Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier review: One that truly lives up to expectations

India's rising pollution levels are alarming and in some cities, the air quality is a serious health concern. A recent report revealed that 21 out world's 30 most polluted cities are in India, which is a call for action. According to the World Health Organisation, air pollution is one of the leading causes of premature deaths, claiming approximately 7 million lives a year across the world. Every individual must take necessary precautions to stay healthy in these situations, which is where air purifiers come into play.

While there are plenty of air purifiers available for different budgets in India, picking the right one can be exhausting. All air purifiers tend to offer an appeal with all those jargons, which may or may not seem familiar. But as you continue to do your research, terms like HEPA don't seem new. But not all air purifiers offer the same results and you don't have to buy them all to realize what works and what doesn't.

Dyson: Brand & Experience

Anyone searching for best air purifiers for home must have come across Dyson. It is a premium brand that is known to offer nothing but the best. Dyson specializes in household appliances and does a fine job at that. The company doesn't have a brand ambassador to sell its products in India, but it trusts its products to be enough to sell on their own.

In fact, Dyson ensures its customers get the right experience, which is why when you walk into a Dyson store or outlet, you will be welcomed by an engineer who knows the products inside out rather than a sales rep trying to meet monthly targets. This is one of the things that surprised me but also gave a rare peek into how the brand operates. That said, we were sent a Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier for testing and here's our full review after using it for a month.

Dyson Pure Hot+Cool: Design

Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier is a mouthful name, but its design is entirely the opposite. Dyson air purifier challenges the traditional design with a unique look, featuring a capsule-shaped body sitting on top of a cylindrical base, which is where all the air purification takes place. Inside the mesh covers, there are active carbon and HEPA filters that surround the cylinder for thorough purification - no matter the angle.

There are also gaskets on both filters to lock the particles and prevent them from escaping. The sealed filtration setup is ideal for removing harmful gasses and pollutants. Dyson has made sure the design is kept minimalistic and it did so by not placing too many buttons on the machine. In fact, the Dyson remote and the Dyson Link app are more than enough to control the purifier without having to touch it.

There's a small LCD display on the air purifier to show important notifications, such as modes of purification, oscillation, temperature, air quality, and fan speed. The cylinder base can slightly tilt to adjust the fan's position to suit your requirements. Since it was placed on a table by the bed, we'd tilted it down for the best experience. But what's more interesting is that the purifier can oscillate 350 degrees, which sends purified air across the room. Now, there aren't a lot of purifiers that can do this, so this one's a special feature.

Setting up the purifier is as simple as it could be. Take out the machine, fit the filters, then the covers and start using. Use the remote or the app to make adjustments and the rest is taken care of. We had to set up the device just once and no further interaction was necessary. Everything was automated. In case, it detected the temperature of the room fall or detect smoke, it would start to do what it does best.

Swapping the filters is also quite simple. Take out the cover by pressing the locks on the side, remove the filters and fit the new ones.

Dyson Pure Hot+Cool: Performance

It's probably the easiest air purifier we have worked with. It's easy to set up and use. If you get all your settings right once, everything is pretty much automated. The air purifier's heater and cooler function were extremely useful in our case, helping maintain a steady temperature at all times. The heater especially is quite impressive. The self-regulating ceramic plates inside the frame of the ring heat the air as it is being pushed out. So what we're getting is hot and pure air. The power-saving feature is a smart addition, as the heater turns on only when the temperature drops below the desired temperature. Despite using the heater extensively, never did we have to worry about the coils overheating. This is usually a concern with heaters, but Dyson did an excellent job of keeping worrying minds at ease with its design.

We installed the Dyson air purifier right after shifting to a new place, and there was new paint, dust everywhere. It was an ideal place to start with a Dyson and to our surprise, after 11 hours of continuous purification, the air quality was brought to "good." One of the better things of being in Bengaluru, there were no alarming signs in the app. Throughout our review, the air quality was maintained at good. Everything else, including PM2.5, PM10, VOC and NO2 levels were all in "good" levels. I'm told that's a rare sight if you are living in Delhi.

Thanks to the Dyson air purifier, the difference in air quality when you step inside the room was distinguishable. We witnessed the Dyson air purifier's capabilities at the showcase last year when a box filled with smoke was cleared in a matter of seconds when the purification process was started. See it for yourself below:

The app allowed me to set different profiles for different parts of the day. Anyone can set up a seven-day schedule or select days, times, and settings. The app is the least intrusive, no unnecessary notifications and the UI is one of the cleanest there is. The bar graph shows statistics on a daily or weekly basis dating back to a whole month. The app also lets you check the life of filters, but that's something you won't have to worry about for at least a year.

Based on our usage and estimates, the filters you get with the box should last you a year. After a month of continuous filtration, only 4 percent of both the filters were depleted.

Verdict

If there's no budget constraint, the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier is a no brainer. It's the best in its class and given the seriousness of the rising pollution in India, there couldn't be a better choice. It certainly exceeded the expectations when it comes to purification and its heater and cooler features were on point.

To put it simply, Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier is the only air purifier you'll ever need - all year long. Dyson's purifier is like the iPhone of air purifiers out there - best in its own way. If you're bullish about the pricing, know that Dyson pours millions into R&D to make a product like no other. It is the technology that you pay for - something not every brand can mimic, especially not your budget alternatives. Luckily, the company doesn't have any shareholders that it is answerable to for the sales it makes. This gives Dyson to focus on what consumers truly need more than anything - such as sales targets.