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Dyson heats up with Hot bladeless fan

Dyson redefines the space heater with its new Hot heater fan that uses the company's Air Multiplier technology to push a steady stream of warm air into a room.

David Carnoy Executive Editor / Reviews
Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He's also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Nook e-books and audiobooks.
Expertise Mobile accessories and portable audio, including headphones, earbuds and speakers Credentials
  • Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column/Consumer
David Carnoy
2 min read
Watch this: Dyson Hot fan heater

In the tech world we're always talking up hot new products, but this is the first time we've gotten to report on a new product that actually is Hot--as in, that's its name.

Yes, Dyson's new bladeless heater fan is simply called Dyson Hot and it uses the company's Air Multiplier technology to push a steady stream of warm air into a room, heating it to temperatures of up to 99 degrees.

"The Dyson Hot fan heater comes in two colors and retails for $399.99 (click to enlarge). Sarah Tew/CBS Interactive

Aside from the easy cleaning aspect of the fan, Dyson is also touting its safety features, as it doesn't have any exposed heating elements and automatically shuts off if tipped over. We've been playing around with it, and what's nice is that you simply set a temperature on the thermostat and the fan will continue pumping out air until the air around the fan hits the desired temperature.

In case you're wondering, the Hot also acts as a standard cooling fan, though not an air conditioner, even though the thermostat goes down to 32 degrees. As we said, it automatically shuts off when the air around it hits the number on the thermostat or rises above it. In other words, if the temperature in the room is 70 degrees and you lower the thermostat to 60, the fan/heater won't turn on.

However, there's a little trick to turning the Hot into a standard fan: you lower the thermostat to 32 degrees, which changes the color of the power button from red to blue and puts the Hot in standard blowing mode sans heat.

You can adjust the air speed from 1-10 and a small remote is included that allows you to raise and lower the thermostat, adjust the air speed, and set the fan to oscillate from afar (the fan also tilts up and down a bit, but you have to shift its angle manually). Another nice touch: the remote is curved and magnetized and adheres to the top of the heater for storage.

The Dyson Hot comes in the iron/blue color you see pictured here as well as a white/silver color. As with all Dyson products, the Hot carries a somewhat chilling price tag, retailing for $399.99. The company's Air Multiplier fans also started out high ($299), but you can now find them online at discounted prices.

Alas, here in New York the temperature is well above 80 degrees, so it's not the best time to test a heater, but it was fun having Hot do battle with Cooley, the air conditioner in our office (no relation to CNET's Brian Cooley). When it got the upper hand, it would automatically shut off, but soon--usually in less than a minute--it fired back up again. Victory was fleeting.