Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Molekule Air Mini+ Purifier Gains HomeKit Support, Now Available on Apple's Website for $500
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Overly expensive, with over priced filters, with the added perks that not only does it perform worse than any other device on the market, but it claims to "destroy" rather than "trap" particles. It's purpose is simple, take dirty air in, push clean air out. That's it.
Or, you could run to Amazon and put in a MERV 10+ rated furnace filter, and have the same grade of filtering as a Hospital, for about 10% of the cost annually, for your entire home.
Or, you could run to Amazon and put in a MERV 10+ rated furnace filter, and have the same grade of filtering as a Hospital, for about 10% of the cost annually, for your entire home.
The issue is with its sqft/price ratio. It's just too expensive for a 250sqft air purifier.
I paid about $500 for a 1500sqft air purifier. (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C9RIACG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
I got 2 to cover my entire house. You don't need HomeKit for the air purifier since it's supposed to be on 24/7. Mine just turns on intelligently whenever it detects particles.
I've never used air purifiers, but wouldn't you need one for each room for it to be effective for an average sized U.S. household? In terms of square footage (1,500-2,000) that's 6-8 of these devices.
Yes, good point.
Also though, I don't view HomeKit integration solely as a way to turn devices on or off. It's also useful to get information about the status of the device, remotely (whether that be from another room, or outside the home).
Before investing money in an air purifier, you might consider conducting a home air quality test first to see if you need one.
Do Air Purifiers Work? Research, Best Practices, and More
Air purifiers can help rid the air inside your house from allergens, molds, and other toxins. We’ll discuss how they work, and if they’re really effective.
www.healthline.com
You're probably correct. Then again, over time hopefully air quality will be considered as an integral part of a home in the same way heating is (at least in the UK, each main room of a new build house has a radiator attached to the wall as standard), so buying a standalone device for each room wouldn't be a consideration.
I'm currently researching products to buy the first air cleaning device (from what I've read, current devices can't completely 'purify' the air in a room, so the term is a bit of a misnomer) for my home.
I'm leaning toward a Dyson 'Pure' device, because of the air throughput and the HEPA filter. Dedicated air purifiers also seem good, but don't seem to reach air beyond their immediate vicinity as well as a device integrating a highly-effective fan.
Consumers Reports also panned it. Said it didn’t clean the air and was very noisy. High filter costs. My wife has asthma and a purifier in the bedroom makes it easier to sleep.
I understand that 1/2 of rumor blogs' front pages always need to be ads for discounts with embedded affiliate links presented as articles. Gotta eat.
But wish there would be reasonable judgement about what's presented, such as in the case of this Molekularly stupid line of products which The Wirecutter and others have tested and found to be the worst purifiers ever at some of the highest prices ever.
But wish there would be reasonable judgement about what's presented, such as in the case of this Molekularly stupid line of products which The Wirecutter and others have tested and found to be the worst purifiers ever at some of the highest prices ever.
Last edited:
They can say that all they want - as Molekule pointed out, they tested them against its weaknesses, not strengths. I've used all the "top rated" ones from that article and I didn't experience any amazing results nor did my house smell all that clean (I have 2 dogs and a macaw, it's tough to keep the air clean). But after only 1 day with Molekule, there isn't a trace of a smell of pets in my house - and my bathroom where the Air Mini+ is... I didn't realized it smelled a little damp - that smell was completely gone within hours. So I know first hand, these things work better than any others - and I've tested even their most expensive competitors like the Coway 400S which didn't hold a candle to the effectiveness of these.
The Worst Air Purifier We’ve Ever Tested
In this week's newsletter: The worst air purifier we've ever tested, plus the best new iPhone 11 cases.www.nytimes.com
"The Molekule Air turned in the worst performance on particulates of any purifier, of any size, of any price, that we have tested in the seven years that we have been producing this guide. The Air Mini outperformed it, but that’s not saying much: It still gave the second-worst performance we’ve ever seen."
The Best Air Purifier
Get cleaner air in a range of room sizes with air purifiers we’ve tested and measured firsthand.
If only Molekule was actually a good air-purifier, and not a massive marketing vehicle for air-filter subscriptions.
Dyson > Molekule any day. And I expect Dyson is seriously thinking about Homekit as one of their surveys was asking about it recently.
Dyson > Molekule any day. And I expect Dyson is seriously thinking about Homekit as one of their surveys was asking about it recently.
The Worst Air Purifier We’ve Ever Tested
In this week's newsletter: The worst air purifier we've ever tested, plus the best new iPhone 11 cases.
"The Molekule Air turned in the worst performance on particulates of any purifier, of any size, of any price, that we have tested in the seven years that we have been producing this guide. The Air Mini outperformed it, but that’s not saying much: It still gave the second-worst performance we’ve ever seen."The Best Air Purifier
Get cleaner air in a range of room sizes with air purifiers we’ve tested and measured firsthand.
I'll add one thing. I have the Molekule Air, and I can't get it to maintain a Wifi connection with my Google Wifi system. I had one, sent it back, and they sent a second one to replace it at no charge. They put out a software update on their app (to 3.0) to address it, but I continue to have connection issues. This one is going back (I'm waiting for them to send me the box) for a full refund. They later admitted that they have problems connecting with mesh networks, which is crazy.
I would definitely pass on this based on my experience. It is more marketing hype than anything else. Homekit support does not diminish the connection and performance issues.
I agree I can't see the value here. I'm more sympathetic than most people to Smart/HomeKit devices, but I'm having a hard time seeing what justifies this.
There's value in having a sensor for "indoor air quality" (though, to be honest, you have no idea quite what you are getting...
The [awful, do NOT waste money on it] Netatmo Home Coach measures CO2 (or at least claims to, it's useless).
The (pretty good) Eve Room measures VOCs (so basically outgassing from plastics and paint).
What you may want is PMIC (density of very small particles; this is essentially what AQI is, and what rises massively with fires). I haven't seen a HomeKit device that reports this, but you can get standalone boxes (look like a small Echo Show) on Amazon that display this and seem accurate (they go up and down as I would expect, numbers look like what I would expect). They're not ideal boxes, cost maybe $50, and don't even include enough networking to give you an auto-synching clock :-(
Anyway, point is, there are multiple ways to SEE your indoor air quality today, much cheaper than what is being offered here, and with other advantages (like it's convenient to sit the Eve Room on your dresser and easily see its constant display of humidity and temperature).
On the other side, suppose you want to purify your air (and you should; as you get older you will realize that lungs are about teh weakest part of the human body! Once you have seen enough relatives or older friends going into hospital you'll see the pattern that it's always when the lungs go bad that things go seriously downhill.)
Easiest way to do it is just run your AC fan frequently with a good filter attached and replaced as often as necessary. In any decent system just the AC fan, no cooling, should take pathetic amounts of power (mine takes 30W!). So you can track that against whatever you are using to measure air quality and see how well it works. In my house I can clearly see the dips in air quality as measured by Eve Room (ie less garbage in the air) whenever the AC switches on.
Use the AC filter (which is ducted to recirculate INTERNAL air). If your house has a whole-house fan, that's something different either to ventilate the house or to cool it, and it pulls in outside air. Good for ventilation/cooling, not good for filtering...
If you feel the AC fan is not enough (but seriously, try it, you might be surprised... And change your damn AC filter -- those things get FILTHY after three months!)
then get a "normal" air purifier, ie the sort of thing recommended by Wire Cutter, or whatever brand Costco is selling cheap this month. A nice big one, (physically big, like a large hand carry suitcase, but they are not heavy) suitable for a big bedroom plus spillover area, should be under $200 and last a long long time. For a small office you should be able to get for under $100.
You don't need to pay for high tech; the things are so simple and use so little power, that there's no value to having WiFi connectivity or scheduling via your iPhone or whatever! Just plug it and let it run 24/7 (again, mine in the bedroom uses 5W and is quieter than ambient traffic noise, so, seriously! why would you bother with schedules and ways to control when it switches on or off?)
LOL I do love these forums sometimes. 🤣
Ahh, merit and the meritocracy in relation to art is quite the conundrum huh..
Thought of buying this, price $500....nope!
Thanks for posting this. I love wirecutter and trust them and think more people should trust them for their reviews. Their only problem is that they don't test for durability or reliability, they test them for performance and features, but if a particular device is akin to breaking down or malfunctioning in the future...you won't know that.
The Worst Air Purifier We’ve Ever Tested
In this week's newsletter: The worst air purifier we've ever tested, plus the best new iPhone 11 cases.
"The Molekule Air turned in the worst performance on particulates of any purifier, of any size, of any price, that we have tested in the seven years that we have been producing this guide. The Air Mini outperformed it, but that’s not saying much: It still gave the second-worst performance we’ve ever seen."The Best Air Purifier
Get cleaner air in a range of room sizes with air purifiers we’ve tested and measured firsthand.
Thanks for posting this. I love wirecutter and trust them and think more people should trust them for their reviews. Their only problem is that they don't test for durability or reliability, they test them for performance and features, but if a particular device is akin to breaking down or malfunctioning in the future...you won't know that.
No air purifier is going to protect you against a virus spread person to person. Not because the filter can't be built to trap it but because it's not between you and the other person.
There are a lot of great air filters out there that can help reduce pollen and ash (if you on the west coast) from the air. I think these are a good investment for most people who are sensitive or live in a contaminated area. However, they also tend to need to be on 24/7 because they are cycling a portion of the air. Turning it off when you leave home is just going to allow the contaminants to build up and make it harder to maintain good air quality.
That's where the Homekit feature feels weird to me. If it's going to alert you as to the filter effectiveness and encourage optimal replacement times than sure - if you trust the company selling the filters - it's a useful feature. I can also see value in larger more powerful filters running at max speed when you are out of the home or room and then dropping down to an acoustically acceptable level when you are back. The idea being it manages when you leave and maintains when you are home.
I’ve had the original unit, Molekule Air, since it launched in summer 2017. I’ve used it since then consistently, but if I had the chance to buy all over again I probably wouldn’t. I don’t think it works as well as my Austin Air, despite costing more. I should’ve waited for reviews to come out of the thing, but all that was on YouTube at the time was probably paid marketing since it was all positive. I keep it in my bedroom as a white noise machine and just in case it’s helping, but I think there are much better options.
As someone who lives in California, when it was smoky from the fires, I appreciated an air purifier that cleaned the air well and even had an auto setting.
Who cares about home kit support if the sole purpose of the machine isn't being fulfilled.
Even as an iPhone user, I bought the original iPhone because my "smartphone" did such a crap job at making phone calls.
Who cares about home kit support if the sole purpose of the machine isn't being fulfilled.
Even as an iPhone user, I bought the original iPhone because my "smartphone" did such a crap job at making phone calls.
Most furnace fans aren't designed to deal with the increased pressure and load of a high quality filter.
In addition, home ductwork is far from clean or leakproof.
I came here to post exactly this. Seems like a piece of absolute trash, and horrifically overpriced.The Worst Air Purifier We’ve Ever Tested
In this week's newsletter: The worst air purifier we've ever tested, plus the best new iPhone 11 cases.
"The Molekule Air turned in the worst performance on particulates of any purifier, of any size, of any price, that we have tested in the seven years that we have been producing this guide. The Air Mini outperformed it, but that’s not saying much: It still gave the second-worst performance we’ve ever seen."The Best Air Purifier
Get cleaner air in a range of room sizes with air purifiers we’ve tested and measured firsthand.