Most air purifiers don't have any indicators of the quality of air you're breathing, so it's a welcome trend with which more of these machines are coming up with full WiFi capability and a connection to your phone or tablet. The Swedish company Blueair, which had already begun a presence in India over the past couple of years, has brought in a second connected model to its range of air purifiers. I had a look at the Classic 280i, one variant from three that work for different room sizes. It's Blueair's contention that indoor air quality can be ten times worse than that outside, so it pays to keep tabs on it.
The Classic 280i is fairly slim and about the size of a standard radiation heater. It's not very bulky and can address a room of about 280 sq ft, as its model number implies. The 280i is slightly curved, giving it a stylish touch and in white, can blend into the background if you place it close to a wall. The front panel is otherwise completely plain. On the top, there's a flap that opens up and reveals an array of blue lit-up indicators and controls. It can be easily lifted to move to another room, should you need to do so.
The machine can work on its own without a connection to the phone, but by far the best way is to download the Blueair Friend app and use that to control the purifier and get air information, because that is its selling point after all, other than cleaning up the air you breathe. The app will guide you through connecting the machine on to your WiFi network, but before that you need to register with Blueair with some basic particulars. Once connected, you will see the air quality in terms of PM2.5 (down to an amazing 4 in my room with the purifier on), VOC or Voluble Organic Compounds, which shows the effect of gasses (including, ironically, air fresheners), CO2 level, which should be below 800, and the room temperature, which is two degrees below external temperature in my case. You can also see these parameters on a weekly and monthly basis, letting you decide on what measures to take based on the readings.
From the app, you can also control the fan speed, which at its slowest is in sleep mode and not audible and the mid level is still not intrusive. Only at level 3 do you get disturbed by the sound, though this level is for short bursts. You can also control scheduling, night mode settings and LED brightness, plus a child lock so that kids don't play around and change settings.
The air goes in through the back of the 280i machine and comes out from the top. Unlike some other purifiers, it isn't multi-directional or sweeping. The air passes through three filters including a hepafilter and on the inside, a carbon filter. It's very difficult to really know whether a purifier is doing its job and you can only sometimes sense that the air smells fresher as you breathe it in. But if you don't have an external indicator, separate from the machine and its manufacturer, it's difficult to know what is going on. One possibility is to get yourself an 'egg' that senses and indicates air quality. I can see indicators from other purifiers also showing a decrease in the PM2.5 and other indicators when placed in the same room as the Classic 280i, which is working at maximum efficiency as its filters are new and clean.
Price : ₹55,000
Love : Senstive and responsive to indoor air conditions, detailed infromation and control via app
Hate : Expensive
(This article first appeared in BusinessLine's Technophile section)