Philips 800 Series Air Purifier Review

We've taken a look at the Philips Air Purifier Series 800 (AC0820/30). This is a compact Air Purifier, suitable for domestic use. It uses the same technologies as the larger air purifiers made by Philips.

In this review we talk about the feel and build of the device, modes, our experience with using the device while cooking and our experience with using it around pets. If you want to see the unboxing of this, please check out our video.

Specification, Feel and Build

The Philips Air Purifier Series 800 is a smaller air purifier - with the following specifications:
  • Dimensions: 25cm x 25cm x 36.7cm (L x W x H)
  • Weight of Product: 2.4 kg
  • Voltage: 220 - 240 V
  • Frequency: 50 Hz
  • Power Cord Length: 1.6m
  • Power: 22 W
  • Colour: White
  • Control Panel Type: Touch Panel
It uses a Vita Shield Purification System which removes 99.5% of particles, as small as 0.003µm. It states it removes outdoor pollution, household dust, pet dander, pollen, dustmite allergens, mould spores and viruses. The Philips Air Purifier Series 800 is designed for rooms up to 49m2, in our example the room is a kitchen/diner which is approximately 40m2 so tests the device to the larger sizes it is designed for. The device states it can clean the air in a room 20m2 in 16 minutes. It uses intelligent area sense to detect changes in the air.
 
The Philips Air Purifier Series 800 also comes in a box with relatively little packaging, noticeably using cardboard protective packaging rather than polystyrene, although the device comes itself in a plastic sleeve. Included in the box with the device is the charger and manual. For setting the device up there are easy to follow instructions on the internal lid. The filter also comes in a plastic sleeve so you have to make sure to remove the base, easily done - but not too loose that it would do so on its own, and then remove the sleeve and place it back inside the device - you’ll hear a click when the base cover is correctly reattached. The filter has a nice design and is replaceable when you need (available for around £19.99).
 
It is noticeably lighter than you expect when picking it up given its size. It’s an attractive, clean design. While it is light, it does have a tough, robust feel to it - exactly how you’d like it. Unlike the larger commercial air purifiers it has a simple, one button operation which is used to change through the three modes.

Modes and Light Colours (Air Quality Detection)

The device has three modes, night/quiet mode, auto mode and turbo. As you can imagine from the names the night/quiet mode operates quietly in the background, the auto mode switches on and off with changes in the air and the turbo continues running at a higher speed until switched off. The colours of the device’s ring vary between blue (good), blue-purple (fair), purple-red (Poor) and red (Very poor).
 
I mostly used the device in sleep/quiet mode and auto-mode. In the auto-mode I found that it worked quite quickly to improve the air quality. In around a 20 minute period the air condition went from red (Very poor) to blue-purple (fair) and that was whilst a log burner was lit (although door shut) in the room. The feeling was that the air purifier had made a noticeable difference to the quality of the air.

Noise

In terms of noise, the auto-mode the noise produced was around 60db - noticeable, but something you could ignore if you were working in the same room, watching television or listening to the radio. In Turbo Mode the air purifier produced noise around 66db. I didn’t test the noise on sleep/quiet mode - however anecdotally I found the noise from this mode to be almost entirely unnoticeable so much so I had assumed that it wasn’t cleaning the air at all - although it is!

Power Usage
 

I tested the power usage across each mode to see how much of the advertised 22 W was actually being used in each mode, something which I think would be of particular consideration to the bill payer in the household. In Sleep Mode the power usage was just 2.2 W, so just 10% of the advertised wattage. In Auto Mode the power usage was 7.4 W, which is around 30% of the advertised wattage and similar to that of an LED light. In Turbo Mode power usage was predictably the highest at 18.2 W, about 80% of the advertised wattage. I was quite surprised by how little the Philips 800 Series Air Purifier used, particularly in the Auto Mode.

Experience with cooking

After finding a permanent home for the Philips 800 Series Air Purifier, and being a keen cook, I tested how it coped with a few different meals being cooked in the room. I found that having the air purifier on while cooking was quite successful at removing smells out of the air. The first meal I cooked was Teriyaki Salmon and it very successfully removed the smell, the smell was gone before the air purifier had decided the air had returned to a good level of air quality and within a short time, around 20 minutes or so, of finishing cooking. The second meal I cooked was Haleem, a popular South Asian dish. It certainly got rid of the smell, even with a meal that would normally leave a longer lasting smell. Finally I cooked Nihari, a Pakistani Beef Stew - having cooked this many times before the lack of smell was remarkable.

Experience with Pets
 

One noticeable thing was that the Philips 800 Series Air Purifier turns on whenever my dog came past. I asked Ruth (my Cocker Spaniel) what she thought of it and she didn’t seem bothered - was more interested to find out if any food was available.

Conclusion

Over a 7 day period of using the Philips 800 Series Air Purifier, I have to say I was pretty impressed with its performance. In particular, it was very successful at removing cooking smells from the air. It is a nice looking device and successfully cleaned the air in the room I put it in (about 40m2). The only issue worth mentioning is you have to make sure to keep the door shut, otherwise the device will stay on for quite a while trying to clean the air of your whole house/flat. On the whole, a good device that you’ll notice the difference it makes after using.

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