Dyson Purifier Humidify + Cool Formaldehyde review: a breath of fresh air

While I love living in the city, one of the biggest downsides is the air quality. Even in the safety of your apartment, pollutants can creep in. That's why it's good to invest in one of the best air purifiers on the market.

After testing it for a month, I found that the Dyson's Humidify + Cool is not only one of the best air purifiers on the market, it's also of of the best fans and best humidifiers that I've ever used. 

It has the same drawbacks as most Dyson products. It's large and expensive. However, you could spend three times as much and sacrifice three times the floor space for a top-line air purifier, fan, and humidifier, and not come close to the performance of this three-in-one machine. 

Specifications

Unboxing

Dyson is great for packaging. Although this is a huge fan - much bigger than I expected - the packaging isn’t excessive, nor is it complex. Everything is cardboard, recyclable, and neatly packaged. 

This didn’t come in many parts. There are some finishing touches that you’ll need to slide into place and a remote control that you need to make sure to keep safe, but aside from that, it arrives ready to use. Once you've downloaded the app and filled the humidity reservoir, you won't need to touch the Humidify + Cool again.

Who would it suit?

Even though this is a big fan and I live in a small apartment, I wouldn't trade it for anything. The Humidify + Cool is designed for versatility. It's a one-appliance solution for those who want to cool their homes, purify their air, humidify their room. If you live in a dry, arid area, you will adore this fan. 

As a big appliance, it's best suited to big rooms and whole homes. The app and remote control mean that you don't need to constantly walk to the fan to control the settings. You can get hourly updates on your air quality and the fan will connect to your local weather station to predict how to alter the conditions of your room. If you are looking for premium features, you just found the best appliance for them.

Like I said, even though this is big, I wouldn't exchange it for another, smaller appliance. However, if you're really stretched for space, the Humidify + Cool will be overkill. It offers a lot of 'nice to have' options rather han 'need to have' options, and you quite literally pay the price for them. This is nearly $1000.

What is it like to use?

I'm familiar with Dyson fans. When I worked in a pizza truck we were lucky enough to have some earlier models of this fan running. We were working in a hot metal truck, in the middle of summer, next to an 800F pizza oven. Somehow, those Dyson fans, available at Amazon, used to cool me so much that I would need a sweater.

This is a bigger model than the ones I used that summer. Unsurprisingly, this larger model does an even better job. It was set-up and ready to go in seconds. Even though there's enough tech for the nerdiest user, you won't need an engineering degree to get this fired up. The feedback in the app is incredibly straightforward too, so you don't need to know anything about dew points or particulates per million to understand the air quality reports. 

This model claims to remove formaldehyde. Unfortunately, I have no way of assessing this from my flat, so I can't comment on this feature. 

Test 1: Fan

When most fans rotate they move their entire body. This is great, but it can also cause some damage, knocking over items as it oscillates from left to right. The Humidify + Cool has clever rotating pillars that won’t knock your clutter, but which still produce a strong stream of air that you will feel rotating around the room. 

You can select a range of fan conditions. There is 'Breeze' mode where the asynchronous flat fan nozzles will oscillate in - no surprise - different directions. This feels more like a breeze than engineered, simulated fan, so provides a natural, relaxed breeze in your room. 

If you don't like feeling direct air flow on your face, you can select the reverse option, which blows air out of the back of your fan. I'll admit that I was sceptical on this feature. My fan was placed up against the wall. However, on a hot and humid day, I  sat on my couch, used my remote control to select this function and very quickly, the room cooled down. It's incredible and really quiet. It didn't change how loudly I spoke or how well I could hear music in my home.

Test 2: Air Purifier

If you want to get nerdy with the details, the Humidify + Cool fan has incredibly detailed feedback. The fan has a screen just above the water reservoir which has a mini graph to report on your air quality. My living room is open-plan, so when I was cooking in the kitchen, I thought I would check on my air quality graph. There was a spike and the Dyson was working hard to purify the air again. I did a few more tests, spraying home fragrances around the room, and the Dyson immediately detected them and worked quickly to neutralize them. I could smell the difference.

If you suffer from allergies, the Dyson has HEPA filters which claim to trap 99.97% of allergens and particulates down to sizes as small as 0.3 microns. To be fair, I don't suffer from allergies, so won't comment on this, but I read reviews from people who suffer from dog allergies or hay fever and found that this fan helped alleviate their symptoms.

Test 3: Humidifier

I generally don’t struggle with humidity levels in my home. However, when you always have a fan on the go, the air can dry out your skin and throat. The Dyson anticipates the fan drying out your air and acts on it. Through the Dyson Link app, the fan will use your local weather data and humidify your home to the right level. I didn't notice this immediately, but then I realised that on some really humid days, I was feeling colder than normal in the house. When the air isn't as humid, you don't feel as hot, so you don't need the fan to work as hard.

The Purify + Cool works through evaporative humidity. Normally, you would need to soak a filter in water and then these would evaporate into the room. These can be expensive and hard to keep clean. Instead, the Purify + Cool uses UV light to kill the bacteria in the humidifier reservoir. This means that your filters won't need to be replaced as often and they'll stay cleaner. I've had mine for a month and haven't had to change it yet.

Cleaning, Storage, and Maintenance

You'll need to re-fill the water reservoir, but given that this can hold 1 gallon of water, you won't need to do this often. Dyson claims that this tank can humidify for 36 hours. Given that I don't suffer from this in my house, I haven't had to re-fill it and it's been a month. I ran it at full-speed for a couple of hours and could only see a slight change in the water level. If you live in a particularly dry area, I think this would last a few days.

As I've mentioned, the worst part of humidifiers are the filters and knowing when to clean them. The Dyson, whether you look at the screen or check the app, will tell you how much time you have left before you need to clean the filter and de-scale any parts which could have mineral build up. Dyson estimates that you'll need to do this after 600 hours usage if you have hard water and 2,00 hours if you have soft water, so it's not a regular job. Despite living in a hard water area, I haven't had to do this yet.

For the purposes of this review, I've tried a 'deep clean', even though there was nothing to clean. I wheeled out my water reservoir and gave it a thorough clean in the sink. This was beyond easy. If you need to descale it, I would recommend buying some descaling solution from Walmart and soaking the reservoir in that overnight.

How does it rate online?

Reviews for this were exactly as I expected they would be. People said that this was impressive and effective, especially if you have allergies. Most people who used it had large houses. I found a particularly glowing review from a pregnant writer who was struggling with hot and dry air, and she said that she couldn't and wouldn't live without this.

On the flip side, this is too big for those with small homes. I found a few who hadn’t checked the dimensions properly and had a shock when this child-sized air purifier fan arrived in their home. 

Some people said that they were disappointed that this won't heat your air, but to be fair to Dyson, they offer other products which work as fans, purifiers, and heaters, like the Purifier Hot+Cool, available at Dyson. However, the trade-off here is that this fan doesn't have a humidifier function. 

How does it compare?

There are very few appliances that can do it all, so this is a magnificent multitasker. In fact, in my time as a product tester, I’ve not come across a product quite like this.

Most people who bought this had previously owned the Honeywell HCM350W, available at Amazon. This also has a one gallon tank, but it won't run for 36 hours. Instead, reviews suggest that it can only last for 2/3 of that time on a low setting before it needs re-filling. It's smaller, so better for small rooms and still uses UV technology to clean the water. However, if you're looking for quality, go for the Dyson. 

If you need to save some money, the Honeywell usually retails for about $80, which is less than 10% of Dyson's price. In theory, you could buy ten of these. I don't think they would look as nice and they definitely wouldn't connect with your local weather station, but they would save you a lot of money.

Should you buy it?

I love this fan. It covers three functions in one, without compromising on any factors. It’s expensive, but it’s a worthy investment. I'll concede that there are products which perform nearly as well for significantly less investment, but, when it comes to your air purity, I think it's worth splurging. 

How We Test

Before we recommend a product, we test it in our homes or in our dedicated test center. I used this for a month in the middle of summer, before writing this review. I made notes on everything from unboxing to cleaning, so that you would know all the details of this process before splurging $1000. If you'd like to find out more about how we test, you can visit our dedicated page.