Miss Cellania
Dyson Air Multiplier
by Miss Cellania - October 26, 2009 - 8:40 AM
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200_fanLargeFaceOnDyson calls it an “air multiplier”, but everywhere you see this, it’s called a bladeless fan. A fan with no blades? Where does the air come from? Apparently, it’s drawn into the bottom of the gadget, where there is a, yes, a conventional fan with blades (just well hidden). The air is fed up to the big loopy round part (for want of a more descriptive name). Somehow, this process also draws in more air from behind the fan and around the edges of the fan. Which gives you lots of air blowing.
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Dyson (the company that makes the vacuum cleaners) is marketing the Air Multiplier as a pleasant change from a blade fan because of the smoothness of the air flow, compared to the choppiness of fans using blades. Forget that, real people who have used conventional fans will notice two other advantages first and foremost. 1. Your kids won’t lose their fingers when they stick them in this fan, and 2. you can clean it. Conventional fans have safety covers to keep little fingers away from spinning blades, but the grills catch dust as much as blades do. By the end of the summer, you need to take your fan outside and shake it, sweep it, and if you are at your wit’s end, use a spray hose (not recommended) to get all the nasties out. This won’t happen with a bladeless fan.

200_dyson_fanStill, there is the $300 price tag. You can toss out a couple of dozen dirty little conventional fans before you approach that kind of payout. Of course, there’s the cachet of having the newest, most expensive, and just plain cool fan to impress your friends. Then on the other hand, if you can afford $300 for a fan, why don’t you just get an air conditioner?

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Comments (6)

  1. What about cleaning the blades on the Dyson?

    Also, I don’t know of any small personal use fan that can take a finger off these days. Even if they could, the guards on modern fans prevent fingers from being inserted.

    This looks cool, but sounds like an over-hyped, overpriced piece of equipment with much more economical and/or better alternatives. Kind of like Dyson vacuums.

    posted by Jeff on 10-26-2009 at 9:59 am

  2. And does it cause…

    FAN DEATH?

    posted by InfoMofo on 10-26-2009 at 10:17 am

  3. Just to offer a brief nutshell explanation, the fan seems to work using a principle called induction. Air jets moving with a velocity create areas of low pressure in the area behind and immediately surrounding the jet. This low pressure zone attracts air from higher-pressure areas in the vicinity (in an attempt to reach equilibrium). When the air jet is sustained, this has the effect of consistently drawing in, or “inducing” air from the surrounding space. The higher the velocity of the primary airstream, the greater this induction effect.

    Considering that Dyson makes vacuums, which utilize this effect in order to create suction, I’m not surprised they have a product that reverses the effect as well. Say what you will about his products, but Mr. Dyson is a pretty shrewd marketer.

    posted by Bert on 10-26-2009 at 11:05 am

  4. I’ve experienced the Dyson “Air Blade” hand dryer in a public bathroom. Interesting, but still not as effective as a paper towel. Maybe it works better for people with hands smaller than mine.

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 10-26-2009 at 11:57 am

  5. Please stop with the losing the fingers thing. Sticking your finger in your average household box fan is going to either a) stop the fan and not hurt at all (if you put your finger in slowly from the front) or b) stop the fan smart a little bit if you put your finger in quickly or from the back.

    posted by Kevin on 10-26-2009 at 3:54 pm

  6. but if i sing into it, will i still sound like a robot?

    posted by tiffany on 10-26-2009 at 7:18 pm

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