Dyson launches Pure Cool Link air purifier, a fan that cleans the air in people’s houses

The fan also marks the British company’s first foray into the internet of things in the UK, with an app that lets people monitor how much cleaner the air has got since it went into use

Dyson has launched a new air purifying fan, the Pure Cool Link, which sucks up air around the house and sends it back out without pollutants.

The company says the new fan is an attempt to deal with the problem of polluted air indoors. While outside air has received sustained attention from authorities, indoor air can be five times more polluted and a range of health problems can be caused by the various things found in the air.

But the new fan is also Dyson’s first venture into the connected home in the UK — its 360 Eye robot vacuum also connects to the internet but hasn’t been released outside of Asia yet. The new fan can connect to the internet over Wi-Fi, allowing people to control it remotely but also to check how well it is working, and how polluted the air inside their house is at any given moment or over time.

Those pollutants can come from cleaning products, mould, fibres or animals, all of which the company says will be filtered out by the new Pure Cool Link. While air purifiers are popular in Asia, they are little used in Europe or the US — but Dyson hopes that increasing education about the huge amount of pollutants in the home can also help promote its new cleaning fan.

The impact and extent of indoor pollution is little understood, and research has been much less common than that on pollution outside. But reports have shown that unclean houses can contribute towards premature deaths, and lead to respiratory diseases and problems in the shorter term.

The fan works the same as the rest of Dyson’s fans — creating air circulation without using a blade and instead sending it through a specially-created oval shape. But as it sucks up that air, it sends it through a specially-made HEPA filter, which removes all of the small pollutants of up to 0.1 micron in size.

The company’s new fan costs £450 for the tower version, and £350 for the desk one. It has a replaceable filter inside that costs £50, and is expected to last about a year — that lifespan can be monitored using the Dyson Link app.

That app will eventually be used to control any of Dyson’s internet-connected devices, which will also include the cleaning robot when it is released in the UK in summer. People can also use it to schedule events, meaning that the fan can get ready to clean when the historical data shows that it might be most useful.