sundeep-k · 40 days in a 180 sq ft bedroom
8.1 out of 10
The A2 does one thing and does not try to do anything else. There is no app, no
air-quality display of dubious accuracy, and no filter chip that refuses third-party
replacements. It is a fan, a filter, and three buttons, and it costs less to run over
two years than any purifier we have tested.
What we measured
Setting 1
34 dBA at one metre, 8 W
Setting 2
41 dBA, 17 W — the setting we would actually use overnight
Setting 3
56 dBA, 39 W. Unusable in a bedroom, fine in a kitchen.
Particulate decay, 0.3 µm
90% clearance in 22 minutes on setting 2 in a closed 180 sq ft room
Two-year running cost
Filters at nine-month intervals plus power at setting 2, twelve hours a day
Sub-scores
Does the job
8 — the rated room size holds up if you use setting 2 rather than the
setting the rating was measured at, which is a normal amount of optimism.
Build and repair
8 — the whole thing comes apart with one screwdriver, and the motor is a
standard part with a published number.
Software and privacy
10 — there is no software. This is the correct amount of software for a
box that moves air through a pleat of paper.
Noise, heat, power
7 — setting 3 is genuinely loud and the tone is whiny rather than broad.
Price honesty
9 — filters are cheap, sold singly, and the machine does not check them.
The filter question
Most of what people pay for a purifier over its life is filters, not the machine. The
A2’s are around a third of the price of the pod-style cartridges its competitors
use, and because there is no authentication chip you can buy generics. Over two years
that difference is larger than the purchase price.