Airthings Renew air purifier review: Stylish but expensive

AirThings Renew: technical characteristics

Size: 16.3 x 16.1 x 6.7 inches
Weight: 11.9 pounds
CADR Rating: Smoke: 140 CFM; Dust: N/A; Pollen: N/A
Recommended room size: 525 square feet
Estimated annual cost of electricity: $3.15

Small and easy to hide or hang on a wall, the AirThings Renew air filter combines a four-stage purification process with a great app, online portal, and the company’s View Plus desktop console. It’s quiet and uses less electricity than its competitors, but it has a low flow rate of filtered air, replacement filters that cost twice as much as competitors, and a one-year warranty.

Yet its minimalist design and fabric upholstery allow the Renew to do a trick that few others can. best air purifiers can: hide in plain sight while purifying the air. But does it work? I tested the AirThings Renew for a few weeks to find out.

Airthings Renew Air Purifier Review: Price and Availability

Available on Airthings’ website and Amazon, the Renew air purifier costs $400 and is recommended for rooms up to 525 square feet. The company is offering the air purifier with its View Plus sensors and tabletop console for $525, a savings of $175.

Renew replacement filters with activated carbon element cost $70 each, about double what others charge. Airthings does not have a plan for periodic filter purchases and delivery.

Airthings Renew Air Purifier Review: Design

Designed and manufactured in Norway, Renew has a minimalist Scandinavian look that should fit into almost any room. Made in China, the rectangular air filter is perfect in a corner or hanging on a wall.

AirThings Renew sitting in the living room

(Photo credit: Tom’s Guide)

At 16.3 x 16.1 x 6.7 inches, it’s more than 50 percent smaller than the Blueair Blue Pure 211+ Auto — one of our favorite air purifiers — and positively tiny next to the Dreo MC710S Air Purifying Tower Fan. Weighing in at 11.9 pounds, the Renew is light enough to carry from room to room as needed thanks to its fabric strap.

Instead of the usual all-plastic casing, the gray Renew air purifier features a neutral fabric covering the air inlet. Fortunately, its power cord can be adjusted to the right length by wrapping the excess in a hidden compartment.

AirThings Renew sitting in the living room

(Photo credit: Tom’s Guide)

At the top, a long, narrow display indicates whether Renew is on or off, and a color-coded LED indicates the room’s particle level. It glows red when air quality is poor at more than 25 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3) and yellow when it’s better but problematic at 10 to 25 μg/m3. Unsurprisingly, a green light means the air is healthy at a level below 10 μg/m3. That amount of detail is less precise than the six-color display on the Clorox Large Room True HEPA Air Purifier, which tops out at 999 μg/m3.

The unit has settings to adjust the filter for Auto, Boost or Silent modes as well as “+” and “-” buttons for the five fan speeds. The unit’s bar graph fills as the fan speed increases.

AirThings Renew sitting in the living room

(Photo credit: Tom’s Guide)

Renew raises the bar with minute-by-minute monitoring and precise control. In addition to the Airthings app, Renew works with the company’s web portal and the View Plus desktop sensor and display. Because it integrates into the Airthings ecosystem, Renew can be controlled by voice with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Airthings Renew Air Purifier Review: How it Works

The Renew filter draws ambient air in from the front and blows purified air out the top grille. It has no louvers to direct the flow and does not oscillate like the Dreo MC710S Air Purifying Tower Fan.

While other air filters have a three-step process to purify the air, the Renew system adds a fabric pre-filter. From there, the air flows through a mesh to remove large particles and passes to the device’s H13 High Efficiency Particulate Area (HEPA) filter, which is capable of blocking 99.97% of particles 0.3 microns or larger, stopping pollen, mold spores, bacteria and dust, according to the company.

The last step is to use a separate activated carbon element. It helps reduce odors from pets, cooking, and even household organic solvents.

Designed to cover up to 525 square feet, Renew can only renew the air in a room of that size twice an hour. It’s ideal for smaller rooms of around 210 square feet, where it can renew the air five times an hour, which is gentler on the lungs.

Airthings Renew Air Purifier Review: Performance

After removing the plastic wrap from Renew, I plugged the cord into the unit and wrapped the excess around the internal coil and hid it behind the snap-on cover. Unlike others, Renew can be leaned against a wall or even secured to it using the included hook.

It’s easier to press the Auto button to let the air filter determine how hard it should work, but the app offers more control.

AirThings Renew sitting in the living room

(Photo credit: Tom’s Guide)

Once running, the Renew had a filtered airflow rate (CADR) of 140 cubic feet per minute (CFM) for smoke. That’s less than half the Blueair Blue Pure 211+ Auto’s 353 CFM filtered airflow. AirThings is currently testing the Renew for its CADR with pollen and dust; we’ll update this rating when we have those numbers.

It ran in my 25 x 12 foot office for three weeks, while the nearby radiators were being scraped and painted. In automatic mode, it noticeably reduced the dust that covered the furniture before I used it. The particle level rose to 32 μg/m3 (in the red zone) a few times, but quickly returned to the 1 to 2 μg/m3 range with a green light.

AirThings Renew sitting in the living room

(Photo credit: Tom’s Guide)

While running on its lowest setting, Renew barely kicked up a breeze with an air speed of 1.2 miles per hour at 36 inches. That speed increased to 2.7 mph at full power. That pales in comparison to the Dreo MC710S Air Purifying Tower Fan’s 6.8 mph at its highest setting.

This is one of the quietest air purifiers on the market, with a noise level of 38.6 dBA measured 36 inches from the unit’s grille in a room with a background noise level of 36.8 BA. In contrast, the Dreo MC710S was much louder at 41.0 dBA in the same room. At its highest setting, the Renew’s 55.1 dBA was on par with the MC710S’s 55.0 dBA, which moved more air.

Renew is an energy-efficient appliance that uses 2.4 watts in low mode and 1.3 watts in sleep mode. If it runs 24/7, it should cost about $3.15 per year to operate if you pay the national average of 15 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity. In contrast, the Clorox Large Room HEPA Air Purifier has an estimated annual cost of $5.10.

It doesn’t require much maintenance. The company suggests vacuuming the outer fabric pre-filter, periodically washing the inner mesh pre-filter, and changing the HEPA filter every six months; the app displays its status. It used 4% of its capacity during my two-week test, and it takes a minute to change it. However, at $70, it’s among the most expensive replacement filters, and Airthings won’t automatically send you new ones.

AirThings Renew sitting in the living room

(Photo credit: Tom’s Guide)

Renew offers a one-year warranty, which is the same as the Blueair Blue Pure 211+. In comparison, Wyze and Clorox include five- and three-year warranties with their air filters.

Airthings Renew Air Purifier Review: Verdict

While other air purifiers are bulky, noisy, and hard to hide, the AirThings Renew air filter can not only purify the air in a medium-sized room through a four-step process, it’s virtually invisible. It’s the rare air purifier that can be mounted on the wall and offers a variety of ways to monitor and control its air-cleaning action. Small here means low airflow, with the Renew moving about half the filtered air of its competitors, though it uses far less electricity to do so. However, its replacement filters cost double what competitors charge, and its warranty only lasts one year.

At $400, Renew is a more expensive alternative to the $280 Blueair Blue Pure 211+ Auto, which filters more than twice the amount of air. Still, Renew can fit into a small to medium-sized room and is the rare air filter that blends in.