Molekule Air Mini+ Purifier Gains HomeKit Support, Now Available on Apple's Website for $500

[ignatius345]

150 $ every year for filters - this is a luxury good.

There's a yearly cost for every HEPA air purifier, but $150 is pretty steep. I think my Coway runs me about $50/year.

 

[Solomani]

Interesting. This is MR news like 2 days after Amazon delivers my brand new Levoit Core 300 air purifier.

 

[jamesa]

These air filters look pretty but are complete garbage. Check the wire cutter reviews — they’re the worst one they tested. They honestly shouldn’t be on this site

 

[Makosuke]

I think most of the so-called air purifiers, especially the ionizers, are just false advertising. They are basically overpriced fans with a so-so filter in many cases, and in many other cases just BS ionizers that don't do much at all.

I don't think that this thing is an ionizer (I say this because it's apparently legal to sell in California, and most aren't because of ozone pollution restrictions), but that does get at one of those "buyer beware" points when people use happy, good-sounding things to sell you a feature without demonstrating, scientifically, that it does what they say it does.

I'm always struck when ionizers talk about how ionized air exists around the ocean and waterfalls, because it's technically true but tells you nothing about whether that's actually useful, or for that matter whether the ozone they create is going to tear your lungs apart at the molecular level. It's an appeal to emotion rather than anything even remotely scientifically relevant.

Does the ocean produce ions? Yes. Does that mean ions are good? Doesn't tell you a dang thing one way or the other. Lots of pretty, soothing, natural things are either neutral or actively unhealthy to mammals. Cause doesn't equal correlation, but if you look at a sailor who's spent his life in close proximity to that ocean the chances are he doesn't look like he just came from a spa treatment.

And it also omits entirely that producing ions through high-voltage electric discharge is not necessarily the same as producing ions by splashing water. Lightning produces ionized air, too, and you sure as heck don't want to be anywhere near that.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

Seems a bit pseudoscience at worst and waste of money at best.

 

[travelsheep]

…and I thought $40 for the Xiaomi (Mi Air Purifier 2) HEPA filter was outrageous...

After considering it I thought that if I had that function I would set a rule to have it run at full speed overnight and in quiet mode during the work day. First world I know but still useful.

I wouldn't call this a first world problem, but instinct for survival. Mean life expectancy in emerging markets can be as low as 60ties-something. No windows, air pollution, food pollution, water pollution, no education, no common sense, no sense for hygiene, ... having a close-able space with air purifier and setting it so that the noise doesn't interfere with your mental health is just a means of survival.

 

[jon3543]

I thought it was a speaker.