Molekule Smart Air Purifer review

A lot of smart home tech that we see these days aims to reinvent common appliances in a way that takes advantage of all the sensors and connectivity that we have at our disposal. Enter Molekule, a smart device that not only looks to improve your indoor air quality, but your quality of life as well.

You know I love smart home tech, and I’ve always said that while I like tech that’s cool, I also really love seeing when a company can use tech to truly improve quality of life - that’s why I’m such a big fan of the Apple Watch health features for example. The Molekule air purifier uses tech in much the same way - science is used to improve the common air purifier, resulting in a system that destroys particles at the molecular level.

MODES

• Auto - this mode optimizes the air cleaning on your home based on the inputs you give it during device set-up
• Dark - disables the lights and dims the display in order to not disturb you when you’re using it in a dark room - the light activated filtration mode is disabled when using Dark Mode
• Silent - lowest fan setting for quietest operation - still keeps purifying going, but like dark mode, it’s meant to not disturb you if you need a quieter environment if you’re trying to sleep or take a phone call - outputting just 30 decibels of noise
• Boost - max fan speed, everything is firing on all cylinders. Works great if you are purifying a large area, or if you have a lot of dust in the air at a given moment - like after vacuuming or dusting

Let’s talk about the filter system used in the Molekule - you’ve probably heard of HEPA filters, which traps particles in the filter to stop them from being spread. What Molekule does instead is it uses their patented PECO filter. Photo ElectroChemical Oxidation and it uses nanotechnology to destroy pollutants that are 1000 tiems smaller than what a traditional HEPA filter can trap. The Molekule unit uses light filtration to destroy the particles. The PECO filter needs to be replaced about every 6 months, while the pre-filter in the unit will need replacement every 3 months - together, that’s a cost of about $130 per year, or just under $11 per month.

Now let’s talk costs - you can pick up the Molekule for $799 wit a 60-day return policy that allows you to try it out and send it back for any reason for a refund. You can also sign up for auto-refills on the filters for $65 every 6 months, and Molekule will ship them to you like clockwork without you having to think about it.

VERDICT
As for my thoughts on the Molekule, I wanted to judge this one by determining if it increased and improved quality of life in my home. For me personally, what I found is that it can actually remove smells very well. If you cook something, or if you paint for example, Molekule was able to get the area smelling neutral fairly quickly. I don’t suffer from allergies personally, so in that area I didn’t see a difference.

However my wife does suffer from allergies, as does my son, and my wife told me we need to buy another one because she was really impressed with how it made her feel after I put it in her home office. She wants to keep it in there, and wants to get a second one for the downstairs area so we don’t have to keep bringing it up and down the stairs. So, in her opinion as an allergy sufferer who’d give anything to not have to suffer those symptoms, the Molekule is well worth it. In fact, check out this Molekule review over on iMore for another take on using the device when you have allergies.

Of course, this isn’t a miracle cure - it’s just cleaning your air so that you aren’t breathing in anywhere near as many airborne cooties. You’re paying a premium for it with the knowledge that you’re getting the best in-home technology on the market for your hard-earned dollars. I know $799 isn’t cheap, and Molekule does too, which is why they also offer a monthly payment plan as low as $45 depending on your credit.

That said, when comparing the pros and cons of a device, when the only cons on a home appliance are that it’s expensive and kinda heavy to carry around, and the pros are that it’s quiet, is controllable with your smartphone, looks good, and has easily replaceable filters that you can have automatically delivered? To me, that’s a winner.

You can pick up the Molekule air purifier right now.