Tech Tools review: App-controlled fan banishes pollutants

I’ve never really considered the air quality in my home. If it’s stuffy, I open a window and assume that will do the job.

If cooking gets a bit out of hand, I’ll switch on the extractor fan to clear the smoke. It always seems to do the trick.

But, then I read about micro pollutants invading my home – and the paranoia set in.

As always though, there is a product – and an app – for that.

The Dyson Pure Cool Link combines a fan with an air purifier, that removes allergens and impurities from your air. But, just how necessary is it?

Lookswise, the Dyson Pure Cool Link is unmistakably a Dyson product. It comes in two versions – the oblong tower and the round desk fan version.

Both are bladeless, which is a plus if you have small children or pets around, and both essentially do the same thing, with about €100 difference in the price.

It uses Dyson’s air multiplier technology – basically, blowing air smoothly through it and at some decent speeds – that we’ve seen in its regular range of fans and heaters, and generally works quite well at cooling down a room.

On to its air purifier qualities.

There’s a glass HEPA 360 degree filter that removes all the rubbish bits out of your home’s air – pollen, dust and so on – leaving you with relatively clean air by the end of it.

It also has a carbon filter, which takes care of paint fumes and other undesirable things.

It’s all app-controlled, too.

You connect the fan to your wifi network and you can control everything through your smart phone. The fan will sense the air quality around it and give the room a rating with a colour-coded background, letting you know if you need to run it or not.

You don’t have to use the app though; the Dyson Pure Cool Link comes with a remote control, like its non-connected counterparts. It just doesn’t have all the fancy air quality statistics or the ability to start the air purifier from the bus on your way home.

But does it actually work?

The real surprise for me was that both my office and home air are actually of decent quality. So, to test it out, I had to cause a bit of pollution in my home, known around here as “dinner time”.

The app turned red. The fan kicked on at, if not its top speed, then close enough to it. It worked hard to clear the fog of smoke from the kitchen and, although it took a little time, it managed to eventually restore the green rating to the kitchen.

After that, it was placed in the bedroom because, as a chronic hayfever sufferer, anything that helps diminish the symptoms first thing in the morning is worth a try. The jury is still out on that one.

The hayfever symptoms have definitely been milder in the past few months, but that could also be a lot to do with our Irish summer – or lack thereof.

However, a fan is not something I generally have a lot of use for.

That's because I live in Ireland where a fan is not usually considered an essential piece of kit to get you through the summer.

What would be more useful to Irish households is the Hot & Cool version of this, which also works as a heater for your room.

The good:

This entire thing is app-controlled, so you can start it when you are out of the house, or use it to keep an eye on your air quality while you’re away.

You can also set it to automatic, so it will adjust its settings as and when it’s needed, and a night mode that keeps the noise down.

The not so good:

Like most Dyson products, the Pure Cool Link will set you back quite a bit. It comes with a price tag of just under €400 for the desk fan and €500 for the tower version, so you’ll need deep pockets or a strong use case for investing in either.

When you whack up the speed of the fan to the maximum, things can get a bit noisier than I’d like, but it works – so there’s a trade off to be had there.

The verdict: ***

It’s unlikely in Ireland that a fan is part of the average person’s essential home kit, even when there’s a purifier included in the package.

But, for those who have a need for it – be it for allergies or just a general desire to keep their living space as pollutant-free as possible – the Dyson Pure Cool Link is a handy, if pricey, device.