TechRadar Verdict
The LG PuriCare 360 is a good looking air purifier that covers large distances while purifying the smallest particles. It is a bit pricey but it does more than any other air purifier we've tested.
Pros
- +
Nice design
- +
Quiet and efficient
- +
Cleans the smallest particles
Cons
- -
Pricey
- -
Smart functions restricted to LG platform
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The focus on health and wellbeing has been on the spotlight in recent years and for a good reason. Technological advancements have played a big role in not only providing us with more health-related data but also making our lives healthier.
Air Purifiers are becoming an integral part of most homes and today we are looking at one of LG’s flagship product- the LG PuriCare 360 that is set to help you remove dust, bacteria and chemicals present in your house. And you’d be surprised how much of it is present in an average home.
Placement and setup
The LG PuriCare 360 is a rather sizable device but designed well enough to blend into a corner. In fact, the cylindrical body with a rotating head can easily pass as a futuristic decorative item instead of an appliance. The height of the appliance is put to good use which houses two independent filters and a rotating booster fan.
There are plenty of tiny holes all around the cylindrical shape of the LG PuriCare 360 and while you may think they’re there for design, they help intake air from all sides which is not how other air purifiers in the market work taking in air only the back. This allows you to position the air purifier anywhere in your home.
Setting up the LG PuriCare 360 is an easy but tedious process because of the number of tapes you need to remove. There are two filters that are pre-installed but inside plastic bags protected by lots of tape which means that you need to remove them from the housing. The housing feels a tad bit flimsy but you won’t be accessing it too frequently- LG recommends cleaning the filters once a month and replacing them yearly.
Dust 101
It’s not just the amount of dust present in the environment but also the size of dust particles. Most air purifiers in the market can recognize bigger dust particles and this where you see a PM10 or PM 2.5 specs on an air purifier with PM10 being larger particles. However. LG claims that it has technology to detect PM1.0 particles which are extremely minute. To give you an example, PM10 particles are about a tenth of size of human hair and PM1 is ten times smaller than that.
The way most air purifiers work is detect particles that are PM10 or PM 2.5 and once they’re removed from the air, the purifier goes to sleep mode thinking its job is done. The LG PuriCare 360 switches to PM1.0 mode after removing PM2.5 particles and find these super tiny particles that would go unnoticed with other purifiers.
Features and performance
On top of the unit sites the rotating booster fan that can push fresh air as far as 7.5 meters. This allows the LG PuriCare to cover a much larger area, around 90 sq. mt., of your home LG claims that overall performance with the booster is almost 75% faster.than competing brands.
The booster fan also houses the top panel with a few buttons as well as a small screen that shows you the current level of air quality. Using these buttons or the included remote, you can set a number of different modes for the unit to operate on as well as set options such as speed, swing and timer. However, the best option is to just leave it on smart mode.
The LG PuriCare 360 has two sensors - one for odor and one for dust. If the unit detects a bad smell, the odor indicator switches between red, orange, yellow and green. The same goes for the dust sensor, with a color ring on top as well as an LED in the center that signifies the air quality.
With smart model enabled, if the dust level goes to 100 or above, the entire units works including the two filters and the booster. When the air quality gets a little better, the booster continues to work but doesn't swing in any direction. As the quality keeps improving, the booster shut down but the two filters will continue to operate. When the air quality level reaches the 'green zone', the top filter also stops working leaving only the bottom filter to operate.
You can manually disable the filters or booster, however, LG recommends you use the unit in smart model to home clean while saving on energy costs. Using the smart mode, we saw our unit enhance the air quality by decreasing dust levels over 80 as showed by the screen and a red light to under 20 within a matter of hours. Also worth noting is how quiet the LG PuriCare 360 is- you'll hardly ever hear it.
The LG PuriCare 360 also has built-in wifi and works through LG’s Smart ThinkQ platform. Once you have connected the device to your home wifi, you are able to access it using LG’s Samrt ThinQ app and change settings even if you’re on another network. This useful for families, especially if they have kids, where they can check the air quality.
The LG PuriCare 360 is available for AED 5,249 (US$1,430) while the filters, that need replacements on a yearly basis go for AED 399 (US$ 80)
