Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program
I have been intrigued with the Dyson Hot + Cool Fan Heater for a few years. I remember checking one out at a big box housewares store and was just thinking how interesting the design was but equally amazed at how high the price was. The design was certainlly clever and modern but it was not clear to me whether the performance could equal the expecatation and cost. I finally have a Dyson Hot + Cool thanks to the Amazon Vine program and I've been putting it through some serious testing and usage. My video review will cover most of my thoughts but I"ll highlight some of my thoughts here. After using it for nearly a year in both cold and hot conditions I am able to say it is NOT very effective as a fan and marginally more effective as a heater.
Let me be clear about one thing, the device name is totally misleading. It is called "Hot + Cool Fan Heater". It is NOT a cooler. It does not cool air whatsoever. An air conditioner cools air. This is not an air conditioner... it is a fan and it is not very effective as a fan because the air flow is simply too weak to be effective. Additionally it is very loud during operation.
I do like the look of this heater/fan. It's very modern and futuristic. Its slim design will enable it to be put in some otherwise tight spaces and will also look quite modern and elicit many comments, I'm sure.
The actual performance is poor. As a heater, it works pretty well, but only in a smaller square foot area. Since the head can oscillate back and forth, it sill distribute a warm flow of air fairly effectively in smaller rooms. Normally the thermostat in my house is set to 62 degrees during the overnight. I set the Dyson Hot + Cool downstairs in the living room. The entire downstairs area is approx. 900 sq feet but but has a relatively open floor plan so about 3/4 of that square footage could essentially be considered one room. The Dyson managed to keep the temperature right aroun 68 degrees all night long. The Dyson temperature had been set to 70 and as far as I know, it never attained 70 degrees. I'm pretty sure it ran continously all night long. I thought that being able to maintain a 68 degree temperature in that size space was pretty good though since it's still winter where I live and if the heater had not been on, it would have dropped to 62 degrees inside. If a smaller room were being used, it would heat the room to a higher temperature.
As a "cooling" fan, I was not impressed. There is simply not enough velocity or volume of air to be very effective as a fan. Not only that, but the Dyson is loud especially when the fan is operating at its highest setting. At the low setting it's not that loud, but then it's much less effective too. So to get a significant fan effect, you have to turn the speed up to a level much higher than "low."
I do like that the fan oscillates and also tilts. Howver, in my use of the fan, there was a significant amount of wobble in the head of the unit when it was tilted and oscillating. In fact at one point the unit almost vibrated or wobbled itself off the edge of the counter it was sitting on while I was out of the room. I could not believe my eyes. When the head is straight up with no forward or backward inclination, it's fine.
The remote is useful and magnetically attaches itself to the top of the head when not in use. But in my video you will notice at one point the remote slides off the top when I tilt the unit so the magnet is not as strong as it should be to hold the remote securely.
If you are a design forward kind of person or just admire the "genius" of Dyson, this fan will probably appeal to you. It's more flash than function in my opinion. If you're thinking that for the price it's got to be one incredibly effective fan and heater, you'd be mistaken. For the price, it's one awesome looking piece of equipment, but performance is not so hot (no pun intended.)
For my money, I"d rather buy a seperate floor standing fan, or box fan, that can really push some air and at significantly less cost. The Dyson can't even compare.
As a heater, it's pretty cool (sorry again, no pun intended) but again, expensive. I have a small, square, ceramic heater that is very quiet and effective. I think it cost around $40-50.
One worry I have and that I can't address until I've used this for a much longer time, is how much dust will collect in the air intake holes on the lower section of the unit. I've had other devices with similar looking holes and over time you get this very fine and hard to remove collection of dust buildup that would also reduce air flow. Internally dust might build up somewhere too. I have no idea how that would affect the already mediocre performance... or how to clean it. And the air output venturi would also collect dust over time and have to be cleaned.
I guess the Dyson and me aren't a good fit. It's cool looking as heck but I just don't think it lives up to my expectations of performance for something that costs this much. I can see this fitting in to certain decors really well though. And its slim design does enable it to fit in what would otherwise be tight spaces for other more conventional fans/heaters.
UPDATE: 6/3/2013 Having used this over the winter and now during some really hot weather, I'm reducing my rating to 2-stars. For the price, this just doesn't provide a commensurate level of performance. I would not recommend unless you just want to make a fashion statement but don't really care so much about effective cooling or rock-solid mechanical performance.
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There are so many reasons why I love the Dyson Hot + Cool Fan Heater:
1. I am saving $300 per month on heating because the coldest member of the household is now warm enough and not using the whole house forced air heater to cook everyone.
2. It warms up a 15' x 15' bedroom fast about 90 seconds fast.
3. The cats and dogs and children never get near any moving parts that might injure them there are no moving parts.
4. There is no risk to anyone touching the heater it does not get hot to the touch.
5. It is quiet on low it is silent on high it is barely audible.
6. It is working all day and all night everyday for 8 months and has not crapped out.
7. It looks terrific. I redecorated and the style and beauty of the device adds to the modern design.
8. The remote control works perfectly.
9. It is enduring some rough handling amongst family members and guests and pets without busting.
10. It will get the room as warm as anyone wants to get the room. If someone doesn't feel well and wants it at 90F then it will deliver.
11. The animals are not afraid of it.
This is the best three hundred bucks I spent in the past six months. I am overjoyed that I took a chance and purchased this awesome heater despite the negative reviews. We are enjoying this heater, benefiting from this heater and I still love to marvel at its elegant engineering innovative design. So happy. Seriously pleased.
12. It's July and I have to add this fan cools. I don't understand how it blows cool air on a hot day but it does. There is no cooling component but the air from the Dyson is at least 10 degrees (F) than the rest of the room. Very refreshing.
8 months of daily use and we LOVE the dyson. And it looks great. I give it a wipe every so often because the air inputs attract dust. That's it for maintenance. I would love more well engineered products. It saved our household a lot of money during the winter. I will take a look at the heating bills one day and share how much. I really don't like many products, and I don't review most what I purchase. I haven't found a flaw yet.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I'll give it to Dyson... They've taken a very boring household appliance and made it sexy and cool. The design of the AM05 is super slick, elegant and very futuristic. But at $400, a cool design is not enough; to justify the price point it needs to drastically outperform standard fans and space heat by orders of magnitude. Sadly, it doesn't even come close. The packaging is quite minimal and the only assembly required is to pop the fan in the base which takes a few seconds.
On the design... For such a sexy form factor, I do not know why on earth they would have a black electrical cord for the white/silver fan... I would be willing to bet that everyone that chooses the white/silver fan would prefer a white or grey electrical cord.
On the performance... The "cool mode" simply blows air and doesn't actually cool. The product description and product packaging are incredibly vague (I suspect intentionally) about what the cooling function actually is. After using it for a while, I didn't notice it actually cooling the air at all, so I decided to run a test. I measured the temperature in my room with a precise thermometer. I then put the Dyson in "cool mode" blowing air directly onto the thermometer from around 2 feet away. The temperature did not changenot even by a fraction of a degree.
The fan has 10 wind speed settings1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. When set to 10, I find the fan quite loud actually. That is, loud compared to my $45 Lasko Pedestal Fan (that also oscillates and came with a remote!). Also, compared to my Lasko the Dyson wind power is significantly less. The Dyson at 10 is comparable to Lasko at medium. The Dyson also has a much smaller "wind target region" compared to the Lasko which is less effective. The oscillation function works well and the fan can be tilted up or down. Note, the magnetic remote usually falls off when tilting in either directiona slight annoyance and a detail you would expect to be covered given the price of the fan. If you like cool yourself in bed, you'll likely need to place it on a small table as it is too short to reach a bed, even when tilted.
In "heat mode," I did notice a slight burning smell on first use, but it quickly went away and did not return on subsequent uses. The heating works quite well and in a test, it brought the temperate of my bedroom from 62 degrees to 72 degrees in around 20 minutes when set to 10 and with oscillation turned on. In my living room, the "heat mode" consistently blew my fuse when used while watching the television (it didn't in cool mode though).
Overall, this Dyson is less performant than both fans and heaters that can cost less than $50. Unless money isn't an issue and you care more about the visual appeal of the fan than how well it works, this just isn't a good buy.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program SEE BELOW FOR UPDATES
We currently live in a spacious one-floor apartment in the outskirts of Chicago. As of now, it's the tail end of winter here, but, as we've only been in the apartment less than a year, this was our first winter in the new pad. The apartment itself is great, but it's in a very old building with very little updates throughout the years.
The room in which I keep my office is one of those updates, as it seems it's an addition. As such, it doesn't have heating in there, so it can get very cold at times, especially when my wife closes the door during the day. I like to stay up at night on my computer or reading in there, so having the cold doesn't help.
Okay, so on to the heater. When I had the opportunity to order this heater, I jumped on it without hesitation, knowing exactly where I'll be using it. My wife bought a Dyson vacuum, and I like the design of it, though I think it's clunky. So the fan/heater was something to which I greatly looked forward.
When it arrived, the box was very simplistically designed and easy to remove the heater from. You only really have to assemble the base onto it, and that's it. Batteries are included, and the heavy-duty cord is more than long enough for my use. The instructions aren't really necessary, as you can figure out how to operate it from the get-go. The only two things I took away from them were that I can tilt the fan itself to have it pointing down or up, and that upon turning it on I have to wait for it to complete a cycle to figure out the temperature of the room. That's it.
At first use, I wasn't thoroughly impressed with it. I thought it would remain constantly on, though I've figured out later that it sets itself at the room temperature, much like an A/C. Since I really wanted it to aim at my feet, which get the coldest, I was disappointed as my feet were still slightly cold, especially when the heater went idle. But then I messed around with it.
The included remote (which can attach itself to the unit via magnets) is spot on the controls on the unit itself. There's the on button, oscillation, power level, and temperature. The stronger the power, the more it'll blow out, useful if you have it in a bigger room. Upon raising the temperature and the power level, as well as tilting it lower, I was able to get how I wanted it the next night, and my feet were great, let alone the rest of my body and room. Oh, and silly me left the door to the rest of the apartment open, which didn't help control the temperature within my office. Thanks to my wife for pointing out that glaring flaw.
In the end, I am pretty happy with the Dyson heater/cooler. The only real issue I have is with the price. I told my wife I was going to give it four stars, docking one for the price. I feel like the price should be around $150, honestly. But I don't know all that goes into making a device like this, as well as the included features. My wife agreed, but explained that Dyson is a higher-end brand; once she saw the magnetized remote, however, she said I should give it five stars--she thought it was the coolest thing ever. Oh, her...
It's great, and I'm glad I can finally stay comfortable in my office in late winter nights.
***UPDATE 03/03/13***
After a little less than a week of using this product, I'm afraid I have to change my review. I'm not sure if I received a faulty product or what, but I will contact Dyson for support in any case. I tried looking up support on their website, but since this specific model is still very nascent in the public world, there was no help I could find for AM05.
As you read before my update, I use this fan/heater for my office in the back of my apartment, which gets really cold in the winter. As of this writing, it's 20F outside. Since there is no heating in my office, I cannot imagine it is warmer than 77F--the temperature at which my Dyson is set, and it's not running at all. After the second day of use, I noticed that my heater didn't start at the last temperature at which I had it. "Okay," thought I, "it may be that it's a bit warmer tonight." I raised it a few notches and...nothing. I initially had it at 65F the first couple nights, and by the third night it didn't start warming up till I had it at 75F.
So the next couple nights were the same, and I tried unplugging and plugging the thing, which didn't do any help. The unit doesn't start working unless I raise it more, and right now it's at 77F and it's still idle. "Is it really 77 in here?" I asked my wife. "No, that's impossible," she replied. "It's freezing in here."
So, I will contact Dyson and update as needed. It's a shame, because when the unit *is* working, it's awesome.
***UPDATE 03/08/13***
Dyson sure enough emailed me back, and they requested I mail them the product I have for a replacement or repair.
I'll update again when I get another or my current one fixed.
***UPDATE 05/16/13***
I finally had a chance to send my "defective" product, and promptly received a replacement.
So far so good. The one I have now seems to be fine, and has read the temperature sort of accurately. Though it's now much warmer out here in Chicago (70Fs), I'll be updating this review at the end of the year once it gets colder again and I can properly utilize the heating feature.
The cooling fan is fine, though you have to set it really low for it to switch to blue. It's able to blow enough cool air into my little office to the point where I'm comfortable without cranking the A/C. (Though I really don't need to do that yet as it's not immensely hot out for now.)
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I'm a fan of Dyson, but not of the Dyson fan.
In simple terms, it is WAY too noisy, to the point that I no longer use it, and therefore have wasted my $300+.... so disappointing for a Dyson product to be so poorly designed.
