It is called the Rolls Royce of air purifiers and, as the name implies, weighs and costs many multiples of its rivals. So the Airgle AG600 PurePal Air Purifier from Niravana had a lot to prove even before it started whirring away in a corner of my living room. This is no ordinary air purifier, not with a price tag of Rs 94,990 and a sales pitch that cut through the Delhi smog like a silver bullet. At least, I couldn’t think of it as one.
Airgle AG600 PurePal Air Purifier price in India: Rs 94,990
Airgle AG600 PurePal Air Purifier
The AG600 PurePal Air Purifier is built a bit like it was the chassis of a gaming CPU. It has what the company calls its “next-generation Titanium Pro module” and is roughly the size of a power inverter. It’s about 15 kg and thankfully comes with wheels to move it around. There is an LED panel up front to show the air quality, fan speed and filter life, timer and mode. It works with an old-world chrome-heavy dial that lets you select five speeds for the fan. There is also a remote that does not generate a lot of confidence in the user.
The Airgle AG600 is stylish, but in a bit of a 1970s kind of way. Yes, it will gel well in some decors, in others it can pass off as a corner stool as it has a flat top that can easily multi-task. The gas and odour, as well as cHEPA filter, go at the rear and the former seems to be what is making the entire rig really heavy. Whenever the times come to change the filters, the process is going to be easy but maybe not cheap given the way these are built.
Anyway, the best thing about the air purifier is that it is relatively silent and has a good air throw from the front and can even work as a fan if needed. Or so I thought. But the company reiterates that the premium is for the air filteration quality, which they say is unprecedented in the Indian market — the company claims its 40 times more than any HEPA purifier and kills all sorts of germs and pollutants. For Niravana, this is the only USP of the machine and that is what explains the price tag.
But for average users, the issue would be that you are flying blind as the AG600 just tells you whether the air is good or bad – one bar if good and five is bad. What that translates to in terms of PM2.5 and other unbreathables is clearly up to you. For despite the hefty price tag, the AG600 does not offer an app that gives you the numbers, a feature that the Xiaomi air purifier offers at a tenth of the cost. This is also the biggest drawback of the AG600, unless you are willing to invest a bit more in a standalone air quality monitor.
Otherwise for a regular household or office, the access to the numbers and the reassurance that the count is improving after a few minutes of an air purifier running is crucial. The AG600 showed three bars at a time when my Xiaomi my clocking over 200 PM2.5, this is somewhere in the middle, between good and bad. It goes down to a single bar in about 15 minutes while the Xiaomi takes close to 30 minutes in reach green. I thought this was good, but then I realised one bar means the air is really bad and five bars mean it’s been cleaned up.
I liked the fact that the AG600 offers a timer which is not a functionality available in most of the air purifiers I have reviewed so far. There is also the option of switching to auto mode where the machine decides the fan speeds. Then this is among the few air purfiers that offer full manual controls without having to reach for an app — not that this had any choice.
Should you buy?
Anyway, this will work well as an institutional purchase where the price won’t really matter when air quality of this kind is being promised. There might be some advanced home buyers too out there who could be game. For average users it is a bit tough to recommend the Airgle AG600 given the price. Thankfully, even if I did recommend it is unlikely that most people will be able to afford this one. It is sad that despite the price the Airgle AG600 does not offer either a particulate matter count or an app to monitor the AQI, especially when their USP is getting it spotlessly clean.
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