It’s that time of the year again when people living in and around Delhi-NCR are gasping for air. The AQI is up and up again, with many parts of the area seeing levels going above 500. As I write this piece, looking out of the glass window, I see a blanket of smog dulling sunlight even at 1PM. As it happens, a lot of us who can afford to, often turn on our air purifiers in this season. Or we end up getting one. An air purifier in a polluted city has become as important as a room heater in cold cities. This time around, just like it was last year, I am using the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 hoping to keep the air in my room breathable.
Now, Dyson is one option. But it is expensive, something I said in my review last year. You can read it here: Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 Review: Makes Delhi Livable in the Middle of Winter Pollution.
The key question, as we again deal with increased air pollution, is this: should you get a less-pricier air purifier or should you go for something like a Dyson, which is going to be more expensive. And if you get something like Dyson, does it justify its price in some way or other? My long-term experience with the Purifier Cool Gen1 has been that it does.
As much as the Purifier Cool Gen1 made my life liveable last winter, its utility for me did not stop once the smog had gone away. In fact, unlike some other seasonal appliances — the room heater for example — the Cool Gen1 never went back into its box. It stayed working throughout the four seasons. And throughout all four seasons and monsoon this machine has helped me keep my indoor air clean. This makes, in my opinion, worth splurging on it, especially for someone living in a highly polluted city with respiratory issues like I have. Why do I say that? Let me explain:
Beyond winter and into summer and spring
In an area like Delhi-NCR, the utility of an air purifier is apparent in winter. But I realised that even when the Winter ended in February, with air seemingly clearer and sun golden, the Cool Gen1 continued to provide good utility. Each time I turned it on, it made me aware of the polluted indoor air. The purifier revealed pollutants like pollen, recording them through its sensors and displaying them in a small LCD screen.
You see, in summer, we Indians often open windows and doors for ventilation. But in cities, instead of fresh air, we mostly get vehicle emissions. Summer and then spring are also nature’s time to reproduce, so there’s an influx of bees, along with pollen. As someone with a tendency for allergic reactions and mild breathing issues, pollens from blooming flowers are never fun for me. Then in this season there are occasional sandstorms, raising crazy amounts of dust to make things worse.
In summer and spring I often found that even though AQI outside the room and house was under 200 — good enough for a city like Delhi, terrible for anywhere else — inside it was often close to 300 and sometimes even 350–400 if I had friends over or someone was smoking. Solution? I often kept the Cool Gen 1 running. It cleaned the air, and on days when summer air wasn’t excessively hot, it even provided a somewhat cool breeze.
Into monsoon, autumn and winter
With summer winding down, I expected monsoon rain to clean the city air. Up to an extent it did. On days when there were fewer clouds, I could see the blue of the sky, which is a rare sight in an otherwise grey city like Delhi-NCR. But rain brings its own trouble for me. This again is somewhat linked to my allergies. The increased humidity brings mold, which adds pollutants and spores to the indoor air. There is something weirdly dirty about humid and heavy air during monsoon. Indoors, this air makes rooms smell and feel suffocating, particularly when particles from kitchen cooking — deep frying pakoras and parathas — add to it. There were days when I recorded indoor pollution at as high as 800 to 999 AQI.
Yet again I realised just how useful the Cool Gen1 was for me. I literally reached for my inhaler fewer times this year, had fewer attacks that would otherwise require me to nebulise myself. For me that alone justified the cost of the Cool Gen1 because not only it was effective in dealing with the indoor pollutants but was also a great help in showing me that air needed to be cleaned by collecting data through its sensors. Because if I had just gone by how the outside air would seem I would get the impression that air was clean.
With the monsoon over, it was time again for the “pollution season” to officially start in Delhi-NCR. Keeping air clean in this season is the bread and butter of any good air purifier. The Dyson Cool Gen1, as mentioned in the review earlier, does a commendable job of making air breathable.
What about the running cost?
Now, as I have mentioned several times, the Dyson Cool Gen1 is expensive compared to others. Although it also has a design that is sleeker, better and definitely easier on my eyes. It’s round the year performance also makes me happy because throughout the year it never glitched. It was running relatively silent and efficiently in winter last year. And it is doing the same now.
It also, surprisingly, hasn’t required a change of filters yet. I was expecting its filters to last some six months. But after months of regular use, the air purifier has not yet signalled a need for a change. Although if you live in dusty areas like Rajasthan or have pets, your experience with the life of filters may vary.
But more than the cost, or the overall quality of the air purifier, for me it is the simplicity and reliability of the Cool Gen1 that has been its most impressive part. As someone extra sensitive to polluted air it has been in so many ways an appliance that has made a tangible difference to my quality of life. That for me is worth its high-price.
At Rs 32,900, the Cool Gen1 is a big investment but after using it for over a year, I feel it is a solid choice and worth the money. Although, there’s one drawback — the Cool Gen 1 releases cool air, which might not be ideal for winter. I found myself moving it away in some corner during the colder months. But Dyson has recently launched a Hot+Cool Gen 1 model, which solves this issue. Of course, that is priced higher and demands a fresh premium.
