Look ma, no fans! The Dyson Air Multiplier

If you love gadgets as much as I do, this is definitely something you are going to want to check out. The Dyson air multiplier is yet another example of why I love Dyson as a company. James Dyson takes ugly boring old technologies and turns them on their heads, to become both more stylish and efficient. First he reinvented the vacuum, now he reinvents the fan.

The Dyson Air Multiplier is a powerful way to circulate air. It hides the moving blades within a rotating base, so that they aren’t affected by dust or potentially harmful to fingers. Then, where the blades are normally located, a ring blows out a mind-bending circular gust of air that expands into a full cylinder in a matter of feet. All in all, the air multiplier is as functional as it is useful. You will intrigue many friends as they stick their hand through the ring and wonder how it works.

When I think about a fan, my imagination conjures up images of either a fan cage that I fit into my window or a standing fan in a big white cage–both unattractive and ultimately unsuccessful ways to circulate air around a closed space. There are a few reasons for that. Firstly, traditional fans have exposed blades that slice into the ambient air, pushing the sliced air forward. But by slicing and scooping up the air, the blades also stop the natural flow of the air from behind the blade from moving forward–giving you spurts of scooped up air. Secondly, because the blades of traditional fans generally have to be exposed to slice and scoop up the air, the blades collect dust when the fan is not in use. But most importantly, the exposed blades leave traditional looking fans looking as old as the Wright brother’s first plane.

How it works: Let’s start by correcting our first statement to mom, there are fans–kind of. The base houses a special kind of fan called an impeller that can spin faster than traditional blades. The impeller sucks up and accelerates air upwards into the ring, where it is funneled out the front of the device into a continuous un-chopped circular stream of air. As the ring of air is pushed out it drags the air around it, pulling air from within the empty ring to create a larger and fuller cylindrical gust.

Function: To test if the ring was a function or gimmick I set both it and my window fan side by side and preformed a very non-scientific “see how it feels” test.  However, it should be noted that it was really a two against one, because my window fan has to fans. From about 8 feet out, they both felt equally as powerful. But from about 14 feet away, I could only feel the air multiplier; I could barely feel the normal window fan–showing the Dyson’s increased range.

Design: You can’t deny the sexiness of the multiplier. It is made out of a brushed black plastic and has a deep blue ring interior. Unlike a fan where only the fan head rotates while the body stays fixed, when the multiplier is set to rotate the whole base rotates with it. This simple design change makes the movement of the multiplier more fluid. Instead of large moving parts shifting in relation to one another, the entire device rotates in a single motion. In addition, the lack of exposed moving fan blades is not only curiosity building to viewers, it also enhances the safety of pets and children.

Price: A hefty $299 price tag for a sexy and useful gadget, perfect for small apartments in the coming warm days.

Available now at: www.amazon.com