Air Multiplier

After the vacuum cleaner without bag, Dyson has now given us the fan without blades. No joke!

Dyson's Air Multiplier is a fan made from a large, empty ring (that blows). On first sight it's pretty surprising: we're so used to the wire frame and blades that it's hard to believe this device does the same job. It looks like... magic. Moreover, Dyson have produced a very nice looking object with a successful plastic - not metal - finish. It comes in two colours: white or grey. It's difficult not to want to touch the thing, to tilt it (it slides around quite easily, though this could be smoother still) and put your hands on the ring ("loop amplifier" in Dyson speak). We found ourselves approaching it quite cautiously: when it's on, can you really put your hand though the loop? Yes and without any risk of damage to yourself or the fan.

A device that satisfies on two levels then: more handsome and safer. Though of course, on reflection, none of us know many people who have had their fingers damaged in a fan*, do we? No doubt parents will see the Air Multiplier as a perfect solution for use around children but you have to wonder to what extent this bears up in reality?

In any case, once you've turned the Air Multiplier on you can adjust throughput via a central knob, start automatic rotation and incline it. Just like a standard fan then, except that a standard model, such as the Bodner & Mann that we have here, costs ten times less for a similar sized device. We did compare them all the same...

At the Dyson press conference, Lord Dyson himself described his product as much more effective than the competition because it delivers a smooth continuous flow without buffetting, maintaining at the same time - according to him - noise levels as low as others.

A mess across two rooms: the tests

We had a play around with the fans. We placed ourselves opposite them in a large room then in the coridor. We honestly couldn't say which is better. The Dyson does propel the air straighter than the other, which is a bit all over the place, but for both of them, in good conditions (without obstacles, in an empty corridor), beyond 7 metres we didn't feel any effect. We tried floating pieces of paper on the air streams and so on - a magnificent lab test!
 

Next we wanted to make things a little more difficult: what if we put some cocao in front of them? And some cereal, and rice? We got the stuff everywhere and spread chocolate across two floors of the building. The Mitsubishi sales people who'd come by to show us their range of projectors were in stitches! We had a good time but the fans were again on a par, projecting our test materials between 1 and 6 metres depending on the density of what was used (rice/cocoa).

Equal in terms of air speed. What about noise levels?

Dyson calls its product quiet, or at least the same as the competition. Is this really the case? No. Is this part of the brand identity? Their vacuums are revolutionary but noisy; the same goes for this Air Multiplier, which goes up to 59 dB while our standard fan stayed under 50 dB. To give you an idea, the standard fan makes the same amount of noise as an ink jet multifunction printer, while the Dyson is on a par with a laser printer or a "quiet" bag vacuum.
 

Energy Consumption: higher or lower than normal?

We started ou the Bodmer fan.  Our basic £20 model uses 28 W when it's at its lowest setting, and 38 W when it's going at full speed.  That might not sound much but it's twice as much as power as an inkjet printer would use, and close to what you'd expect a laptop to need.

We tried it with another fan we had lying around, this time an upright one.  We found similar results, but it did a much worse job of moving the air around.
 

So what about the Dyson then?  Lord Dyson claims that it has 'normal' energy consumption, and doesn't use any more energy than a normal fan.  He's actually being incredibly modest: the Air Multiplier is actually incredibly energy efficient.

At the lowest setting, the Air Multiplier is loud enough to produce 51 dB of noise—but only needs 9 W, a lot less than our other fans.  In practice, that means you can put it to work, stirring the air up a little, with a perfectly acceptable noise level but enough movement so you can ell it's working.

When you turn it up to its maximum speed, then the Dyson Air Multiplier gorges itself on 28 W—or as much as our cheap Bodner fan did at its minimum setting!

From the maximum setting, we turned it down gradually until it was quiet enough for us to be able to leave it running.  That was at 54 dB, where you can certainly feel the airflow, but the energy consumption is anything but unacceptable at just 14 W.  That's a great performance, and entirely in keeping with how Dyson's hoovers work: they do at least as well as their competitors, if not better, while using less energy (and producing more noise).

Great for hot air!

When you think fan, you tend not to think of this aspect: Mr Dyson also tells us that his fan can be placed in front of a heat source in winter to diffuse heat around the room.
 

While the tests above weren't convincing, here we were impressed. The Air Multiplier sources a good part of its air from behind the central loop. It's almost impossible to feel the suction, but it's there. When we placed the Air Multiplier beside our radiator, it turned itself into an astonishing and powerful heat source! The little Bodner is of course incapable of such exploits. Very practical for heating up a room rapidly!

* I have a confession to make, I did get myself caught in a fan once. In a ceiling model... It was all Indiana Jones... Only joking. In fact, the hotel bed was so high and the mattress so thick that I couldn't resist trying it out as a trampoline. Then the fan struck! Nothing broken thankfully, except my pride!