Tested: No thick air with the Electrolux Pure A9
25.6.2020
Translation: machine translated
Electrolux's Pure A9 looks fantastic, filters better and is even a bit smart. In short: an all-round successful appliance that provides good air. Only the replacement filters are quite expensive.
First things first: What exactly can an air purifier do - apart from its obvious function? Well, air purifiers clean the air and remove pollutants from it. Pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon dioxide or pollen. Or odours. This increases people's well-being. Their health. Especially where environmental pollution is high - in cities, for example.
What about me?
I don't live in the city. I do like odour-intensive cuisine, though. Fondue in winter. Thai curry in summer. Plus two cats - cat food all year round. Things like that. My girlfriend smokes on the terrace from time to time. There's always some smoke drifting into the flat. And: I have hay fever. So. So an air purifier that filters all the nasty stuff out of the air is just what I need.
I tested Electrolux's Pure A9 air purifier. In our shop it's called "Himalaya PA91- 404GY". No idea why. But a full disclosure at this point: The test device was provided to me by Electrolux.
More disclosure: If you turn the Electrolux logo 90 degrees, you'll see a woman's foot in her underwear.
Give this thing a beauty award
White, cheap plastic. Shoddy workmanship. Yellowed. Not at all in keeping with my beautiful, stylish IKEA sofa. I detest household appliances that look like this.
The Pure A9 is a far cry from that.
As big as the "small" version of the air purifier is - about half a metre high and with a diameter of 31 centimetres - the air purifier doesn't look like a foreign body in my home furnishings at all. This could be due to its tower shape. Or the modern, light grey colour.
Let's describe the thing. At the bottom, where the air is sucked in and passes through the filter, there is a metal grid with small holes. The turbine that blows the purified air back into the room should be at the top, by the fabric cover. At the very top are the two beige-brown leather handles - very stylish. And functional. The 9-kilo A9 can be easily transported from one room to the next.
This is necessary: the "small" A9 covers a room size of up to 92 square metres. But it can't vacuum around corners. If I want to purify the air in my study, for example, I have to take the Himalayan air purifier - or whatever else the play on words means - there too. You can't purify the air from the living room.
The icing on the cake, however, is the black LED display, where only the lettering and the bar representing the turbine's rotational speed light up. The faster it turns, the more air can be circulated per hour - that's a professional-sounding word for cleaned.
Of course, this is reflected in the volume: at its lowest level, the A9 is barely audible. At the highest level, the turbines reach a whopping 48 decibels. This is roughly equivalent to the volume of a refrigerator.
Overall, the cleaner looks as if it wants to disguise itself as a speaker. It's hardly noticeable. I really like it.
The smart air purifier
Now to the point. The Pure A9 employees activated carbon and HEPA filters. This means that the device not only reliably filters gases, but also pollutant particles with a size of 0.1 micrometres - around one thousandth of the thickness of a human hair.
In concrete terms:
- PM1 particles: The most harmful particles. They are smaller than 1 micrometre and can therefore penetrate particularly deep into our bodies. Examples: Combustion particles (soot particles, or tar from wood), bacteria and viruses.
- PM2.5 particles: Particles that are smaller than 2.5 micrometres. Examples: Pollen and spores
- PM10 particles: Particles smaller than 10 micrometres. Examples: Coarse fine dust, coarse flower spores
- TVOC: Volatile organic compounds produced by plants, animals and humans. In other words, stench. Or... well, you know. Cat farts!
In smart mode, the Pure A9 continuously monitors all values. If one of these values fails, the speed of the turbines increases until the value drops to the permitted maximum. The associated "Wellbeing" app can be used to track this in detail.
For the picture below, I sprayed my deodorant right next to the A9. Less than three seconds later, the rotation speed increased from level two to level eight - there are nine levels in total.
Five minutes of blasting later, the cleaner has calmed down, and there's hardly anything left of the deodorant scent (I swear it was deodorant).
Apropos: The app can be downloaded from both the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store. The app is intuitive and self-explanatory. From here, you can switch off the smart mode and manually set the rotation speed of the turbines, for example.
Apparently interesting: I can track the average values measured over the past weeks and months. Apparently because the air purifier ensures that the values always remain in the green range anyway - literally.
Optionally, the ioniser can be activated via the app - and only via the app. This emits negatively charged ions that bind positively charged house dust and other particles - such as cigarette smoke - and allow them to fall to the floor, where they can no longer enter the lungs.
But be careful: the use of ionisers is controversial. The problem is that the process described above produces ozone as a by-product. You don't want that. Ozone, depending on the concentration, is more harmful than the harmful source substances themselves.
Great variety of filters
Electrolux offers the option of customising the filter to our requirements. In other words: Depending on the season, other tasks are prioritised. For example, hunting for pollen and pollen in spring. Pet owners, on the other hand, attach more importance to a filter that efficiently removes odours from the air. Cat trumpeters, for example.
There are six filter variants in total:
- Breeze 360: The all-rounder filter that can do a bit of everything and is included in the scope of delivery.
- Clean 360: The specialist for fine particles. Is particularly dense. Particularly suitable for residential areas with high levels of air pollution.
- Breathe 360: The filter for allergy sufferers. Specialised for pollen and other allergens. Slightly less dense compared to the other filters, but can filter more air per hour.
- Fresh 360: Primarily against odours. So for pet owners or smokers. The filter has the largest activated carbon filter and can therefore remove volatile compounds most efficiently.
- Care 360: Ideally suited for people who are susceptible to illness or households with babies. This filter has been treated with a special enzyme that kills the trapped bacteria.
I tested the Breeze, the Breathe and the Fresh. Honestly? I couldn't detect any noticeable or odourable differences between the three filters.
Specifically: As a hay fever sufferer, I sneezed just as often (or just as little) with the Breeze filter as with the Breathe filter. The Breathe removed odours just as reliably as the Fresh. And the PM or PVOC levels are just as green with the Fresh filter as with the Breeze filter.
So does it make a difference which filter I use? In my experience, no, as long as my own subjective impression and the objective measurements of the Pure A9s are correct. So you can confidently reach for the "all-rounder" if you're not sure which filter to use.
By the way, all filters for purchase are listed in this article:
The good thing about all filters is that they have a "smart tag" that the app uses to measure when the filter needs to be changed. The Breathe filter, which I have used the longest, still has a filter life of 80 per cent after about a month.
The bad thing is that they are quite expensive at around 80 to 100 francs per filter. I mean, that's almost a fifth of the A9 purchase price per filter. Pretty hefty
Conclusion: Successful all round, but...
Let's summarise: The Electrolux Pure A9 not only looks good, but also filters reliably, smartly and quietly. There's also the option to customise the filter to suit your own needs or the time of year - even if I couldn't detect any real differences.
The only thing I can really criticise is the price of the replacement filter. At 80 to 100 francs per filter, it's clearly set too high. Kind of reminds me of the printer cartridge debate. <p
Luca Fontana
Senior Editor
Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.chI'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.»
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