Dyson Pure Cool vs Dyson Pure Cool Me: the Little and Large of the Dyson air treatment roster

Dyson Pure Cool vs Dyson Pure Cool Me. It's a David and Goliath conflict, pitting Dyson against Dyson in a bloody battle for air-movement-based superiority. And with temperatures soaring in the UK, what better time to decide which you should buy. 

Although the first thing we should note is that for some reason, Dyson has decided to rename its taller air purifier fan 'Dyson Purifier Cool', but has not renamed its smaller sibling along similar lines. Nor has it renamed the Pure Cool's successor, the Pure Hot + Cool Formaldehyde as 'Purifier' either. What is one to do in the face of this nomenclature madness? Beats me.

Here’s our in-depth comparison between the tall-standing Dyson Purifier Cool (formerly known as the Pure Cool) and its dumpy stablemate, the desktop-friendly Dyson Pure Cool Me. They're both among the best Dyson fans you can buy and they offer radically differing takes on how to be the best air purifier. In  short, the Pure Cool Me is for personal cooling and purifying. And in long, the Pure Cool is for doing the whole room. But it's a little more complex than that…

As spring turns to another inevitably scorching summer you’re most definitely going to need a fan to keep cool. And what better way to do that than with a model that also cleans the air that you breathe at the same time?

Dyson has a shedload of top-rated fans which you can read about in our Why You Should Buy a Dyson Fan appraisal but we’ve plucked two cooling and air purifying models off the rosy rostrum to see which model is best for the task in hand.

So, without mincing one’s words, let’s strip these babies to the bone and get down to the important business of seeing which one’s best for your specific needs.

Dyson Purifier Cool vs Dyson Pure Cool Me: Design

The average Dyson fan is easy to recognise because there isn’t anything else like it on the planet. Actually, I lied, because I have seen a few Chinese knock-offs that look almost identical from a distance of, say, 20 metres and come with the tackiest remote control ever designed. But we’re not here to promote dodgy clones.

By comparison to the vast majority of fans on the market, both of these models scream affluence and Apple-style elegance. They are unwaveringly well built using top-quality aluminium and plastics and, because they both use Dyson’s unique ‘bladeless’ technology (see Why You Should Buy a Dyson Fan for more info), they are also easy-peasy to keep clean – simply grab a damp cloth and give them a quick wipe.

There’s a world of difference between the sizes of these two machines: the Purifier Cool stands at a height of 105cm and is just 20.4cm in width. It is, to all intents and purposes, a proper fan for sticking in the corner of a large room. By comparison, the Dyson Pure Cool Me is just 40.1cm in height but a shade wider at 25.4cm. It’s the perfect size for a desktop or bedside use which, as the ‘Me’ moniker suggests, is what it was ostensible designed for – to cool the user from just a few feet away.

Dyson Purifier Cool vs Dyson Pure Cool Me: Fan features

Both models feature side to side oscillation: the Pure Cool Me has a range of 70˚ – which is about all you need on a desktop – but the Purifier Cool goes a full 350˚ for full room coverage. It can even be told to port the breeze out of the back instead of the front; something Dyson calls ‘draught-free diffused mode’.

To control oscillation – and indeed pretty much everything else – both units come with really small remote controls that attach to the units via magnetism. Unfortunately, the magnets aren’t terribly strong so it’s quite easy to knock them off. It’s also very easy to misplace them. Which leads me to the only warning you’ll be getting about these otherwise sterling wind blowers. If you lose the remote controller you will, to some degree, be stuffed because both machines rely on them for full functionality, including oscillation, airflow speed and, in the case of the tall purifying model, access to the Auto mode. However, thankfully there’s a rescue package in the form of the Dyson Link app which features the same controls. It just means you will have to have set the app up and link it to your wifi.

A few Dyson fans are able to tilt upwards on their bases which is very useful if you want to direct the airflow towards the face. Unfortunately, the tall Purifier Cool can’t be tilted which is a bit of a bummer. However, the Pure Cool Me’s vertical airflow can be angled very easily by placing a hand on top of the dome and moving it forwards or back. A really nice tactile touch.

Dyson Purifier Cool vs Dyson Pure Cool Me: Air filtration

Where other fans simply keep you cool, these two household stalwarts also purify the air. The Purifier Cool is definitely the better option for wide-scale air cleaning because it can detect the amount of crap in the air and react accordingly. Hence, if you blow a puff of smoke in its direction the intake fan speed will morph from a gentle purr to full blast, cleaning the air in the room in pretty swift shrift. Once the air is cleaned, the fan speed will return to its previous setting. You can even see the state of the room’s air by glancing at the small circular LED display on the front or, better still, reach for the Dyson Connect app which give you much more information, including schedule settings and information on filter life. 

The Dyson Purifier Cool is fitted with a 360° Glass HEPA and Activated Carbon Filter for full surround cleansing – according to Dyson, this air purifier captures 99.95% of particles as small as 0.1 microns while a layer of activated carbon also removes odours and gases including VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds).

The Pure Cool Me, meanwhile, comes with an always-on setting for air purification; in other words it doesn’t feature an automatic sensor mode. Given its size, it won’t clean the air in a room but it will grab the bad stuff from around you, ram it through its activated carbon and glass HEPA filter and blow cleaned air in your face, which is where your nostrils are, unless you’re some weird alien that breathes through its arse, in which case Dyson may have to go back to the drawing board. But I digress.

The upshot is that both of these handsome units will clean the air around you, removing fine particles including, perhaps, some viruses (don’t mention the ’C’ word) in the process. It’s just that one does it on a grand scale while the other is more for personal use while working at a desk or catching a few winks on your Emma Original.

Dyson Purifier Cool vs Dyson Pure Cool Me: wind performance

Both of these models come with 10 fan speeds which is a decent amount of increments for most of us. However it’s pretty obvious that the tall-standing Purifier Cool will have a much stronger blast radius simply because it’s, er, bigger. This strapping brute uses Air Multiplier technology to create an airflow of 290 litres per second. Needless to say you can feel the effect quite easily from a few metres away without having to stick your face in it.

By comparison, the dinky Pure Cool Me uses Core Flow technology (similar to that of the Harrier Jump Jet) to deliver the goods. It’s a highly complex system so I’ll let Dyson explain what the hell is going on inside. In a nutshell, ’high velocity air jets are propelled over a complex dome and as the jets converge, a high-pressure core forms. Forced to steer around it, air coalesces into a focussed flow’. So there you have it. Dyson doesn't list airflow stats for this model but it’s perfectly acceptable for close quarters use. Frankly, any higher and one’s wig would disengage.

Now, it has to be said that noise is a factor with all Dyson fans. Despite the technology to keep the sound down, the mere fact of having air forced through small channels at high pressure is always going to be louder than a simple spinning blade. That said, at speeds less than midway, you can hardly notice they’re working. Slap them into full force 10 though and the decibel count climbs quite considerably, but not unnervingly so. And anyway, the higher-pitched white noise they create could be considered advantageous come bedtime.

Dyson Purifier Cool vs Dyson Pure Cool Me: Verdict

Both of these good looking models perform superbly well but they are naturally designed for use in completely different situations. The much cheaper Pure Cool Me is ideal for desktop and bedside use since it effectively keeps the user cool from a near distance while cleaning the air at the same time. 

The much bigger and more expensive Purifier Cool is the one to opt for if you want to keep the air in an entire room clean as a whistle while benefiting from a constant refreshing breeze. They're both excellent products.

Whichever you decide to buy, make sure you check our Dyson discount codes for a saving.