Dyson Purifier Cool PC1 review

The Dyson Purifier Cool PC1 is a good buy for one kind of person: someone who wants a cooling fan in the room anyway and would like it to clean the air the rest of the year. At $399.99 from Dyson it is a cheaper entry to the same idea the TP07 sold for more. What it still won't give you is a published clean-air rating, so anyone shopping for a large room should look at an AHAM-rated machine instead.

What replaced the TP07, and what carried over

Dyson's US store has dropped the TP07, and the PC1 now holds its place as the plain Purifier Cool. The formula is familiar. A single cartridge combines a sealed 360-degree Glass HEPA H13 layer, which Dyson says captures 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns, with activated carbon aimed at odors and gases including VOCs. Built-in sensors drive an auto mode, and the MyDyson app handles the rest.

The headline change is the price. The TP07 typically sold for $450 to $550, while Dyson lists the PC1 at $549.99 and sells it for $399.99. That $50 to $150 saving doesn't make it a bargain purifier, but it takes some of the sting out of paying for a fan you were going to buy separately.

How big a room can it handle?

This is the question Dyson doesn't answer in a form you can check. There is no AHAM CADR for the PC1, so the site's usual sizing rule (smoke CADR times 1.55) has nothing to work with. Dyson relies on its own whole-room testing, which can't be lined up against the numbers other brands publish. Our CADR explainer covers why that standard figure matters.

In practice, treat the PC1 as a bedroom, office or small living-room machine and assume nothing beyond that. If you need to clean an open-plan space of 500 sq ft or more, the Levoit Core 600S is rated at 391 CFM for smoke, which works out to about 606 sq ft, and the Blueair Blue Pure 211i Max reaches 435 CFM, or roughly 674 sq ft. Both cost less than the Dyson. Run your measurements through the room-size calculator if you're unsure which side of that line you're on.

Living with a fan that purifies

The fan is the reason to choose this machine. It has 10 airflow speeds and oscillates through 350 degrees, so on a hot night it can sweep a breeze across a whole room rather than one fixed spot. It cools only; there is no heating element, so it won't help in January the way Dyson's Hot+Cool models do.

The flip side is that a purifier designed to throw air at people will, by design, throw air at people. In cooler months you may prefer a box purifier that sits quietly in a corner. Dyson also publishes no decibel figures for the PC1, so a light sleeper can't compare its low speed with the 19 to 26 dB floors that Coway and Levoit list for their bedroom models.

Physically it is a 41.3-inch tower that weighs 10.4 lb on an 8.7-inch base. That slim footprint suits a corner beside a desk or bed better than a wide cabinet would.

The app and voice control

MyDyson shows live air quality, sets schedules, warns when the filter is nearly spent and reports which pollutants the machine has captured. Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri can all run it by voice, which is handy when the tower is across the room. None of this adds clean air, but it is the most polished control setup among the purifiers we cover, and the scheduling makes the auto mode easier to live with.

Filter cost and three years of ownership

There is one filter to buy, and it is $79.99 at Dyson. Dyson says to replace it every 12 months or sooner if the machine asks, so plan on about $80 a year.

Three years of ownership come to $399.99 plus three filters ($239.97), or about $640. Electricity is left out because Dyson publishes no wattage for the PC1, and any estimate would be a guess. For comparison, the Levoit Core 600S comes to roughly $460 to $500 over the same period on purchase and filters, with a published CADR on top. The PC1 is not the cheap option; it is the cheaper Dyson.

When the PC2 De-NOx is worth the step up

Dyson sells a sibling, the Purifier Cool PC2 De-NOx, for about $700 on Amazon. It adds formaldehyde destruction and nitrogen dioxide capture. Those matter in a home with new furniture or fresh renovation work (formaldehyde) or a gas stove (NO2). For dust, pollen, pet dander and smoke particles, the PC1's H13 filter covers the same ground for about $300 less.

Where to buy it

Amazon doesn't stock the PC1 itself; the listing there comes from a third-party seller at around $532, well above Dyson's own price. Buying direct from Dyson gets you the $399.99 price and the 2-year limited warranty without any doubt about who is selling it.

Is it the right one for you?

Buy the PC1 if you want one tower that cools in summer and filters year-round, you value the app and voice control, and the room is a bedroom or office rather than a big open space. Skip it if clean air per dollar is the whole point: the Coway Airmega Mighty2 covers about 372 sq ft for $230 to $270 with a rated 19 dB floor, and the Levoit Core 600S handles a much larger room for about $100 less than the Dyson. And if formaldehyde or gas-stove fumes are your actual worry, the PC2 De-NOx is the Dyson built for that.