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Does it work?

It is not going to move near the volume of air that a blade will.

I'd give it a chance.  Aerodynamics is tricky business.  Until very recently, conventional applications of aerodynamics could not explain the tremendous lift generated by the honey bee's wings.  In theory, they shouldn't be able to fly with such short wings.  It turns out that the unusual mechanics of the bee's wing motion created a low-pressure vortex above the leading edge of the wings, generating the required amount of lift.

The point is that, there are times when conventional wisdom is turned on its head, and I think the ring fan is such a case.  Those who experienced the fan in action described a "fairly uniform flow of air through the ring."  Also nobody was quoted as saying it was weak --only that it was quiet.  I think there's a niche market of folks who would gladly fork over $330 for a quiet fan that moves as much air as a noisy conventional fan.  However, I don't think anybody would buy a fan that didn't work, and I don't think Dyson would waste marketing resources on a fan that didn't work.

One other thing.  Remember the ionic breeze air purifier?  It turned out to be a pretty terrible air purifier, but one thing it did do well, is move air without generating noise.  There's now a decent market of breeze clones, repurposed as silent fans.  Some companies are actively miniaturizing the technology for use in PC's, and handhelds.

Last edited by Mr. T (2009-10-28 4:12 pm)

:sarcasm:
Magic.

Mr. T wrote:

D'Eyncourt wrote:

The motor in the base of the fan sucks in air and pushes it up into the ring.

Um, how does this motor do this?

Ironically, with another ring fan.

Infinite fractals of ring fans.  As it moves closer to infinity, the air pressure approaches 0 inHg.

In other words, I have no idea if this is truly supposed to be a bladeless fan.

It does have a fan, it's just in the base.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/12/dyso … you-never/
Apparently this fan is not so quiet, it is rated at 64dBA which is not so different than regular fans but the airflow is also on par with regular fans.

gd wrote:

The article states that the bladeless fan produces as much noise as a cars airconditioner. That seems loud to me if compared to a cars ac when working at full speed. How big is the bladeless fan?

Daddyo's link has details: 10-inch and 12-inch models which are US$300 and $330 respectively.

Either it works better than a conventional fan or it doesn't. Maybe consumer reports will review the thing.

The chief advantage that I can see, other than safety, is that it's easier to clean-- just wipe down the the ring. With a conventional fan, the cage has to be disassembled, and the blades have to individually caressed. Since the first operation can be done and a whim, and the second cannot, the dyson is likely to be more consistently clean--provided that the primary air inlet remains dust free. Whether this translates into appreciably cleaner air remains to be seen.


The noise it makes is kind of annoying, though that may be an artifact of the recording setup.

Last edited by jerwin (2009-11-01 2:13 pm)

jerwin wrote:

Either it works better than a conventional fan or it doesn't. Maybe consumer reports will review the thing.

The chief advantage that I can see, other than safety, is that it's easier to clean-- just wipe down the the ring. With a conventional fan, the cage has to be disassembled, and the blades have to individually caressed. Since the first operation can be done and a whim, and the second cannot, the dyson is likely to be more consistently clean--provided that the primary air inlet remains dust free. Whether this translates into appreciably cleaner air remains to be seen.


The noise it makes is kind of annoying, though that may be an artifact of the recording setup.

I believe it's supposed to be silent, or it makes less noise than conventional fans.

The thing is, it is too expensive. Not worth it.