Hot days can be difficult to handle, especially if you need to walk around outside away from an air conditioner, so it makes sense to check whether technology has an answer.
Science fiction paints the idea of suits with cooling systems inside them, but we’re not there yet. We’re not even at Back to the Future Part II‘s idea of a jacket that can dry you when it rains. But Dyson might have an idea that pushes personal cooling in a direction where it’s somewhat attainable, and a whole lot more than the high-priced real-life versions of self-lacing shoes from the same film.
Rather, Dyson’s approach is to take similar technology to what its air multiplier fans and purifiers use, and package it to be much smaller.
Built to be hand-held and even worn at the neck, the HushJet Mini Cool is a 212 gram portable fan designed to stand up, be held, or hang off the neck and keep you cool using technology like what’s in the blade-less fans the company is known for.
Air multipliers — named because they use a motor which sucks in air, speeds it up, and essentially “multiplies” the air — have been around since 2009, but are basically a technology for inside. They stay in rooms, moving the air around, and making it seem cooler, or if there’s a heating element, warmer as well.
The HushJet Mini is like that but smaller, using a 38mm diameter, a compact motor capable of achieving up to 65,000 RPM, a 5000 mAh battery capable of lasting up to 6 hours rechargeable off USB-C, and airflow speeds of up to 25 metres per second (or 90 kilometers per hour). In short, the air speed is fast, and should cool you down in a heart beat, or even a hand-hold.
“Since 2009, we’ve been obsessed with airflow. Mastering air projection, reducing turbulence, and refining thermal technology,” said Jake Dyson, Chief Engineer at Dyson.
“The HushJet Mini Cool fan is the culmination of that journey: powerful airflow, engineered for life on the move by bringing elite cooling technology from every home to your hand,” he said.
The technology is built to be slim like Dyson’s other hand-held gear, such as the Supersonic R hair dryer and compact PencilVac stick vacuum, but it’s a slightly different take on air technology than we’ve seen from Dyson. Simply put, it’s a cooler made to go, and curiously not the only portable cooling system we’ve seen in the past year.
Back in October, Sony built a cooling system you wear made to keep your neck cool, arriving in the $299 Reon Pocket Pro.
Dyson’s is actually a little less expensive, with the HushJet Mini Cool arriving in stores in the coming months for $169 in Australia.
