Meross's smart air purifier provides a way to filter out dust and pollutants from the air to improve air quality at an affordable price, with full support for Apple HomeKit and the Home app.
Meross makes a wide range of HomeKit-compatible smart home devices for regions around the world, including garage door openers, smart lighting, smart power strips, and more. Compared to its direct competitors, Meross's smart home products are among the most affordable HomeKit-compatible devices on the market and often set themselves apart with no need for a hub or third-party app.
Setup and Connectivity
The air purifier is fairly easy to set up, simply requiring the hatch at the base to be twisted off to access the three-stage H13 HEPA filter, which comes in a bag that needs to be removed. Meross says that the pre-filter can capture 99.97 percent of particles at 0.3 microns in size, including smoke, pollen, pet dander, hair, and dust. The innermost layer of the filter uses activated carbon to remove odors, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and more. Meross suggests replacing the filter every three to six months, and the Meross app helps monitor its condition over time.
Once the filter is in and secure, users simply need to connect the power cable. The air purifier is powered by a USB-C port on its rear, making it easy to obtain a longer or replacement cable if necessary.
Meross's smart home offerings differ from many other brands in the same space, such as Philips Hue smart lighting, because they do not require a hub or third-party app. In theory, you need only open the Home app on your iPhone, tap Add Accessory, and scan the code on the device to add the accessory, allowing you to control and automate it from the Home app thereafter. Accumulatively, this significantly eases the setup process compared to the clunky hubs and apps that many other smart home brands demand.
While this is the ideal scenario for most smart home accessories, I have sometimes had issues setting up Meross's devices on my network, where they repeatedly failed to connect with the Home app. Some users may need to temporarily disable their router's firewall and the 5GHz portion of their network during pairing to get around these potential problems. This may not be necessary in your case, and Meross's setup experience is generally good, but prospective customers should be prepared to troubleshoot their network in the event of any issues.
Once the smart air purifier was paired, it had good responsiveness and provided a reliable connection to the Home app, and also worked well with automations. Unlike some of the other HomeKit devices I use, the Meross offerings are fairly consistently connected to my network, with no "no response" alerts. The smart air purifier is quick to respond to Siri commands or Home app actions, taking place within seconds.
The devices work over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only, directly connecting to the router rather than via a hub. As a result, the Meross devices can be slow or refuse to reconnect to the network when Wi-Fi is temporarily unavailable, but this is a random occurrence and cycling power seems to fix the problem.
Daily Use
The smart air purifier features a cylindrical, all-metal design with ventilation around the circumference. A large fan inside draws air in through the holes around the outside and pulls it through the three-stage H13 HEPA filter, before gently blowing it out the top. The design is relatively slim compared to other air purifiers and it feels fairly premium and well-made.
The air purifier features four speed settings controlled by the Home app or a capacitive button on the top. The button emits a loud beep when touched to confirm that it has been pressed. I would have preferred a physical button, but the capacitive button does the job well enough.
While the low settings are extremely quiet, stepping up to the third or fourth fan speed can get quite noisy. It didn't bother me, but users who want to counteract allergies during the night with the air purifier on high might want to bear this in mind. Thanks to HomeKit support, there are a huge number of automation options, such as activating the air purifier when you arrive home, control another accessory, or set a particular scene.
It is important to note that Meross's smart air purifier does not contain any air quality sensors, meaning that there is no built-in way to monitor when the purifier should activate, what setting is required, and whether it is working to purify the air. An easy way to get around this is to use another HomeKit accessory that offers air quality monitoring and then set up automations in the Home app that can activate the air purifier when needed.
Nevertheless, the lack of air quality monitoring is an important consideration. It may be an unsurprising omission given the price of the air purifier, but if this is a must for you, you'll need to factor in the added cost of buying another accessory that can offer this functionality and the need to set up automations.
The Bottom Line
Meross's Smart Air Purifier succeeds in offering a compelling air purifier at an affordable price. Its sleek and unobtrusive design, USB-C port, and quiet operation on low settings make it an option worth considering for most HomeKit setups.
While an air quality sensor with a visual indicator, better physical controls, and quieter operation, would have been appreciated, at the device's price point it serves its purpose extremely well. Occasional problems with my network during setup are easy to overlook once things are running smoothly. If you are looking for more a feature-rich smart air purifier, then Meross's offering may not be for you, but it is good for its price point as an entry-level option.
How to Buy
In the U.S., Meross's range of devices are available the company's official website:
MacRumors readers can get seven percent off all Meross devices from the official online store with the code MacRumors at checkout.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner of Meross. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running. Meross provided MacRumors with a Smart Wi-Fi Air Purifier for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.
Article Link: Review: Meross's Smart Air Purifier Offers HomeKit Support at an Affordable Price
