Knowing his attention to detail and penchant for keeping things tidy, I asked guest blogger Ron Leung to tackle this review of an air purifier that promises cleaner air at home. -Erin
This is a review for the Phillips Series 2000i Air Purifier. Now before we begin, I happen to live in a very dry, dusty city with an asthmatic girlfriend and a little white dog that likes to shed. So, needless to say, I was very much looking forward to reviewing this product.
So what exactly does an air purifier do? Basically the unit will sit quietly in the corner of the room like a misbehaved child, and suck all the bad air into the machine and spit out nice clean refreshing air.
Phillips Series 2000i Air Purifier review
Now, there are those who believe that air purifiers merely spew out the same dirty air like a hand dryer at a hockey game. There also those who believe that air purifiers have a bit of a placebo effect on dirty air sufferers; I mean can you really prove that the air is cleaner? The last time I checked air is kind of invisible. These are probably the same people who don’t believe in water filtration or cleaning out their disgusting dryer lint. The effectiveness of Air Purifiers is certainly debatable—but if you suffer from allergies and asthma like my girlfriend does, any relief from those symptoms is certainly welcomed. Nonetheless, me being the eternal optimist, I went in with a nice clean, fresh open mind before this review.
Let’s get to the “brag sheet” as I like to call it.
Phillips Series 2000i Air Purifier features & specs
The Phillips 2000i uses a 3 step filtration process including a Big Filter, which captures big large particles, an Active Carbon Filter, which reduces gasses, and a HEPA filter which captures those iddy biddy microscopic particles.
Now, we’ve all heard the term HEPA before, what exactly is it and are all filters “HEPA filters”? HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particle Air Absorber. The acronym has changed a few times but that doesn’t really matter because the function remains the same. HEPA isn’t a term that purifiers can claim easily. To qualify as HEPA, an air filter must remove 99.97% of the particles that have a greater size than or equal to .3 micrometers. In other words that’s some pretty heavy-duty filtration. Just think of the guys in white suits using these things to suck up potentially deadly things floating around in the air. Pretty serious stuff!
Timer, app connection on Phillips Series 2000i Air Purifier
The unit has all of the bells and whistles you would expect in a modern home appliance these days like a timer, iOS/Android app compatibility, whisper quiet operation so your shedding dog doesn’t get upset, and of course energy efficiency even when left on all day.
Now, that last point is an important one because most people don’t like to leave fans/heaters etc. on all day. But in order for something like an air purifier to be effective, it needs time to absorb all of the bad air in the room which could take some time depending on how big the room is. If you keep turning the unit off, you are forcing it to basically start over again. Make sense?
Phillips Series 2000i Air Purifier: what’s in the box?
On to the unpacking of the unit, the unit itself weighs about 7 kg, or about the weight of a gallon of paint and is easily transported with 2 discreet handles on either side.
Thoughtfully packed, easy to set up
When I took the unit out of the box, I was expecting all sorts of screws and panels to fall out all over the place but much to my delight, all that came out of the box was the unit itself. Had the good people at Phillips forgotten to provide the filters? Again to my surprise everything was neatly packed inside the unit, in protective plastic, but in the appropriate spot so there wasn’t any guess work about which way the filters go in, the order etc.. I really wish all new products would be packed this way!
Filters need regular updates
The manufacturer recommends that the filters be changed every 6 months for the carbon filter and every 12 for the HEPA Filter. Filters are readily available from Amazon and run about $50 for the carbon filter and $100 for the HEPA filter. A little pricey, $200 / year if you are keeping track, but if you aren’t changing the filter when you are supposed to, well there isn’t much point in owning an air purifier.
After installing the filters, the setup was pretty straight forward. Connect the unit to your Wi-Fi network, download the app etc.. Pretty simple stuff. Once you have your ducks in a row, the Phillips Air Purifier gets to work right away. The number on the display starts to read the air quality immediately. The higher the number, the worse the air, so if you see a 10 on the display you should probably leave the room!
The rest of the settings take a little getting used to. The touch operation can be a little frustrating for some, but after a little practice, operation seems pretty easy after a little while.
Operating the Phillips Series 2000i Air Purifier
There are three modes of operation:
I started off in general mode and was amazed by how quiet the unit was. I actually wasn’t even sure if it was still on. Now of course as you increase the intensity to allergen mode you will hear more noise but nothing that was all that noticeable. The harder you make the Phillips 2000i work, the more noise it’s going to make. As a side note, even on the lowest setting there must be something really high-pitched that only dogs can hear because mine was panicking while it was on – but she could just have been jealous of the new member of the family. After a few hours, either the sound went away or my dog got used to it.
Looks sleek and unobtrusive in the home
Aesthetically, the unit blends in well with any room. It’s about the size of a garbage can but has a nice glossy white shell and pleasant LED lights on the front. Oh, and the lights on the front also serve an important purpose, if it’s a nice cool blue, you are enjoying nice fresh air, if it’s orange then the air needs to be cleaned.
Phillips Series 2000i Air Purifier has turbo mode!
The Phillips 2000i also has a turbo mode for these situations that will rapidly clean the surrounding area when you accidentally overcook your meatloaf. But seriously, this mode isn’t something you would have on all of the time it would be situations such as initial placement in a room or sudden environmental changes.
After about 3 weeks of constant use, I honestly forgot that I even had the unit in the room. Now, I’m not saying I didn’t notice cleaner air, I’m just remarking on how ultra-quiet the Phillips Air purifier is. Towards the end of my review, I did take a peek at the filters to see if they had collected much dirt. The filters were pretty clean but again it had only been a few weeks and the carbon filters are supposed to last about 6 months.
Phillips Series 2000i Air Purifier picks up on neighbourhood fire?!
One thing that did happen in the first couple of days of my review, without a word of a lie, was an apartment fire about a block away from my condo. That same morning my asthmatic girlfriend told me that the numbers on the display were rapidly rising which is supposed to mean the air quality is poor.
Now I know that sounds crazy – but the meter has not jumped like that since the day of that fire. Coincidence? Probably not. I truly believe that the Phillips Air Purifier is doing a good job of patrolling the air around you and giving accurate readings. We had massive wild fires this past summer around Alberta and BC, with smoke drifting around everywhere. It would have been interesting to see how the Phillips 2000i would have reacted to all the smoke in the air.
Reading the air via app
The Phillips Air Purifier 2000i has many special features that you would expect in an air purifier. Features like mobile app support, detailed reports sent to your phone, programmable timer and real time feedback are just a few of the many bells and whistles.
The mobile app was most impressive to me for the error codes. I received an error message that said F01 which really meant nothing to me until I received a notification on my phone telling me to give the outer filter a rinse. I would also get messages sent to my phone any time the air quality had changed and also the air quality of my city itself. This feature is of course optional if you don’t wish to be bothered by notifications.
Handy Air Matters feature lets you know what it’s like in your city
The Air Matters companion app for your mobile device provides comprehensive data about the air quality in your surrounding area and even compares this to other cities around the world. The data is all customizable and very easy to read. Again, for those who suffer from allergies, the app recommends whether or not you should be outdoors.
Overall review of Phillips Series 2000i Air Purifier
In conclusion, I was very pleased with the performance of the Phillips Air Purifier, it’s ultra-quiet, easy to use and of course it was nice to look at. It’s something that will quietly do its job in the background and provide peace of mind to many. The price may seem a little high and the cost of filter replacement may be expensive, but if you are an allergy sufferer or have breathing issues, investing in the Phillips Air Purifier 2000i may be a small price to pay.
The Air Purifier sells for about $479CAD from places like Best Buy and Amazon.
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