Dyson, famous for its innovative vacuum cleaners and industrial hand dryers, has seemingly combined the two designs to create its first desk fan, the Dyson Air Multiplier.
Dyson Air Multiplier Cock-a-hoop: Dyson's Air Multiplier
Being Dyson, impressive aesthetics are to be expected and this unique design doesn’t disappoint. …
... if you're a fly. One minute you're just buzzing around, annoying people. The next you've been caught in the vortex and you're shooting along at warp 9. I would expect that once word (or is that "the buzz") gets out, they'll come from miles around to have a go.
Could you use it to fire sponge balls at other people, too?
Except, it the stories that I read in the news are to be believed, they're being removed from various hospitals because they are a bacteria factory. They do dry your hands though.
Hmmm, like people who pay fruity logo'd phones at £600, sort of mental?
Price is nothing, if enough weight is put behind something to make you feel like a loser if you don't own the latest Supersonic Hydromatic Gadget, then they will fly off shelves.
So, we have a product that boasts innovation, does the same job as other products (but in a different way), looks a lot prettier and costs over twice as much.
Not paying that much for a fan that still has make in [China/Malaysia] stamped on it. I went of Dyson stuff as soon as the move overseas happend. It pimps itself as British and charges a premium price but it made overseas.
Kingprawn - I know a bunch of people that work at Dyson. When they moved production to Malaysia, it let them create a whole load more product design jobs in the UK by saving on manufacturing costs - a good thing for the UK.
"Paying more for a Dyson vacuum is understandable - the difference in price is a fair reflection of the difference in product."
I could well understand that POV if Dyson's vacs were any good. Big, loud, pricey and weak, they're a complete joke next to a high quality traditional cylinder design like those made by Miele or Electrolux. Hopeless vacuum cleaners designed for those who buy but do not use them.
Whilst I was shopping for a vacume cleaner the salesman tried to get me to buy the Dyson instead of the Bosch parket one ended up with. It was 4 times the price (really 400 for a vacume cleaner? Meile's looked cheap in comprison) with the best sales pitch of 'due to the way it's desgined it actually performs as if it has 30% more power. Shame that with the 30% 'extra' it was still 1/2 kilowatt less than the other machines on sale...
//Paying more for a Dyson vacuum is understandable - the difference in price is a fair reflection of the difference in product//
Buying a Dyson vacuum, means you pay more for a hideous, easy to fix yourself vacuum that sucks until it's full, but if you want something that's not an such an eyesore, lots lighter, cheaper but performance drops off when it's 80% full then almost anything else is better (or buy a Vax which is almost identical, uses the same filtration etc. for a third of the cost). You could always get a Henry, they never disappoint, often used by professional cleaners.
Dyson shook up the vacuum market because everybody else had become complacent, but not any more, it's no longer "the best" it's now a "lifestyle choice", which I guess is the target of the fan.
Why anyone buys hideous yellow and purple vaccum cleaners is beyond me - especially when they are so damn heavy and unreliable.
Go into any Costco and look at the returns pile. There's invariably a dyson in there - sometimes two.
We fell into the marketing trap and bought one. It was no better than the previous electrolux (despite being four times the price). After getting heartily fed up with it constantly overheating and shutting down (cleaned the filters and all that on a regular basis), after a couple of yerars it went to the tip. Replaced with an LG at £40. Lasted about 4 years 'til its bearings failed and then bought another LG at £50 which is still going strong and sucks way better than the Dyson ever did.
Been very impressed with my Dyson ball. Really good design, apart from a lead that is 1m too short. No overheating, very effective performance, not problems after two years (and it has a 5 year guarantee).
If you want the real Apple-stylee alternative in vacuum cleaners then may I recommend the Kirby? See http://www.kirby.com/Portals/UK/builttolast.html
Funnily enough the sales pitch we got for this compared it to the Dyson - trouble is that the Kirby costs 3-4 times the Dyson.
In Kirby's defence though - they do a pretty good job, and the things are built like the proverbial brick outhouse - very little plastic, mainly metal construction. Downside is that all this mass makes it very heavy - which is why I guess they come with a switchable "drive" feature that gives you a power-assist to get it moving.
Oh yeah? Then presumably you live in a DINK house, no kids and shoes left at the door.
I also own one of those ball Dysons and here's my experience:
Cleaning a carpet or floor - excellent with the proviso that I have to dismantle the beater and strip the hair (wife and daughter have long hair) out with my swiss army knife every time I use it. Even so, the beater has melted in places because the bearing caps are not shielded properly against real life things being sucked up the cleaner, and hair can wind between the bearing and housing.
Cleaning anything with the wand - stupidly hard and dangerous. The wand is three feet long give or take, and so you have to be three feet from anything you want to clean (cleaning sofa cushions is an exercise now labeled "retarded" in my post-Dyson days). Not only that, simply switching the cleaner on with the wand deployed and the crevice tool snapped onto it turns the oh-so-innovative collapsing flex hose into a stretched chest-expander spring. Get anything up against the tool, like a curtain or a pelmet, and the hose contracts even more violently, pulling the vacuum cleaner across the floor towards you. There's even a warning (inadequate in my opinion) about using the wand with the cleaner above you because of the effect. The cleaner doesn't come fitted with a brake to mitigate the problem, and is too light for one to work anyway.
I took out the filters after 3 months as instructed and cleaned them as described in the instructions that came with it. I now have a singing vacuum cleaner. No amount of re-seating the filters will silence the thing as the deafening noise of the motor is accompanied by the Dyson Steam Whistle Effect.
The yuppie-attracting clear muck cylinder is great for fluff such as might be present in a home used as a vacuum cleaner demonstration platform, but survives about a week in the face of real-world dirt (the sort that tracks into the house if anyone living there has a life) before becoming opaque.
If you have a Dyson, you'll need one of those hand Dysons to do all the stuff that can't be done by wheeling the vacuum around like cleaning furniture and stairs.
Cleaning the stairs is my least favorite activity, in which the Dyson cleaner runs to the bottom stair and then attempts to jump up them as I use one arm to heave on the reluctant-to-expand hose (supposed to be 18 feet of it, I'm lucky if it will stretch to ten with the cleaner turned on) and the other to try and clean the stairs. I'm seriously considering lashing the thing to the banisters with a bungee to avoid Stair-climbing Cleaner Syndrome, but the hose will then be trying to pull me off the stairs unless I belay to the upstairs commode with my old climbing gear.
"I think things should just work" says that nice Mr Dyson on the TV ads. I've got news for him: He needs to go back to the old drawing board on this one.
We've had several now, all very good and much better than the traditional ones we've had/tried.
I quite like the hand dryers too.
So, I like Dyson ideas and innovation but if Mr Dyson says to me that a desktop fan is going to set me back 200 quid, I'll say "Oi Dyson", "Nooooo"! Or however the Harry Enfield character actually spoke.
You won't find hard numbers (not even on the Dyson web site) because this thing is a noisy as fuck and Dyson are trying to play down this particular deficiency.
Look online for the numerous reviews of people who have already bought one to see just how noisy it is.
For me, that thing is plain ugly. I'll stick with my £10 made-in-China fan: neutral on the aesthetics, and (according to the review) quieter.
Beauty, is a 1920-ish Bakelite fan with shiny brass cage and blades that would cucumber-slice any finger poked into their path. Electrically it's decidedly dodgy - a flax-and-rubber flex that's now held together by the flax and definitely best not flexed. It still works, slightly more noisily than the made-in-China one, but it looks much better turned off!
If you put one in front of the other would it have 15 x 15 effect? In fact could you put a chain of them together and use it to fire balls at people? In fact Is this what the LHC is - a big ring of Dysons?
Megaphone - cos Bart from The Simpsons did the same thing with these.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 15:56 GMT
Anonymous Coward
"Paying more for a Dyson vacuum is understandable"
#
It is?
Lemme think - looks like a primary school kid's drawing; looks like a bag of crap (well, not a bag, but...) as soon as you use it for the first time; a truly unenviable record of reliability - and still over twice the price of the nice, friendly, smiley, made-in-Britain Henry.
Just ask yourself how many builders and hotels use Dysons, and how many use Henrys.
Used one of these for quite a while now. Noisy, and the donut shaped airflow is just weird compared to a conventional fan. You have to be some considerable distance away before the airflow is less, err, donutty, so on that basis not a good desk fan. Unless of course you're Alan Sugar and have a desk that's bigger than most houses.
Simply mind boggling that they're 10 to 20 times the price of a normal fan. Really. They'd be overpriced at a quarter of the rrp.
Like all of Dyson's "innovative" ideas, there is nothing new here. The principle has been about for many years, mainly in industrial environments. The snag is that you have to put a lot of energy into the entraining air supply, and consequently lots of noise. The better desk fans are the large ones, since there is little noise from the low velocity blades
I always wondered how he managed to patent a cyclone vacuum cleaner, what with it being based on industrial cyclones used to clean air. I mean, that's pretty much the same as someone patenting a desktop PC when Mainframes were the only thing available.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 20:03 GMT
Anonymous Coward
the cool sound of a fighter jet, all day, no thanks.
#
For 200 squids I would suggest popping down to your local Argos and buying one of the many Sub-200 squid Air Conditioners, get a cheap extension cable, wheel it under your desk and enjoy a quieter and much cooler self, more than this Dyson gimmick could ever achieve.
Recent research on sleeping well, highlighted how the oscillating sound of a traditional fan is quite calming and can help one drift into deep sleep. Dyson's fighter jet sound completely makes it unusable and irritating.
This product is just is a purer example of deign over function.
I bought a brand new one on eBay relatively cheaply last month. Maybe mine is broken but I find it to be unbearably loud even on the lowest setting and in terms of airflow I don't think it's much better than your average £29.99 job from Currys.
It's great to look at and is an interesting talking point, but I certainly wouldn't recommend one to anyone unless you need to make a fashion statement.
Our Dyson vacuum and dustbuster are also incredibly loud. I wouldn't mind Dyson turning his inventive mind towards keeping the performance but cancelling out the noise of his devices.
"the cool sound of a fighter jet, all day, no thanks."
Would it be extravagant to use a Merlin with prop to cool the office down?
I could listen to that all day.
A large office with £200 fans on each desk could quickly add up to the cost of the Spitfire engine, and that would be enough to cool everyone! You wouldn't want to put your hands near it like the Dyson...
The way air is "multiplied" here is NOT Dyson innovation, it is a Remington one. Its first appearance in a consumer product was in the Remington Vortex hair drier about 12 years ago. Dyson may have changed the design slightly to make it into a shiny Dyson toy, but that is about it. That is besides the fact that similar principles have been used in turbines for 40+ years.
Innovations some other time. More like misleading marketing about being innovative. It is not the first time either. There are other examples - the Airblade (same design shipped by Mitsubishi for years) and so on.
Register
Dyson Air Multiplier desktop cooler
Dyson, famous for its innovative vacuum cleaners and industrial hand dryers, has seemingly combined the two designs to create its first desk fan, the Dyson Air Multiplier. Dyson Air Multiplier Cock-a-hoop: Dyson's Air Multiplier Being Dyson, impressive aesthetics are to be expected and this unique design doesn’t disappoint. …
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Page:
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 12:36 GMT
David Gosnell
Less than enthusiastic review #
Expect a call from Dyson's lawyer any moment now!
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 12:36 GMT
richard 69
well blow me... #
looks ok and cools pretty well but for £200 smackers i'll just open the window and scoff ice cubes all day.
great review by the way...
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 12:36 GMT
Pete 2
Must be great fun ... #
... if you're a fly. One minute you're just buzzing around, annoying people. The next you've been caught in the vortex and you're shooting along at warp 9. I would expect that once word (or is that "the buzz") gets out, they'll come from miles around to have a go.
Could you use it to fire sponge balls at other people, too?
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 14:21 GMT
D@v3
sponge balls, maybe #
balloons, definitely.
http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/dyson-air-multiplier-bladeless-fans-used-to-make-balloon-course
But seriously, £200?
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 08:33 GMT
NightFox
Well, Blow Me! #
Cool(!) video - wish I could get a job doing that!
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 12:37 GMT
Danny 14
yup #
nice fan but
HOW MUCH?
You need your head reading if you buy one of these RRP.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 12:37 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Noise is the fundamental failing of Dyson products #
love the technology, hate the Airblade-equipped toilets that sound like someone's using them to conduct scramjet test flights
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 13:16 GMT
Frank Bough
Actually #
...I quite like the Airblade. Seems to do what it claims quite neatly.
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 00:01 GMT
Fraser
@Frank #
Except, it the stories that I read in the news are to be believed, they're being removed from various hospitals because they are a bacteria factory. They do dry your hands though.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 13:11 GMT
Cunningly Linguistic
200 quid? #
...man that blows!
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 13:12 GMT
Ben Rosenthal
too hundred fecking quid!!?!?! #
looks cool (ah ha ha), but it;s TWO HUNDRED POUNDS!!!!
anyone that buys one is mental.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 14:21 GMT
Chris W
Re: anyone that buys one is mental #
or an MP
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 08:33 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Price, Schmice! #
Hmmm, like people who pay fruity logo'd phones at £600, sort of mental?
Price is nothing, if enough weight is put behind something to make you feel like a loser if you don't own the latest Supersonic Hydromatic Gadget, then they will fly off shelves.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 13:12 GMT
TeeCee
"...it isn't how they look, it's how they blow...." #
Also an important factor in getting backstage at a Snoop Dogg concert I believe....
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 13:14 GMT
LuMan
Haven't we seen this sort of thing before? #
So, we have a product that boasts innovation, does the same job as other products (but in a different way), looks a lot prettier and costs over twice as much.
Shouldn't this be the iFan, or something??
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 13:14 GMT
Kingprawn
Big no! #
Not paying that much for a fan that still has make in [China/Malaysia] stamped on it. I went of Dyson stuff as soon as the move overseas happend. It pimps itself as British and charges a premium price but it made overseas.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 14:21 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Did you also flog your Rolls-Royce #
when BMW bought the company?
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 15:56 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Ummm... #
R-R - EU owners, UK manufacture
Dyson - UK owners, far eastern manufacture
But, apart from that, nice analogy. No, really.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 16:45 GMT
Anonymous Coward
You forgot design. #
Kingprawn - I know a bunch of people that work at Dyson. When they moved production to Malaysia, it let them create a whole load more product design jobs in the UK by saving on manufacturing costs - a good thing for the UK.
Posted Friday 25th June 2010 18:46 GMT
Mark Aggleton
R-R #
Surely 'assembled' in UK, not manufactured?
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 13:16 GMT
Frank Bough
Hang on... #
"Paying more for a Dyson vacuum is understandable - the difference in price is a fair reflection of the difference in product."
I could well understand that POV if Dyson's vacs were any good. Big, loud, pricey and weak, they're a complete joke next to a high quality traditional cylinder design like those made by Miele or Electrolux. Hopeless vacuum cleaners designed for those who buy but do not use them.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 14:21 GMT
Stacy
Totally agree #
Whilst I was shopping for a vacume cleaner the salesman tried to get me to buy the Dyson instead of the Bosch parket one ended up with. It was 4 times the price (really 400 for a vacume cleaner? Meile's looked cheap in comprison) with the best sales pitch of 'due to the way it's desgined it actually performs as if it has 30% more power. Shame that with the 30% 'extra' it was still 1/2 kilowatt less than the other machines on sale...
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 14:21 GMT
No, I will not fix your computer
I'd second that... #
//Paying more for a Dyson vacuum is understandable - the difference in price is a fair reflection of the difference in product//
Buying a Dyson vacuum, means you pay more for a hideous, easy to fix yourself vacuum that sucks until it's full, but if you want something that's not an such an eyesore, lots lighter, cheaper but performance drops off when it's 80% full then almost anything else is better (or buy a Vax which is almost identical, uses the same filtration etc. for a third of the cost). You could always get a Henry, they never disappoint, often used by professional cleaners.
Dyson shook up the vacuum market because everybody else had become complacent, but not any more, it's no longer "the best" it's now a "lifestyle choice", which I guess is the target of the fan.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 15:57 GMT
Ivan Headache
Re: Hang on #
Why anyone buys hideous yellow and purple vaccum cleaners is beyond me - especially when they are so damn heavy and unreliable.
Go into any Costco and look at the returns pile. There's invariably a dyson in there - sometimes two.
We fell into the marketing trap and bought one. It was no better than the previous electrolux (despite being four times the price). After getting heartily fed up with it constantly overheating and shutting down (cleaned the filters and all that on a regular basis), after a couple of yerars it went to the tip. Replaced with an LG at £40. Lasted about 4 years 'til its bearings failed and then bought another LG at £50 which is still going strong and sucks way better than the Dyson ever did.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 17:12 GMT
Elmer Phud
Oi! #
Don't forget the Henry --
A vacuum cleaner that can suck plaster off of walls, tumble down a flight of stairs while on with no breaks, cracks or even the motor skipping a beat.
Cleaning firms don't use them 'cos they are cheap - it's 'cos they can withstand the punishment from contract cleaners.
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 08:33 GMT
James Hughes 1
Not seconded #
Been very impressed with my Dyson ball. Really good design, apart from a lead that is 1m too short. No overheating, very effective performance, not problems after two years (and it has a 5 year guarantee).
Posted Friday 25th June 2010 18:47 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Dyson isn't that expensive #
If you want the real Apple-stylee alternative in vacuum cleaners then may I recommend the Kirby? See http://www.kirby.com/Portals/UK/builttolast.html
Funnily enough the sales pitch we got for this compared it to the Dyson - trouble is that the Kirby costs 3-4 times the Dyson.
In Kirby's defence though - they do a pretty good job, and the things are built like the proverbial brick outhouse - very little plastic, mainly metal construction. Downside is that all this mass makes it very heavy - which is why I guess they come with a switchable "drive" feature that gives you a power-assist to get it moving.
Posted Friday 25th June 2010 18:52 GMT
Stevie
Bah! #
Oh yeah? Then presumably you live in a DINK house, no kids and shoes left at the door.
I also own one of those ball Dysons and here's my experience:
Cleaning a carpet or floor - excellent with the proviso that I have to dismantle the beater and strip the hair (wife and daughter have long hair) out with my swiss army knife every time I use it. Even so, the beater has melted in places because the bearing caps are not shielded properly against real life things being sucked up the cleaner, and hair can wind between the bearing and housing.
Cleaning anything with the wand - stupidly hard and dangerous. The wand is three feet long give or take, and so you have to be three feet from anything you want to clean (cleaning sofa cushions is an exercise now labeled "retarded" in my post-Dyson days). Not only that, simply switching the cleaner on with the wand deployed and the crevice tool snapped onto it turns the oh-so-innovative collapsing flex hose into a stretched chest-expander spring. Get anything up against the tool, like a curtain or a pelmet, and the hose contracts even more violently, pulling the vacuum cleaner across the floor towards you. There's even a warning (inadequate in my opinion) about using the wand with the cleaner above you because of the effect. The cleaner doesn't come fitted with a brake to mitigate the problem, and is too light for one to work anyway.
I took out the filters after 3 months as instructed and cleaned them as described in the instructions that came with it. I now have a singing vacuum cleaner. No amount of re-seating the filters will silence the thing as the deafening noise of the motor is accompanied by the Dyson Steam Whistle Effect.
The yuppie-attracting clear muck cylinder is great for fluff such as might be present in a home used as a vacuum cleaner demonstration platform, but survives about a week in the face of real-world dirt (the sort that tracks into the house if anyone living there has a life) before becoming opaque.
If you have a Dyson, you'll need one of those hand Dysons to do all the stuff that can't be done by wheeling the vacuum around like cleaning furniture and stairs.
Cleaning the stairs is my least favorite activity, in which the Dyson cleaner runs to the bottom stair and then attempts to jump up them as I use one arm to heave on the reluctant-to-expand hose (supposed to be 18 feet of it, I'm lucky if it will stretch to ten with the cleaner turned on) and the other to try and clean the stairs. I'm seriously considering lashing the thing to the banisters with a bungee to avoid Stair-climbing Cleaner Syndrome, but the hose will then be trying to pull me off the stairs unless I belay to the upstairs commode with my old climbing gear.
"I think things should just work" says that nice Mr Dyson on the TV ads. I've got news for him: He needs to go back to the old drawing board on this one.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 14:21 GMT
Annihilator
No blades #
According to Dyson, there are no blades, there are "vanes"
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 14:21 GMT
Matt 21
Dyson Vacs #
We've had several now, all very good and much better than the traditional ones we've had/tried.
I quite like the hand dryers too.
So, I like Dyson ideas and innovation but if Mr Dyson says to me that a desktop fan is going to set me back 200 quid, I'll say "Oi Dyson", "Nooooo"! Or however the Harry Enfield character actually spoke.
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 00:02 GMT
Fraser
Err... #
You've had several? What happened to them? I've had one vacuum cleaner for the last ten years.
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 08:33 GMT
James Hughes 1
You probably need to change the bag then. #
NT
Posted Friday 25th June 2010 13:18 GMT
Andus McCoatover
We? #
Maybe it doesn't mean "Me and the missus" but "Cleaners-R-Us, Ltd.", i.e. a company. Would explain 'several'.
It would also explain the plurality in "hand-dryers"
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 14:21 GMT
Popup
Hard numbers? #
Come on, a fan is something that's easily quantifiable. What's the airflow and what's the noise?
Let's have real numbers, for this contraption and for a five-quid fan!
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 00:01 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Re: Hard numbers? #
You won't find hard numbers (not even on the Dyson web site) because this thing is a noisy as fuck and Dyson are trying to play down this particular deficiency.
Look online for the numerous reviews of people who have already bought one to see just how noisy it is.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 14:21 GMT
Nigel 11
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder #
For me, that thing is plain ugly. I'll stick with my £10 made-in-China fan: neutral on the aesthetics, and (according to the review) quieter.
Beauty, is a 1920-ish Bakelite fan with shiny brass cage and blades that would cucumber-slice any finger poked into their path. Electrically it's decidedly dodgy - a flax-and-rubber flex that's now held together by the flax and definitely best not flexed. It still works, slightly more noisily than the made-in-China one, but it looks much better turned off!
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 14:23 GMT
Andyman
More wind! #
If you put one in front of the other would it have 15 x 15 effect? In fact could you put a chain of them together and use it to fire balls at people? In fact Is this what the LHC is - a big ring of Dysons?
Megaphone - cos Bart from The Simpsons did the same thing with these.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 15:56 GMT
Anonymous Coward
"Paying more for a Dyson vacuum is understandable" #
It is?
Lemme think - looks like a primary school kid's drawing; looks like a bag of crap (well, not a bag, but...) as soon as you use it for the first time; a truly unenviable record of reliability - and still over twice the price of the nice, friendly, smiley, made-in-Britain Henry.
Just ask yourself how many builders and hotels use Dysons, and how many use Henrys.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 15:56 GMT
Bo Pedersen
Thought this was a PC Desktop Fan :) #
200 quid, well I suppose its only like buying a dualit toaster! :)
yes I originally thought of a fantastic new way to cool my "Fryup all round" Phenom II 965BE
then again maybe a steadier airflow would suit it.
hit 76C today when testing Bad Company 2 :)
now back to the footie :)
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 15:57 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Most overpriced product in existence? #
Used one of these for quite a while now. Noisy, and the donut shaped airflow is just weird compared to a conventional fan. You have to be some considerable distance away before the airflow is less, err, donutty, so on that basis not a good desk fan. Unless of course you're Alan Sugar and have a desk that's bigger than most houses.
Simply mind boggling that they're 10 to 20 times the price of a normal fan. Really. They'd be overpriced at a quarter of the rrp.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 15:59 GMT
G R Goslin
Nothing new, here #
Like all of Dyson's "innovative" ideas, there is nothing new here. The principle has been about for many years, mainly in industrial environments. The snag is that you have to put a lot of energy into the entraining air supply, and consequently lots of noise. The better desk fans are the large ones, since there is little noise from the low velocity blades
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 00:02 GMT
Fraser
Yup... #
I always wondered how he managed to patent a cyclone vacuum cleaner, what with it being based on industrial cyclones used to clean air. I mean, that's pretty much the same as someone patenting a desktop PC when Mainframes were the only thing available.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 20:03 GMT
Anonymous Coward
the cool sound of a fighter jet, all day, no thanks. #
For 200 squids I would suggest popping down to your local Argos and buying one of the many Sub-200 squid Air Conditioners, get a cheap extension cable, wheel it under your desk and enjoy a quieter and much cooler self, more than this Dyson gimmick could ever achieve.
Recent research on sleeping well, highlighted how the oscillating sound of a traditional fan is quite calming and can help one drift into deep sleep. Dyson's fighter jet sound completely makes it unusable and irritating.
This product is just is a purer example of deign over function.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 20:08 GMT
edwoodjnr
What if ... #
the shit hits the Dyson Fan?
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 20:08 GMT
Anonymous Coward
When my landlord told me he was selling the house.. #
He said he was having a house clearance, and I could take anything I wanted before that.
I took the Henry.
I'm not as mad as the woman on the video here though: http://www.numatic.co.uk/
I don't talk to it/him. Much.
Posted Wednesday 23rd June 2010 20:11 GMT
Si 1
I've got one #
I bought a brand new one on eBay relatively cheaply last month. Maybe mine is broken but I find it to be unbearably loud even on the lowest setting and in terms of airflow I don't think it's much better than your average £29.99 job from Currys.
It's great to look at and is an interesting talking point, but I certainly wouldn't recommend one to anyone unless you need to make a fashion statement.
Our Dyson vacuum and dustbuster are also incredibly loud. I wouldn't mind Dyson turning his inventive mind towards keeping the performance but cancelling out the noise of his devices.
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 00:01 GMT
Stuart Halliday
Dude get cool #
If you have to ask the price then you're not cool enough to own one. :-)
Wait 10 years when the patent expires and they'll be on sale for £5.99 everywhere.
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 00:02 GMT
Fraser
Hmm... #
Surely this is just a venturi? My (Victorian) chimney has one of them, albeit in reverse, to help suck the smoke out.
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 06:58 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Maybe not a jet engine... #
"the cool sound of a fighter jet, all day, no thanks."
Would it be extravagant to use a Merlin with prop to cool the office down?
I could listen to that all day.
A large office with £200 fans on each desk could quickly add up to the cost of the Spitfire engine, and that would be enough to cool everyone! You wouldn't want to put your hands near it like the Dyson...
Posted Thursday 24th June 2010 06:58 GMT
Anton Ivanov
Can El Reg do their research properly #
The way air is "multiplied" here is NOT Dyson innovation, it is a Remington one. Its first appearance in a consumer product was in the Remington Vortex hair drier about 12 years ago. Dyson may have changed the design slightly to make it into a shiny Dyson toy, but that is about it. That is besides the fact that similar principles have been used in turbines for 40+ years.
Innovations some other time. More like misleading marketing about being innovative. It is not the first time either. There are other examples - the Airblade (same design shipped by Mitsubishi for years) and so on.
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