Review: Dyson Cool (AM06)

7.5

Here come the warmer months and that reason to get the old trusty fan out. But before you do, you might want to consider a healthy update of the personal cooling device, as Dyson updates its original air multiplier, making the whole thing quieter than before.

Features

An update to Dyson’s smallest Air Multiplier fan, the Dyson AM06 takes the technology from the previous generation and gives it a much-needed upgrade, finding a way to make the fan quieter, while keeping the technology cool and safe for fingers of little ones.

It also has a new name, with Dyson model names for the AM06, AM07, and AM08 models also being known as the “Dyson Cool,” in line with its “Dyson Hot+Cool” Air Multiplier fans useful for both heating and cooling.

A remote is new to the mix, with a magnet built into it and the top of the fan so you can store it on the fan for safe keeping.

Like the old Air Multiplier, the head can tilt up or down to send the air in different directions, with oscillation built into the fan when the mode is switched on.

Just like the old unit, the plastic construction means the Dyson AM06 is relatively lightweight, and can have the fan head separated from the body, since it is delivered to you this way and has to be assembled from these two parts.

Performance

Dyson’s Air Multiplier technology is an interesting thing.

For those out of the loop with it, it’s a technology that speeds up the air for cooling rather than whipping it into a frenzy and cutting into lots of buffeted pieces for your cooling pleasure.

Unlike conventional fans, the AM series — or “Air Multiplier” for those playing at home — uses a small motor to suck in air from holes at the bottom of the unit, passing it through one of Dyson’s small motors, and sending it back out of the unit faster than before. This process creates faster air, so to speak, cooling the air more than conventional fans and making the whole thing safer by removing the blades in the process, but previously the Dyson units had problems: they were noisy.

From what we understand, it wasn’t an external design problem, but rather an internal one, and that’s something Dyson hopes to have fixed with this model.

Beyond the noise, the original AM01 was relatively light, easy to assemble, and didn’t take up much space at all, and this model — the AM06 — is much the same, managing to feel a smidgeon lighter, and just as easy to assemble out of the box, connecting the plastic pieces to one another by following the easy to remove labels on each side.

Once that’s done, you’re ready to plug it in, switch it on, and get to cooling down, finding out if perhaps Dyson has managed to achieve what the AM01 needed so desperately.

And you know what?

Plugged in and working away, the most obvious thing about the new Dyson model is that it is much, much quieter than the previous model.

Dyson likes to spout figures of it being 75 percent quieter, but all you really need to know is that the Dyson AM06 is so much quieter than its sibling that you’ll actually be able to concentrate on other things while it’s going on.

It’s not really fair to paint the AM01 in the “so loud it’ll frustrate you light” either, as it was the first of its time: a new type of fan that sucked air from the bottom, sped it up through a small motor, and forced it out through the fan-shaped portal that kept these bits inside.

But the new model that is the Dyson AM06 is much quieter, and while you can still hear it, it’s nowhere near the lawnmower that its brother was.

In fact, of the 10 speed levels, you’ll more or less find that up to level 5 (05), the fan is barely noticeable. Crank it up on a hot evening and you can still hear the new model whirr into action, the motor doing its best to suck air in at a high speed and send it back your way faster than before.

To get the fan this quiet, Dyson found a way to map the 3D sound of the fan, and in turn used what’s called a “Helmholtz cavity” at the bottom of the machine to pull back on the tones, reducing the sound, while providing a larger space to stop the airflow from making heavy noises related to turbulence.

The noise from the fan is still higher pitched here than say other fans on the market, and you have that motor to thank, but it is by no means the earache that was the AM01, a brilliant concept that would unfortunately keep you awake on a warm muggy evening due to the sound it made, defeating the point of its operation which was to cool you down and let you get some much needed sleep.

Dyson’s AM06 is that, however, and while we will probably run some music or TV on the background to drown out this sound, the AM06 doesn’t make enough of a whine that we’re likely to pay more than ten seconds worth of attention.