A few years after the Covid-19 pandemic rocked the world and just months after a summer where smoke from Canadian forest fires enveloped many North American cities in a dirty haze, air purifiers have become a must-have appliance. I’ve tested a few of these devices over the past few years and the latest–the Rabbit Air A3 Air Purifier–may just be my favorite. Its long lasting filters offer six-stage purification including BioGS HEPA filtration and activated charcoal, but the company also offers four different filter customization options to enhance the A3’s performance against specific targets such as viruses or pet dander. Not only that, but it’s stylish (how often do you hear that about an air purifier?), its appearance can be customized with interchangeable artwork panels, it can be easily wall mounted, it has an accompanying mobile app and it operates in near silence.
Setup
The Rabbit Air A3 arrives smartly packaged and is straightforward to set up. The front panel is attached magnetically and comes off easily. My review unit is one of the custom Artist Series panels (available for an additional $69.95) that can make the A3 look a lot less like another high-tech device.
With the front panel off, the filters fit inside a removable filter case. The top layer is the user-washable pre-filter. Rabbit Air sells four different customized filter packs, each of which supplements a specific element of the air purifier’s performance: Germ Defense, Odor Remover, Pet Allergy and Toxin Absorber. Each is rated to last for 12 months of 24/7 use.
I have three kids in college living at home–one of whom is immunocompromised–and I had a severe bout with Covid last year that culminated in an autoimmune attack on my liver that took months to return to normal. Of course I chose the Germ Defense filter pack.
Testing: Rabbit Air A3 vs. Canadian Wildfire Smoke
This summer would have been ideal for testing the ability of this air purifier. Living in Southwestern Ontario, wildfire smoke from the northern part of the province plus that drifting in from Quebec and British Columbia meant many days where the AQI (Air Quality Index) was well over 100, occasionally approaching 200.
What does AQI mean? This is an air quality measurement based on a number of pollutants that are adverse to health, including fine particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and others. An AQI of 31 or under is considered to be good, 50-99 is poor and over 100 is considered to be very poor. According to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, an AQI reading of 50 or over “may have adverse effects for sensitive members of human and animal populations” while a reading of over 100 “may have adverse effects for a large proportion of those exposed.”
My review unit Rabbit Air A3 arrived after the wildfire season had pretty much died down. However, after being here for a few weeks, we had a day where some smoke drifted in. The AQI reading for my city hit in the 70s. A perfect time to test. It was the fall, so we had the windows open and the AQI reading in my home was also in the 70s (I have a portable AQI sensor).
I closed the windows and waited an hour but there was no change in the indoor reading. I turned on the Rabbit Air A3 on the main floor of the house and watched on the AQI sensor as the reading quickly began to decline. Within an hour, the AQI reading for outdoors was at 68, but the main floor of the house had dropped to 33. With its activated charcoal filter, this air purifier also helps to scrub odors including smoke smell along with VOOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). The Rabbit Air A3 is rated for up to 1,072 square feet of coverage, so it was easily able to clear out that floor of the house.
It’s worth nothing that we have been undergoing a renovation that has included a great deal of sanding as new drywall is installed. The contractor has sealed the rooms involved with plastic sheeting, but I know from past experience that some dust always gets through. I’ve kept the air purifier running during this project and have noticed that over the course of the past two weeks there has been no drywall dust settling anywhere on the floor of the house where it’s installed. The pre-filter has also been very effective at capturing pet fur as our 100lb, double-coats dog goes through her shedding season…
Germ Defense
Does the custom Germ Defense filter pack I ordered actually stop the spread of viruses? Rabbit Air says the Germ Defense filter physically traps bacteria, mold, and particles that carry viruses. The proprietary BioGS HEPA filtration that’s part of every filter is described as follows:
“Test data shows our HEPA filter (brand new or like-new) can trap particles 0.3 microns in size at 99.97% efficiency, and our air purifiers are able to remove 99.9% of 0.1 micron-sized particles from the air.”
That is better performance than standard HEPA filters, with additional advantages shown in the chart below.
As I mentioned earlier, I have three kids living at home, who are going to college and riding public transit for up to two hours a day. They’ve each been sick at different times this fall, but so far there has been nothing that has swept through the house. I’m not a lab so I don’t have the ability to empirically test effectiveness at removing viruses and bacteria, but I am confident that having the Rabbit Air A3 air purifier with its Germ Defense filter running is certainly helping to prevent the spread of illness.
Rabbit Air A3 Key Specs:
- 6-stage filtration including BioGS HEPA filter and activated carbon filter
- Coverage up to 1070 square feet with 2 air changes per hour (ACPH)
- Filters 8,560 cubic feet of air in 30 minutes
- Odor and particle sensors for automatic fan speed control
- Brushless motor for durability, low heat and low noise (20 dBA to maximum 51 dBA)
- Wall-mountable (bracket included)
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity
- User controllable multi-color LED lighting (can also be turned off altogether)
- 4 customized filter packs available
- Filters rated at 12 months of 24/7 use (2-years at 12-hour per day use), replacement cost for filters $115.95
- 19.7H x 18.9W x 8.4D inches, weighs 20.3 pounds
- Available in black, white and special editions + optional Artist Series front panels
- 2021 reddot Innovative Product award winner
- Energy Star certified
- 5-year warranty
Mobile App
The Rabbit Air A3 can be fully controlled using its built-in touchscreen display. However, the air purifier can also be connected to your Wi-Fi network (or by using Bluetooth), allowing it to be controlled wirelessly, using the Rabbit Air mobile app.
Recommendation
The Rabbit Air A3 is not the cheapest option out there, but it’s also far from the most expensive. In fact, among the air purifiers I’ve tested to date, the Rabbit Air A3 falls around the middle of the pack for initial cost.
While I can’t test for its effectiveness in scrubbing bacteria and viruses from the air, my review unit was extremely effective at eliminating air pollution–despite the fact that I chose the customized Germ Defense filter pack. With every custom filter pack still including BioGS HEPA filtration and activated charcoal, no matter which version you choose you can count on effective air purification. At $115.95 its replacement filter packs are actually quite reasonably priced when you consider that they are rated to last for a full year of 24/7 use or two years if you run the air purifier every day for 12 hours.
Add the stylish design, easy wall-mounting option, availability of customized artwork front panels, quiet operation and mobile app integration to the picture and the Rabbit Air A3 is a compelling choice for a home air purifier.
Disclosure: Rabbit Air provided an A3 air purifier for evaluation purposes but had no input into this review.
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