Levoit Core P350 Review: Good for pets

Verdict

Levoit’s Core P350 does a superb job of eradicating smoke and different contaminants from small and medium-sized rooms. Whereas its controls are primary – and it misses out on good options and air high quality detection – its HEPA and carbon filter is right for pet house owners trying to take away odours, and filter out allergens, particulates and micro organism from the house. Apart from a thicker carbon layer within the filter, nonetheless, there’s little distinction between this and the Levoit Core 300 – if you happen to’ve obtained a kind of, you may get related efficiency by becoming the P350’s pet-specific filter.

Introduction

The Levoit Core P350 is a small to mid-sized air air purifier aimed particularly at households with pets. It’s bodily nearly the identical because the Core 300 and its good by-product the Levoit Core 300S, however it comes with a pet-specific filter.

This goals to lure extra hair and allergens than the usual one and has a thicker carbon layer. This makes use of a patented ‘ARC’ system, which Levoit says actively breaks down pollution reasonably than simply absorbing them.

The P350 is compact and fairly good, made out of a gray plastic reasonably than the standard white. There’s not a lot setting as much as do – you simply unscrew its base, take away the delivery bag from the filter and also you’re able to go.

Design and options

• Compact, agreeable design
• Diffuse air output
• Timer, evening, and pet lock modes

This air air purifier is aimed toward smaller and medium-sized rooms, notably these reminiscent of a bed room the place a pet would possibly spend a number of time.

It’s fairly compact, measuring solely 22cm throughout and 36cm excessive, but it packs a fairly large filter that takes up about half the air purifier’s top. Levoit states a clear air supply price (CADR) of 187 cubic metres per hour (m3/h), which implies it’d clear the air in a typical bed room about 3-4 occasions an hour. That’s rather less than the Core 300S, which has a 240m3/h CADR.

Regardless of a fairly robust fan, filtered air emerges in a diffuse sample from the rakes on the prime. Like most different air purifiers, this isn’t an effective way to fire up a breeze you possibly can really feel.

The Levoit Core P350 doesn’t have any air high quality detection, so it might’t reasonable its pace in response to particulates, unstable natural compounds or some other contaminant. Based mostly on my expertise, pace one would possibly suffice more often than not, with increased speeds helpful if you happen to’re cooking, throughout hayfever season, or within the presence of different pollution.

There aren’t any good options right here, only a complete contact management panel within the centre of the air output. This gives three fan speeds plus an evening mode that’s actually quiet sufficient to have operating within the background when you sleep. You possibly can set an off timer in two-hour increments as much as 12 hours, flip the standing lights on and off, and even have interaction a ‘Pet Lock’, lest you must personal a very dexterous animal. There’s additionally a light-weight to provide you with a warning when the filter wants changing.

This air purifier comes with a pet-specific, three-stage air filter. Levoit says that is optimised to filter out pet fur, dander and particles. The woven prime layer actually appears to be efficient for bigger contaminants, rapidly choosing up nice hairs from our cat that had made it by the consumption vent. The following stage is a HEPA 13 filter, designed to take away 99.97% of particles right down to 0.3 micrometres – that features most pet allergens, micro organism, mould spores and pollen.

It’s the ultimate, carbon stage that’s most completely different to the usual Core sequence filters. Levoit says there’s 90 grams of carbon right here, in comparison with 40g in the usual filter. That is ‘modified carbon’, which chemically reacts with alkaline gases such because the ammonia emitted from pet urine, neutralising reasonably than absorbing it. It must also be efficient at eradicating fuel contaminants reminiscent of unstable natural compounds (VOCs).

This specialised filter makes the P350 nicely suited to pet house owners, however it’s value mentioning that the majority air purifiers with a HEPA 13 and carbon filter will nonetheless be some assist in decreasing pet smells and allergens. You may as well purchase alternative filters individually, so you possibly can at all times match the pet-specific filter to an present Core 300 or Core 300s. On the time of writing, the pet filter was about £5 greater than a regular one.

Efficiency

I check each air air purifier by shutting it in a small room with a burning smoke pellet. These rapidly fill the room with dense white smoke, wealthy in particulate matter, and we time how lengthy it takes for the air purifier to get the air high quality again right down to protected ranges. This check sends my PM2.5 air monitor (which detects particles round 2.5 micrometres in measurement) actually off the dimensions, and it might take a number of minutes for it to fall again beneath its 999 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m³) most.

In my first check, the Core P350 didn’t appear to enhance the air high quality in any respect, even after 20 minutes. On examination, I realised that I’d changed the filter the wrong way up after eradicating it from its transit bag. It’s a disgrace that is potential, because it nearly fully blocks the fan’s air consumption, rendering the air purifier briefly ineffective.

With the filter fitted correctly, the P350 carried out nicely sufficient, getting the air high quality from dangerous to reasonable (<100μg/m³) in 11 minutes. In 12 minutes the air had fallen into the great (<50μg/m³) vary. That’s a slight enchancment on the occasions the Core 300S recorded on this check, however I’ve examined bigger purifiers that may do it in half the time.

It’s laborious to develop a equally scientific check for odour removing, however I positioned the Core P350 subsequent to my cat’s litter tray, and it actually appeared to assist scale back the scent from recent visits.

My sound measurements backed up my sense that this can be a quiet air purifier, notably on the evening setting the place I recorded simply 30.7dB from one metre away. Even at full chat, this solely elevated to 48.3dB – not even sufficient to make you elevate your voice.

I used to be a bit shocked once I linked the P350 to an power meter. Whereas the Core 300S had proved very environment friendly, utilizing between 2-19 watts (W) relying on the fan pace, the P350 was rather less so. In evening mode it consumed 18W, rising to 39W at full pace. That’s nonetheless not an enormous quantity of energy, however at a typical electrical energy worth of 30p per kilowatt hour, it might price you about £30 extra annually to run it flat out for 12 hours a day, in comparison with the Core 300S.

Newest offers