Dyson AM06 Desk Fan Review

Cools you off. Makes your wallet sweat.

To be totally honest, I have no idea what would drive someone to buy a $300 desk fan, especially when you can buy one in the range of $20 that gets the job done. Electric fans are just one of those things we don't give much though to anymore; the basic design of them hasn't really changed since the 20th-century primarily because they just work. The maniacs at Dyson however, felt some need to radically redesign the thing into another ludicrously expensive appliance. That being said, it is pretty cool. Literally.


Yeah I know, I'm reviewing a fan. "Looks like he's finally run out of ideas!", you might say. Yet I think this one is interesting enough to warrant a look. The AM06 is Dyson's second version of their Air Multiplier desk fans, and this one is apparently more energy efficient and 75% more quiet than the old one. I have no means of proving this since I never owned the old model but the overall design of the AM06 is very similar to the previous AM01 with it's striking bladeless design that leaves you with a nothing but a large ring that projects the air.

This design has several benefits over standard fans, one of which is cleaning the AM06 is as easy as wiping the ring down. This eliminates much of the dust build up you'd find on a regular fan and does a bit to prevent the spread of allergens. The lack of visible moving parts also means kids can't be injured by anything. This also has the unfortunate downside of no longer being able to talk into the fan and sound like a robot but hey, that's better than some terrible finger injury.

I did find a few downsides to Dyson's overall design however. All of the actual moving parts are in the base which results in the AM06 being kind of bulky, or at least more than your average desk fan. The fan can't be placed on shelves without adequate height clearance so you're pretty much restricted to setting it on open top surfaces. The on-board controls; literally just one button are kind of mediocre too. This button only controls power and speed but changing speeds with this button is a bit of a pain in the ass.

Luckily the packaged remote negates the need to use the stupid on-board button to control the fan, and unlocks it's full set of features. On top of easily being able to control power and speed, you can set the fan to oscillate as well as the sleep time. The sleep timer I think is probably the most novel feature about this fan because you can have the fan power off after a certain amount of time: up to 9 hours so it doesn't remain on and interrupt catching your Z's.

As for how the fan performs, pretty dang good. At it's lowest speed the fan puts out a light breeze and is pretty much dead silent. On it's highest speed the fan puts out a torrent of air that can be felt from a pretty considerable distance though it definitely puts out significantly more noise. I prefer to keep it on about a middle setting, 4 or 5 so it puts out a nice breeze but doesn't make too much noise. As I said earlier I don't know how this compares to the older AM01 or other desk fans in terms of power and noise though the AM06 generally hits around 45dB on the low end and about 60dB on the high.

So while the AM06 does what it sets out to do very well, there is one serious problem with it and that's the price. $300 for something is blow a little or a lot of air in your face. I'm no stranger to Dyson's high costs; my UP14 vacuum retailed at $700 and even at the sale price I got it for, it was still a little more expensive than it's totally capable competition. This fan feels different though because it just feels like it's doing a significantly more trivial task than sucking up every spec of dust in your house. Honestly as cool looking and good performing as the AM06 is, I can't help but feel like a jackass for dropping three Ben Franklin's on a desk fan.

In conclusion, the Dyson AM06 is pretty unique product that feels really hard to justify over anything less expensive. If you just want something to keep you cool every now and then at the house or office, this really doesn't seem like a good investment. However if you value versatility and good looks, then who am I to dissuade you but even if you really want one, I'd wait for a sale. Personally a desk fan in general is kind of useless buy for me in a house with ceiling fans in every room but if I absolutely needed one, I'd probably look to Vornado or some other less expensive brand before Dyson. That being said, the AM06 brings a lot of neat ideas to the table and does good job in executing them, I'm just not sure it's powerful enough to blow away regret.

Summary

• Looks like a piece of art.
• The bladeless design is safer and allows for easy cleaning.
• Can blow a ludicrously low amount of air, or a whole lot.
• The sleep timer setting is pretty dang useful.
• Th remote greatly makes up for how lousy the on-board controls are
• It's kind of tall, which makes some shelves a no go.
• It's $300, which makes it REALLY hard to justify over the vast majority of cheaper fans.
• Did I mention it's $300? I still can't even...