James Dyson's newest creation: the Dyson Air Multiplier (without Fan Blades) | Hacker News Reader

James Dyson's newest creation: the Dyson Air Multiplier (without Fan Blades)

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88 pointscwan48 comments

Dyson does it again. Its a plain old coanda air mover like we've had in the paint shop for 20 years. Dress it up, go on and on about super-duper patented technology and resell a freakin' fan for $300. He's definitely brilliant (for some value thereof).

Edit: Here's one. They look like this:

http://www.thermofluids.co.uk/mover.php

Surely his next step on this path is the Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coandă_effect

Old technology. You can buy a range of such things from industrial suppliers like McMaster. http://www.mcmaster.com/#air-amplifiers/=41ls8s. They tend to be loud and inefficient, but useful in dirty environments where fan blades would get damaged.

Is there a consumer fan application of this already as well?

edit: hmm, it has a fan as noonespecial says. So I guess that is almost a non-question

I wonder if you can get a CPU cooler out of this? An extremely sexy, very high priced one, of course.

There's nothing at all fancy about an air mover like this. You can make one on a lathe in about 20 minutes with a few bits of roundstock scrap. You do still need an air source to use it. In this dyson thing, there's just a hidden blower in the base. In a computer, it would allow you to use a much larger, separate source to cool your cpu, which could be useful. It would rock even more to use a vortex cooler...

Edit: Doh! Cited above while I was typing! Great minds and all that yap...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube

wow if it actually has a blower in it then it's pretty much pure gimmick! Thanks for outing this!

edit: I should qualify my skepticism by saying that the vacuum cleaners are amazing and if I had carpets I'd own one.

How is it "outing" if the promotional materials explain how the device works?

I believe the idea is that the airflow created is far more than the blower itself provides. In other words, while it may not be original, it's not just a gimmick.

Well, the blower is hidden in the base. At least that means you don't have to see the dusty fan blades. (Add a filter, so that you can sell consumables.)

What's amazing about them? Consumer Reports never rates them that highly.

Try one. First vacuum the carpet with your current vacuum, etc. Then proceed to run the Dyson over the carpet and watch it fill up with all sorts of disgusting detritus that the other vacuum missed.

Actually Dyson usually rates far higher in consumer tests than bagged vacuums, and it usually rates slightly higher than most bag-less vacuums.

Vacuum ratings are generally low to begin with, yet still get purchased. All portable vacuum cleaners fall flat on their face in terms of convenience compared with central vac, however not many people are stupid enough to pay thousands of dollars for a slight improvement in convenience.

Having had both central vac and a Dyson luggable, I vastly prefer the Dyson. Carrying around the 30 feet of tubing for the central vac was hardly convenient at all.

During F1 races in hot climates you can see people blowing air into the car and the driver's helmet with a vortex tube on the end of a shop air line.

The big Stargate-esque ring is sexy in a particular way that screams, "sell tons to the gotta-be-first crowd!"

It doesn't have to be high priced - it's just a loop with a slot in it for air to blow through.

Yes, but with the right design and marketing, you could probably make bit of money from the idea. Seems to be Dyson's plan.

Wow.

Anything that brings my dirty, chaotic, and often-frustrating existence closer to the orderly, bright, and shiny world of the Jetsons: +1

Can he fix my fucking Roomba next? It rolled through a stray cat turd again.

Sorry, not even Jetsons technology can solve cat-related problems.

Actually, right in the opening of The Jetsons, aren't there a few hitherto-unknown pet-related problems?

Zappa?

I have waste collection, timed feeding and water delivery mechanized for both my cats. The devices just need maintenance every 4 days or so.

Is that you, Doc Brown?

Install this as a doggy-door, cat leaves and can't get back inside?

The Dyson Airblade hand dryer is the thing I really like (http://www.dysonairblade.com/homepage.asp). I used it in an airport and it worked great.

Agreed, one of the malls near me has it . . . however they then go and have a push door on the men's lavatory, which is just asinine.

It works amazingly well though, especially compared to a traditional hand dryer, in that you can actually feel it push the water off your hands.

I agree. I used it in a restaurant.

As I sit here, looking at the dirty fan blades inside the cheap plastic fan we have next to our bed, I realize this man has the resources and business genius to see opportunity where I only see annoyance.

Keep in mind that this device still has a fan in it. He just calls it an "impeller" and hides it in the base. Its still a blower with blades. The fancy wing shape circle is just a duct to direct the blower's air stream out the top.

he should just replace the hidden fan with a smaller version of the air amplifier... and then have another smaller air amplifier for the blower in the blower, eventually he could minimize it into an ultra tiny electrostatic air mover.

Yeah, I didn't quite grasp how turning a small volume of fast moving air into a larger volume of slow moving air maps to the concept of "amplification" either.

It's turtles all the way down!

Do we still need to worry about particle buildup becoming kindling?

No. thanks to the efficient new design, death will be instantaneous.

Wow... which means that dust will accumulate in the impeller.

Where you can't reach it with a duster.

Then again, my dirty fan only cost $20 (2 meters high fan, made in China).

A better introduction to the device:

http://gizmodo.com/5379890/dyson-air-multiplier-review-makin...

"Supposedly this new design not only eliminates the need for fan blades"

No idea what a "mixed flow impeller" is, but on the picture it very much looks like it's just a fan in the base of the device.

But hey, it's the same technology used in jets. Effectively, you can put your own jet in your house for less than 2000$.

Just spray propane into the air intake in the base and light up the air outlet in the fan apparatus . . . I'm sure it would be safe.

It seems kind of odd for a UK company to launch a table fan at the start of our winter. Summer's been so hot here too - I'm sure they'd have made a killing if they'd got this in the shops 6 months ago. Alas, this is the kind of novelty product that, by the time it gets next summer, everyone will have realized is a bit crap and overpriced.

Adding a heater would be an interesting mod.

Just put propane into the air intake and light the exhaust, instant afterburner . . . possibly instant death too if you sit on the wrong side of it, or if you set your propane tank on fire.

But now all the other lower priced fans are off the shelf. Nothing to compare prices against.

I'm pretty sure it's easy to realize $300 for a table fan is pricey even without being able to check out a bunch of other choices.

The headline should read: Dyson kills Darth Vader.

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