Rabbit Air MinusA2 review: High performance, higher price tag

Best Prices Today: Rabbit Air MinusA2

Three years ago we put Rabbit Air’s top-of-the-line A3 air purifier to the test and found it to be a capable, if dazzlingly expensive, option for cleaning your home’s breathing space. Its smaller stablemate, the Rabbit Air MinusA2 offers a bit less power, but it carries a 20-percent lower price tag, too.

Like the A3, the MinusA2 (we don’t understand the name, either) is packed into a compact, upright frame that offers a diversion from the more popular upright designs that dominate the upper end of the purifier market. Measuring 20 x 21 x 7 inches (HxWxD) and weighing 19.4 pounds, it’s nearly the same size as the A3, but its stated coverage is limited to 815 square feet.

The MinusA2 is a strong performer. I placed it into a very smelly room, and the smell vanished within an hour.

Design

Rabbit’s purifiers offer a unique layered filter approach, with a sandwiched stack of five discrete filters through which air is drawn. In order, they are a pre-filter, medium particle filter, a HEPA filter that traps particles as small as 0.1 microns, a custom filter (more on this below), and an activated carbon charcoal filter. Lastly the unit also includes a negative ion generator that can be optionally enabled through the app or the unit’s control panel.

As expected, CADR rates of 200 (pollen), 193 (dust), and 180 (smoke) cubic feet per minute, are lower than the larger A3 model—considerably so in some cases. The figures are still acceptable for most household environments, though they’re on the low side for a product of this price level.

This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best air purifiers.

Buyers select a custom filter at purchase, choosing from four options: Germ Defense, Pet Allergy, Odor Remover, and Toxin Absorber. These are fairly self-explanatory (Germ Defense is designed to trap bacteria and mold, Toxin Absorber helps reduce VOCs, etc.) but worth digging into closely at checkout in order to pair them with your environment.

Performance

I tested the unit with the Odor Remover filter. Buyers can also opt for a fine art cover plate for an extra $20, choosing from six fine art recreations, such as Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” available to replace the otherwise plain white or black cover. There’s even a Hello Kitty themed version. If the unit is wall-mounted (hardware is included for that), opting for a custom panel might be an even more tantalizing prospect.

The unit arrives ready to go out of the box, though a few pieces of tape underneath the front panel holding the filters in should be removed before operation.

The MinusA2 works by drawing air in through its front-facing filters, then jetting clean air upwards and to the rear. In operation, the unit is surprisingly quiet, even at full speed. At its lowest “silent” speed, it is indeed quite soft (though not fully silent), and I expect most will find it suitable for use while sleeping. Onboard controls, situated to the right side of the front panel, include a speed control button with five settings; plus, the option to toggle an automatic mode. There’s also a button for the appliance’s accent light (more on this below). A separate light provides a visual indicator of air quality, shifting in color from blue (good) to red (poor).

All these functions and more are replicated on a small remote control that’s included with the device, which adds some additional options, such as the ability to shut off all lighting, control the ionizer, and activate a countdown timer.

As mentioned above, much like the Rabbit A3, the MinusA2 includes a “mood light” bar that runs along the front of the unit, cutting through the middle of the front panel. While the A3 offers more color options, the MinusA2 is limited mainly to blue, though it will cycle from blue to purple to pink if placed in “pollen mode,” a slightly more aggressive version of auto mode that will ignore any “sleep” settings.

Rabbit’s app hasn’t changed markedly since my last encounter with it. I had some trouble pairing the purifier to my 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network, but the issue vanished after a day, and I was able to connect to the device wirelessly. The app is mostly a souped-up version of the remote, complete with all control functions laid out in a more intuitive, visual style, along with an odd scheduling system that lets you set the fan speed for each hour of the day. This schedule is implemented unilaterally every day, with the fan speed changing once per hour. Very strange. Unfortunately, no logging of air quality is done over time.

Should you buy a Rabbit Air MinusA2?

The good news is that the MinusA2 is a strong performer. I placed it into a very smelly room (with the Odor Remover filter in place) and the smell had vanished within an hour. Running on silent mode, it kept the room odor-free for the following week.

You will, of course, pay for this privilege—not just for the hardware but for filter replacements as well. A full set of four new filters (the pre-filter is washable and needn’t be replaced) costs $95, and they will need to be replaced on a roughly yearly schedule. That’s a two-year expense of more than $700 if you opt for one of the artistic cover plates; but hey, can you really put a price tag on either clean air or art?

Best Prices Today: Rabbit Air MinusA2