall floor-standing model that does something a little bit differently.

For those who haven’t been paying attention to Air Multipliers over the years, the idea is actually fairly simple: Dyson draws air in from the bottom of the unit, passing it through a motor where it speeds up the air before expelling it through the edges of the fan.

Dyson could probably build the Air Multiplier technology however it wants, but the fan approach makes a lot of sense, and removing the blades is still kind of a “wow” feature for folks who grew up with blade-based fans, and the minimal danger getting close to them could bring.

In the Dyson Pure Cool Link, we have much the same Air Multiplier technology, but it comes together with a two-layer filtration system to remove nasty particles from the air, as well as a link to the internet, connecting your Dyson Pure Cool Link to the cloud, or more specifically an app.

It’s worth noting that the Dyson Pure Cool Link isn’t the first in Dyson’s “Pure” or “Link” range of devices, as that goes to last year’s Hot+Cool Pure Link, a fan that also worked as a heater that purified the air and connected it to the cloud.

This generation, however, is all fan and uses microfibres filtration to capture particle pollution of bacteria, pollen, and mould, while also running the air through a carbon filtration layer to remove gases like benzene and formaldehyde.

Beyond that, Dyson’s Pure Cool Link looks like every other bladeless fan it makes, with a plastic portal for the fan that includes orifices on either side to expel the air, lots of little holes around its middle for the sucking in of air to be speed up through the motor inside, and a base that allows you to move the and oscillate the fan in place.

There are two new parts, however, with a small LCD screen sitting just under the fan, able to tell you the fan’s speed and how clear the air is, while the motorised oscillation on the Pure Cool Link can rotate up to 350 degrees, completing nearly a full circle.

A remote is also included, and as always, it can be stored magnetically to the top middle of the fan’s design.

Performance

If you need a strong fan, Dyson’s Pure Cool Link has your name on it, with the tall floor-standing model that we reviewed able to take the air in your room, speed it up through a motor, and send it back your way, cooling your skin.

There’s little doubt that Dyson’s Air Multiplier technology is still one of the coolest fan concepts, not just because it kills off those blades, but because it has the ability to make fans feel like they’re doing a better job.

The added bonus in the Pure Cool Link is that this fan is also treating the air, running it through filtration before it comes back to you. That means allergens and other nasties are filtered out, and Dyson helps the process by showing you just how good a job it’s doing.

You can see it one of two ways on the Pure Cool Link, either scrolling through the LCD screen by pressing the “i” button on the remote a few times, or by using the app.

Yes, there’s an app for the Dyson Pure Cool Link fan, and it’s an app that will not only tell you what’s going on with the air in your home, but what the air is like outside. That’s handy, because it might just be safer for someone severely allergic to mould to stay inside if the index outside is worse than what the Dyson can do indoors.

The app comes with another great feature, though, and that’s remote scheduling. Using Dyson’s app, you can set the Dyson Pure Cool Link to turn on at specific times and in specific ways, cooling the home even when you’re not there.

Value

But at $799, the value of Dyson’s combination air multiplier and purifier is a little troublesome. Granted, there aren’t many fans that do what the Dyson Pure Cool Link can do, and you’re almost always guaranteed that Dyson’s gear is ahead of the curve. This one sure is. However the cost on this fan can be so prohibitive that it’s also hard to account for.

Fans usually aren’t priced this high. While the old technology of blade fans doesn’t do a lot to actually cool down a room by chopping it around, fans are typically cheap. Even the expensive fans are inexpensive by comparison to the Dyson Pure Cool Link.

And yet Dyson pushes that price envelope to such a level, it’s hard to ignore.

This is an expensive fan. It’s a great fan, but it’s an expensive fan. It’s a fan that will clean the air and let you control it remotely, but it’s still an expensive fan, especially at $799.

What needs work?

So the price definitely needs some work, but that’s probably the only thing that is glaringly obvious.

We wish you could control the temperature a little more, or even get a gauge on what the temperature will be. In a way, that means we wish the Dyson Pure Cool Link could work faster.

Right now, the Pure Cool Link only runs from speeds one through to ten, with over being the slowest and ten being the highest. Even at ten, however, you won’t be cooling a room rapidly. Yes, it’s a great purifying fan, but it’s one that won’t lower the temperature dramatically.

In the early heat and sweltering humidity of Sydney, our home temperature sat at around 27 degrees, so we ran the Dyson Pure Cool Link for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, it only lowered things one degree, dropping the room to 26 degrees.

That result tells us while the Dyson Pure Cool Link is great for expelling a nice cool recirculated air breeze on your body, you’ll still want an air conditioner or other air treatment system to keep the home comfortable over the summer.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

While we’re not sure Dyson will win people over for the cost-effective nature of the Pure Cool Link (or lack thereof), it is an evolution of the fan that needed to happen.

Let’s get this out there: most fans are a typically basic form of air treatment that don’t do a whole lot, chopping the air in pieces with blades that only offer a little relief, but not much in the grand scheme of things. Fans are not great for air treatment, but in many many homes, they’re totally necessary.

Folks without air conditioning won’t be able to survive a sweltering summer without at least one, as it helps maintain a semblance of sanity.

In the Pure Cool Link, Dyson has helped evolve the fan enough for it to be considered in a home that needs cool and clean air, which is pretty much any home that has allergies or risk of one.

In short, the Dyson Pure Cool Link won’t replace your AC, but it’ll clear the air so much that it might just become an air conditioner’s best buddy.