Each fall, I lug out heaters from the closet and stow away fans and A/Cs. Six months later I reverse the process. If you don’t have central air, you know the dance. The machines themselves are unwieldy to move, hard to carry and are always in the way. The air produced by them is either not hot or cold enough, or is directed right at you and dries your skin out. It is an unfortunate truth that money can really solve (some) problems, and the Dyson Hot+Cool Gen1 does just that. It produces both cold and hot air that either fills the room efficiently or can be directed right at you, and seems to lack the drying effect of most fans. It’s light, easy to move, and most places, looks right at home.
I’ve seen Dyson fans in the past—they don’t have the spinning blades you’re used to, but a big ring that produces air, called an “air multiplier”—and like everyone else, I pasted a stupefied look on my face as I stuck my hand through the ring, trying to understand from where the magic was coming from. Now, Dyson has an entire line of these machines that produce not just cold air, but heat. Oh, they also scrub the air while they’re at it, because of course they do.
What kind of black magic is an “air multiplier”
Here at Lifehacker we’re big fans of fans. Yes, really. Sure, a/c is important for ambient temperature in a room, but if you’re just one person, aiming a fan at yourself is an exceptional way to be more comfortable, instantly. The problem is that fans are drying, loud and in the way—and if you’re working, tend to send paper flying. Also, and this can not be understated, fans quickly become gross, with dust and grime accumulating, and few fans offer a way to clean them thoroughly. Dyson solves these problems by hiding the fan blades in the base of the fan. The result is a soft, ambient breeze. When aimed at me, I felt coolness or heat, but no real accompanying wind. Like I said– magic. It is also as close to silent as you’re going to get. I left it on during all my calls and it was undetectable. It’s also easy to clean, because every surface is exposed and reachable.
Even if the air multiplier is cool, it doesn’t mean much if you’re not comfortable, but somehow, the Dyson produces both heat and cool incredibly effectively—and even more impressively, instantaneously. Switching between the two happens in less than five seconds.
Impressive full room heating or cooling
This particular model also swivels in a completely different way, which is to say, like an owl. You can choose a 45, 90, 180 or 350-degree swivel, effectively cooling or heating the whole room. I really enjoyed the swivel, but it’s quite hard to “catch” the face of the Dyson with your remote to change modes when it’s swiveling. I had it in a 400-square-foot room, but it’s rated for rooms up to 1200 square feet. I really enjoyed how granular the options were for heating and cooling, which allowed for more nuance than the traditional three or four speeds of a conventional fan. The heater works by setting an ideal temperature from the remote.
Over the last month, I’ve tried the Dyson in multiple places in the room to see how this affected whole room. Luckily, my time with the Dyson straddled the season change, and so I’d find myself using the heater in the morning and the cooler in the afternoon, but I could relocate the Dyson almost anywhere in the room with the same results. On a shelf, on the floor, up on a table. It seemed to produce the same effect, and each time I was reminded how light the unit was, fewer than ten pounds. Moving it was as easy as picking it up one-handed by the ring. It never looked out of place, either, because of the modern design, and I was never worried about my pet getting burned or it setting something aflame.
Dyson calls this primarily a purifier, but for me, it was side benefit
During the time I tested the unit, we experienced five poor air-quality days, and I purposefully turned off my air purifiers during this time, leaving on just the Dyson. While the Dyson filters out particles to .03 micron, which is better than my usual purifier, I did not notice a difference and my air-quality monitor in the living room showed only an incremental decrease from how my purifier performs on days like this. I noticed that it cleared smoke much faster than my purifier did, however, when I set off the fire alarm while cooking.
There’s a modern and tech-friendly digital readout screen on the Dyson, which will alternate between information regarding the current mode, the degree of swivel, or the air quality and what the Dyson has pulled out of the air. It’s worth noting you can kill the display, lights and noise if you prefer, and I was a huge fan of “night mode.” In fact, I switched from my a/c to the Dyson in my bedroom at night because I found I was sleeping better with less noise and less outside air coming in through the a/c, which often resulted in irritated sinuses.
No dealbreakers, but might be worth it to upgrade
Even the Dyson has a few faults. As I mentioned, it became a bit of a game to catch the rotating fan base at just the right moment to change modes, and I’m a little scared of losing the small remote—it’s the only way to turn on the heat (the cooling air can be turned on from the Dyson itself). Which brings me to the really big point, which is that, like most Dyson products, this model can be added to the Dyson app, but doesn’t have any app functionality. Newer models do, but this model (the HP10) was just reintroduced this summer, so it feels like a miss. Being able to add voice commands into the mix or add it to automations would be ideal. For that functionality, you’ll want the Dyson Hot+Cool (HP07) or the Dyson Hot+Cool Formaldehyde (HP09).
The biggest negative about the Dyson is the price. At $599, this is one of the more affordable models—the HP07 and HP09 clock in at $649 and $749, respectively. This is still almost twice as much as the highest-rated smart a/c on the market (the Midea U Shaped a/c) and a lot more than any heating tower. Since this is a purifier first, it’s important to remember you’ll also be kicking in $80 once a year for a new filter.
While the quality is unquestionable, if you’re already spending $600 on this machine, spending another $50 to gain app functionality and a few other small perks seems worthwhile.