Question from Bonnie Johnson
Hi Debra,
I was watching Tv the other day and the add came on for the Dyson Pure Cool fan and purifier. The idea is the air goes thru the purifier part and comes out the top as a fan. It even has a little remote that measures air quality. Was wondering your opinion on this item.
Debra’s Answer
I took a look at this on the Dyson website.
This is a hard plastic unit that pulls air into the bottom through activated carbon (for gases ) and HEPA (for particles). Then it releases the purified air into the room.
It advertises that it cools the air, but when I talked with Dyson customer service they said it’s not an air conditioner, it’s a fan. It has a heating element in it also, but it’s not a substitute for a heater or an air conditioner.
It also has a nifty wifi-based app that measures air quality. So you can measure your indoor air quality, turn on the app, and see how the air quality is improved. Nice feature, but requires wifi. The newer models have more of a breakdown of the actual pollutants, rather than general categories of particles, gases and humidity.
I’ve been evaluating air filters for almost forty years, so I know something about them.
The primary thing is you need to have sufficient filter media for the space.
The filter part of this unit is a cylinder 8” in diameter and 10” high. It is filled with ordinary activated carbon and wrapped with a special HEPA developed for Dyson. By comparison, dedicated carbon filters made by other companies contain 3-4 times that amount of carbon.
Dyson also does not rate this filter for a particular square footage, as virtually all other filters do. Filters are generally designed to have x amount of filter media that will filter x number of feet of a closed room. Dyson customer service told me they don’t rate their filter for square footage because every building is different. If there is a leaky window, for example, the filter won’t work as well. But this is true of all filters.
The customer service representative said she just puts hers in her house and it filters the whole house. Then she said it filters 165 sq ft per 30 minutes of use. That’s pretty slow. She did say that the unit is designed to last for 1 year if you run it 24/7 and then y ou need to change the filter cartridge.
I would say if you want to keep cool, get an actual fan or air conditioner. If you want to clean the air, get an EnviroKlenz Mobile Unit.
Thanks Debra. I kind of figured it was too good to be true.
Hi,
I have an EnviroKlenz, an Austin Air, and an IQ Air. What do you think of the Austin Air Healthmate Plus Jr.? It’s in my daughter’s room.
Thanks!
There’s nothing wrong with these air filters. Many people used them for years.
In my opinion they are outdated technology. Activited carbon doesn’t not work as well as the Envirokelnz technology and often people with severe sensitivities react to the carbon.
But there is nothing toxic about the other filters you have.
Hi Debra,
I am so grateful for your informative site.
What kind of air filter would you recommend for dust allergies, the EnviroKlenz as well, or are there any tabletop, room units, that you prefer? Thanks!
At the moment EnviroKlenz is my best recommendaion.