Though still foremost a vacuum company in the eyes of most consumers, Dyson has quietly remade itself into home wellness company. In the last five years, the brand has introduced lines of eye-friendly lighting and head-friendly hair care; but it’s most dramatic expansion has been in the air quality space, a category that, driven by more people living in more polluted environments, has been the subject of sizeable growth.
What started with bladeless fans found at Brookstone stores in the mall has evolved into a collection of highly capable, multifunctional fan-purifier-air-conditioner-heaters (depending on which you splurge on). The latest is the Dyson Pure Humidify + Cool, a literally named air purifier, conditioner and humidifier. Like all brand new Dyson gadgets, it comes at an eye-watering cost — $800 and up, in this case. I tested it for a month to find out if it’s worth it.
What’s Good
This Dyson’s greatest strength is channeling its many functions, features and monitoring system into utility. Because builders of today are so good at building in insulation, humidity levels in homes and apartments average around 15 to 20 percent, which is lower than some of the dryest places on earth. Artificially dry living translates to dry skin, itchy eyes and an increased likelihood for illness. Most humidifiers ask the owner to set the humidity levels, but Dyson takes this into its own hands. Through the Dyson Link App (which is its hub for controls and air quality data), it syncs the humidity level in your home with your local levels via weather data, which allows you to use less A/C to achieve similar coolness levels.
Long a pain point with humidifiers, Dyson’s is (almost) self-cleaning. It uses ultra-violet lights to purify water before its pushed into your home, and app tracks when the machine will need a “Deep Clean,” which amounts to filling the water tank up, dumping a provided packet of citric acid in, putting the tank back into the machine and punching the go button. No cleaning on your part, basically.
