I almost wonder if there should be just another category called “recommended smart home devices” but, that being said, now that I have my new Ecobee thermostat and its air quality reports, I kind of want to get an air purifier that can work with it when the air quality is low. The first would probably be in my home office where I work. Personally, to me, it does not matter if it works off Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter or WiFi but local control would be a plus. I see information from two years ago but I have to think technology has advanced in this rapidly changing world.
So…what are you all using and what do you like and what do you dislike?
I have Xiaomi Mi Air purifier Pro; there is hacs plugin for it (where supported models are stated, too), and you can control it via HA. Perhaps only downside i see is that it has OLED display which after a couple of years shows signs of burn-in. Since majority or time, it shows “001” these numbers are clearly visible when showing other numbers. But, since i almost never look at display it’s a minor disadvantage, i guess. BTW…it’s possible to turn off this display…
oh, and, of course, regular periodic filter changes are necessary (but i guess that this is a must no matter which purifier you buy).
I use a Levoit Core 300s which has an official integration via cloud, but instead I took it apart and flashed it with esphome which gives it pretty good fully-local functionality (esp32/wifi). Being in the US, the Levoit was the only customizable option I could find, as the esphome and tasmota device listings only have flashable air purifiers from EU and Australia. The config I used works ok, but requires significant customization.
While there are no Z-Wave options I’m aware of, the IKEA purifier can connect via Zigbee (you can find lots of feedback if you search the forums for STARKVIND). There are also several HomeKit options, which are generally fully local, one of which uses Thread if you’re anti-WiFi. Matter is still in beta, but there is one Matter-over-WiFi air purifier out so far. Some of these have built-in air quality sensors, but some do not.
I’m still researching, but here is what I found so far:-
Levoit - Levoit Core 400S, LEVOIT LV-PUR131S, and Core 300S. Size for your room. (Smart) There is an official HA Integration - look for VeSync. Is is cloud polling. As stated above.
Coway/Airmega - highly rated and lots of models - [Coway AP-1512HH Mighty][Wi-FI version] or Coway Airmega 400S. Also only a HACS integration [Coway IOCare] - GitHub - sarahhenkens/home-assistant-iocare
I have a couple of the smaller Levoit units - Core300S-P and they work well with the integration and app. Just want to get off the cloud dependency.
Yes, it works quite well here, too. Only mod i made is rfid reader (under the filter, at the bottom of device), which i replaced with custom pcb which allows filter counter to be easily reset (just unplug from 230 and re-plug in). But that’s because i mainly use it for (visible) dust reduction, not so much for pm particles (i have a lot of dust since i have two dogs, carpets etc…). If your main reason is filtering pm particles then regular filter change is advisable.
I have 3 Philips airpurifiers which work fine through this HACS integration.
However, some people reported instability, but for me this is quite stable.
Just to update those looking at the levolt ones I had to re-add it to my vesync app just now and it would not work until I had set my DNS to 8.8.8.8 and got rid of my cloudflare primary of 1.1.1.1
The app kept failing with the message: please change your router DNS to 8.8.8.8
So keep this in mind when you are setting these ones up if you go with them. I may look at swapping to the Welov P200 Pro (hopefully we see more more options that are not cloud reliant) since it’s listed as a matter based Air Purifier as per the link provided above if/when this 300s chooses to die fully on me.
My network forbids access to any public DNS … guess I can make firewall and adguard allowances for it just the same way I had to for Amazon devices which want total and complete unfiltered access to the internet before they work
Yea I did not have this happen when I first got it, only after the recent app update and the TOS changes it seems.
edit: OK that vesync app is starting to get on the nerves… even with the DNS set to google dns its failing to connect… either they need to fix this or I am just dumping this app and this brand and replacing it soon as I have the money for one that is properly local only control.
