Key features
- Type: Air purifier
- Range: up to 100sq m / 1,076sq ft
- Filters: HEPA H13, K-Carbon, SCO
The Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde was unleashed in the middle of last year, promising to be the British brand’s quietest yet most powerful purifier.
The latest Dyson flagship purifier not only has a big name and a big form factor, but also a big price tag – coming in at £879.99 in its native UK, and $1,099 Stateside.
If you’re keeping track you’ll know that the Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde isn’t the British tech giant’s first foray into ridding our air of formaldehyde, with the likes of the Purifier Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde and Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde coming before it.
However, the engineers at Dyson have done some tweaking and the Big+Quiet blows its stablemates out of the water with double the airflow, with up to 87 litres of airflow per second of purified air over 10 metres.
And (on the models priced as above, at least) there’s also a new CO2 sensor in the mix now as well.
I’ve had the Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde cleaning the air in my open plan kitchen for a few weeks now, read on for my full review…
Design, components and setup
- Heavy, at 12kg, but moves on wheels
- Gold and blue design is very bold
Okay, let me get straight to point. You want to know just how big the Big in Big+Quiet is don’t you? It’s very, very big.
Standing 83cm tall, and around 45cm in depth (and weighing a whopping 12kg) you’re going to need plenty of space to house this absolute monster.
Look, Dyson used Big in the name; it isn’t trying to hide the fact that this isn’t your average air purifier. It’s a whopper. A brute. A behemoth.
But I kind of like it, especially because hasn’t exactly held back on with the blue and gold colorway either. It’s designed to be seen, and seen it will be.
You can’t hide it away, and nor would you want to; Dyson suggests placing it in the edge of a room, a metre from the wall with the conic amplifier (the big round spaceship bit up top) pointing at the furthest point away in the area you’re looking to purify.
The good news is that, if you do want to move it around, it has wheels on it so it’s easy to slide about, especially on hard floors. You can’t see these wheels at all when it’s standing still, so it doesn’t affect the aesthetic.
Starting with the conic amplifier and it easily clicks into place with a simple placement and turn. When you need to pop it off – to change the filters, for example, there’s a little hidden slider button that pops back to release it.
Unlike the dome we’ve seen on the likes of the Dyson Pure Cool, the round bit in the middle doesn’t move around; the air flow is controlled by the new cone dynamics, which I’ll get to in a bit.
In that big, very big, base is where Dyson is hiding all of the parts that are really running the show; i.e. the filters.
The outer mesh, which contains a magnetic patch to store the (incredibly blingy) gold remove control, simply slides up to reveal the first of the filters; the HEPA one which is H-13 rated (aka as high as the ratings go).
Unlike previous Dyson models, the HEPA filter (below) is now one continuous part – rather than two halves – and it has a shelf life of five years.
Next up is the K-Carbon filter (below), which wraps around the permanent hardware, and needs changing every couple of years or so.
The final filter, the Selective Catalytic Oxidation (SCO) filter is built right in, and is built to last – this is the one you never need to change.
Once you get the Big+Quiet out of the box it’s ready to go; just plug in and use the remote to get started.
However, to make the most of your Dyson Big+Quiet, you’ll want to get it singing and dancing within the MyDyson app.
This only takes a minute or two, using an iPhone or Android handset and the good news is that it will register your product with Dyson at the same time and activate your two-year warranty.
Features
- HEPA filter now 3.8x bigger
- SCO filter traps Formaldehyde
- K-Carbon filter on board for NO2 and more
Like all of Dyson’s recent purifiers, the Big+Quiet is designed to detect and eliminate all the nasties from your indoor air, capturing allergens and 99.95% of ultrafine particles and removing gases and odors from the air too.
The suite of built in sensors can detect a wide range of common pollutants, such as dust, pet dander, pollen, CO2, NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) from vehicle emissions and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from aerosol sprays like deodorants.
Of course, as you probably guessed from the name, Formaldehyde detection is also on board. It might not be a concern you’ve got but Formaldeyde is found in a range of things you’ve already got in your home, including woods, glues, paints, varnishes, air fresheners, mattresses, household cleaners, and even some fabrics found in flooring and furniture.
Elevated levels of formaldehyde exposure pose health risks, contributing to respiratory issues and the challenge intensifies in tightly sealed spaces, where pollutants are confined, exacerbating the potential health hazards.
All of these pollutants have the potential to cause major health issues but the good news is that the Big+Quiet doesn’t just detect them, it kills them too.
Thanks to the new Cone Aerodynamics, the Big+Quiet is capable of delivering a powerful 10-meter projection, using a Coanda effect to merge two streams of air over a smooth surface; you can choose the angle you want this jet of air projected at using the remote control or the app, at angles of 0, 25 or 50 degrees.
A very, very basic explanation is that the Dyson sucks in all of the bad air in a room and projects clean air back into your living space.
It does this, via those filters that I mentioned before, all of which have particular jobs to do when it comes to trapping the bad stuff.
That HEPA filter is capable of 99.95% of particle pollutants, including dust and allergens as small as 0.1 microns.
The K-Carbon filter is onboard for things like benzene and NO2 capture and it’s the SCO filter, which is made up of billions of atom-sized tunnels, that breaks down formaldehyde molecules into tiny amounts of water and CO2.
In use
The Big+Quiet is designed to purify in spaces up to 100m2, so if you have an open plan area like I do – my kitchen, dining room and living room are all joined – then it can blast out an entire floor with room to spare.
Rather than an annoying fan feeling, the effect of the stream of air is more like a natural breeze. Dyson tells us that this is thanks to 3-axis ultrasonic anemometer across 8 different locations that study the shape and frequency of gusts of wind.
If you stick the word ‘Quiet’ in the name, there’s a lot of pressure to keep the noise levels low. And while the machine isn’t silent – particularly when on the highest setting, the loudest noise is around 56 decibels.
It’s much, much quieter than the many other Dyson purifiers and fans that I’ve tested.
The best way to control the Big+Quiet is via the MyDyson app. This is the same app that all of your connected Dyson machines live in.
From the app you have the ability to set the speed, angle, timers and schedules; but you also get a much more in-depth overview of your air quality than you’ll see from the LCD display on the machine itself.
I’ve been testing the Big+Quiet in my kitchen over a particularly cold few winter weeks, where we’ve definitely been opening windows less than usual.
On days where we have the massive Dyson on continuously, on auto mode, that’s not really a problem – our air quality was always reading green across the board, with the occasional spike of yellow if the cooker is put on (or one of the kids, but never me, farts near it).
However, on days where we have left the unit powered down for a period of time, it’s pretty shocking how quickly that air quality reading goes from ‘good’ to ‘fair’, or even worse… ‘low.’
The CO2 sensor and reading was particularly shocking on this aspect, especially one afternoon when we had a few visitors round, all sitting around in the kitchen.
However, it only takes a quick few minutes blast of the Big+Quiet to get everything back to ‘green’ levels. We’ve found that just leaving the machine set to ‘auto’ is the easiest way to keep our air pure, although whacking the fan speed up to 10 when we have had yellow or red spikes is a great option too.
The Big+Quiet is also great, because of the way it circulates your air, at helping to eliminate smells; my wife is super fussy about any smells in the house that aren’t expensive candle aromas, and she’s commented a few times about how quickly it eliminates cooking odors and the like.
You can use the remote control to not only control the device, think speed, angle, timer and so on, but to also scroll through what is displayed on the little LCD screen.
The LCD screen makes it easy to see what your air quality is like, using icons like flowers, a chemistry beaker and a car to differentiate between things like pollen, VOCs and NO2s. If you pause on those screens you’ll be presented with you actual reading.
As well as all of the headline monitoring and purifying, the Big+Quiet can also do the basics like temperature and humidity monitoring too; although there’s no dedicated heating or cooling, nor humidifying on offer with the Big+Quiet; you’ll want the Dyson Purifier Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde or the Hot+Cool Formaldehyde if you need those features.
The LCD screen also has a nice indicator on how much life is left in your filters, and a quick animation showing you how to remove them.
Final thoughts
The Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde is a monster of a machine, not just in terms of the form factor but also on the features list too.
There’s not an air purifier to rival Dyson’s latest flagship in terms of what is detected and captured, although you will have to pay a pretty heavy premium to get this extremely high level of air cleaning in your household.
How we test
When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of âliving withâ long term tests.
Air purifiers usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that â supposedly â all work in harmony. And they are designed to offer a range of different options. Therefore, itâs impossible to use a machine for a week and deliver a verdict.
Because weâre testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart cleaning machine compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.
Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.
Read our guide on how we test to learn more.
FAQS
Does the Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde heat?
No, it’s not a heater but Dyson do have purifiers in its range that can heat (or cool) a space.
How quiet is the Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde?
56 decibels is the stated noise level.
Is the Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde available cheaper?
There is a Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde model that doesn’t have the CO2 sensor, which is £699 in the UK.
