How well does the Sqair air purifier clean an average bedroom? Impressive specs are one thing, but we wanted to put the Sqair to the test in real-world conditions.
The Real-World Test
We tested the Sqair in a 15 m2 (162 ft2) bedroom in Beijing with the doors and windows closed. The Sqair was on high from 9 pm to 9 am each day for 10 days.
We tracked tiny particles in the air using a Laser Egg 2 particle counter. The Laser Egg gives readings for PM2.5 and PM10.
To measure effectiveness, we calculated the percent reductions in PM2.5 and PM10 before the purifier was turned on versus the average over the final four hours of the test.
Results
Over the 10 days of tests, the Sqair cut PM2.5 by 98.4% on average. The Sqair reduced PM10 by 98.3%.
However, this actually understates the effectiveness of the Sqair over the 10 days. Why?
In 9 of 10 days, the Sqair removed 100% of PM2.5 in two hours.
Here’s what a typical test day looked like.
Within an hour, PM2.5 decreased from 12 micrograms to 0. Particulate stayed at zero all night, even as outdoor air quality worsened.
On only one day did the Sqair fail to remove 100% of PM2.5. On that day, outdoor PM2.5 was significantly higher, and it more than doubled during the test.
Our tests have found that all purifier brands achieve lower percentage reductions when outdoor air is worse. During these tests, Beijing’s PM2.5 averaged 40.4 micrograms, 4 times higher than the WHO annual limit.
The Sqair vs. The Expensive Brands
How does the Sqair stack up against the more expensive, big-brand purifiers? We compared the results versus tests of three international brands all tested in the same room, using the same methods. The Sqair outperformed all purifiers tested, including the much more expensive Blue Air, Phillips, and IQ Air purifiers.
Open Data
As part of Smart Air’s open data pledge, the Sqair room test data is openly available. Methods and data for the tests of the other purifiers are also open source.
About Smart Air: Democratizing Clean Air
The air purifier industry is opaque. It’s profit-driven, not health-driven. Big companies charge hundreds or thousands of dollars for technology that was invented over 70 years ago.
Smart Air is a certified B Corp committed to combating the myths big companies use to inflate the price of clean air. We created Smart Air to bring open data and simple, effective air purifiers to opaque industry.
Smart Air ships empirically backed, no-nonsense purifiers and masks that remove the same particles as the big companies for a fraction of the cost. When clear air is a luxury, only corporations benefit.
Check out the no-nonsense, data-backed Sqair air purifier.
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I am a bit frustrated that all these experiments and reviews are NOT based on high outdoor pollution levels, and that the Sqair specs do not mention a reference outdoor level, misleading me into purchasing the Sqair when I should’ve purchased something bigger. The Sqair for me hasn’t been able to perform in a 15sqm room during high outdoor pollution running 24×7 on level 3, the highest fan setting. My CO2 remains well above 1200ppm sometimes edging closer to 2000ppm for occupancy of 2.5 (2 adults 1 infant), indicating the room has poor air exchange, so pollution isn’t “coming in”… Read more »
I’d be interested to know if you also performed these tests with the air purifier set to ’medium’ and ’low’？