As the first lockdown came into force in early 2020, the UK was united in discussing the measures, in trying to support local communities, and in hoping that the whole thing would be over as soon as possible.

Other trends made themselves known, too. Joe Wicks helped to make PE at home enjoyable, baking banana bread became a legitimate way to fill an empty afternoon, and everyone became acquainted with seeing their faces on the screen thanks to Zoom.

But there were two other threads that ran through that early period last year, both pertaining to air quality. The first: the lack of planes overhead and cars on the road was affecting pollution levels considerably, with the news on that front being resoundingly good. The BMJ reported that patient consultations for asthma execrations halved during the first lockdown, while surface-level nitrogen pollution decreased by a huge 42 per cent.

The second: DIY. The surge in those buying home improvement and gardening products was widely reported, with the sales in 2020 up by 50 per cent on those for the same period during 2019. And while many relished the opportunity to finally paint that bedroom wall or to put up shelves, the positive effect of decreasing pollution might’ve been undone by the DIY work or, rather, by the fumes and dust given off by painting and installing MDF furniture, say.

The indoor pollution caused might have also been compounded by another lockdown trend: candles and room sprays, sales of which grew by 29 per cent last year. These can release carcinogenic toxins including benzene, acrolein, and formaldehyde into the air.

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Enter the Dyson purifier hot + cool formaldehyde, the brand’s new model of purifier (plus fan and heater). It’s designed to clean the air not only of the usual particles picked up by purifiers with a high efficiency particulate absorbing (Hepa) filter, but also to grab all formaldehyde-based resins that come from plywood and fibreboard, insulating materials, paint, wallpaper, varnishes, and some household cleaning products. It continues to off-gas – aka continually release airborne chemicals – until absorbed.

This is no small task: formaldehydes are 500 times smaller than particles of 0.1 microns (10 microns is the limit for the naked eye, and you can’t see anything smaller), and to be efficient specifically at catching this chemical, Dyson created an intelligent formaldehyde sensor that’s gel-based and will accurately catch and destroy it at a molecular level without confusing it with other volatile organic compounds.

In short: if you’ve been doing a lot of DIY, or if you make things in your house, it’s likely that you may well have some formaldehyde floating around, and therefore have reason to consider this model over the other air purifier on the market. But what else does the Dyson purifier hot + cool formaldehyde offer, and how well does it work? We tested it to find out.

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Dyson purifier hot + cool formaldehyde

Buy now £599, Currys.co.uk

What does it do?

Aside from removing formaldehyde, it’ll also filter particles (as small as 0.01 microns, including 99.95 per cent of bacteria, pollen, and mould spores). It’s worth noting that the whole machine is rated to Hepa 13 standards rather than just the filter, meaning it’s sealed from inlet to outlet, effectively grabbing – and hanging onto – all the particles you don’t want in the air.

Additionally, it is designed to be a heater and a fan, heating or cooling a room really quickly (we noticed the ambient temperature rise and fall in minutes after it was switched on, and it’s definitely more effective than other room heaters we’ve tried).

How easy is it to use?

Once you’ve unwrapped the filter and plugged it in, you can either let the machine do its thing and keep it on automatic, or control it via the app or the remote control provided (that attaches to the top of the purifier via a magnet). The app will track all the info in a series of graphs, and you can compare current to previous air quality in quite some depth.

The machine itself also has a small monitor that you can look at for information, and where you can schedule the heater (the in-built thermostat also means you can set it to only heat when the indoor temperature falls below a certain level, if you want to). Once going, expect it to deliver 520sq m of clean air an hour.

What about the design?

Dyson has excelled here. The body looks like punched gold, while the white oblong atop the filtering cylinder is futuristic and pleasing so we didn’t want to hide it away in the corner of a room.

It’s also quiet – yes, you can hear the fan or heater when it’s on full blast, but it fades into the background when running on a normal everyday setting, and being able to switch the speed up on the fan function was handy when trying to absorb cooking smells/spritzes of deodorant/smells of adhesive after using during building works.

The head turns so you can hit different parts of the room as needed, and you can tilt it, so there’s a lot of customisation available in the design.

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The verdict: Dyson purifier hot + cool formaldehyde

The downside of this machine is the cost. That said, if you are looking to invest in a purifier and are keen to own a machine that triples up as a heater and fan and which is easy to operate and looks great, it’s unbeatable.

If, however, you simply want a purifier without any bells and whistles and don’t want to reach so deep into your pockets for it, you might be better off sticking to one that doesn’t have this many other functions.

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Dyson purifier hot + cool formaldehyde review: The £600 air purifier that tackles more than most

As our DIY habits surged during lockdown, so did pollutants – Dyson’s new device aims to combat them