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- Easy to use
- Good choice of colours
- Rapid filtration
- Expensive
- Fabric cover could attract cats’ claws
While the Blueair Signature is already out in the US, the air purifier has not yet launched in the UK. This will change on 10 August, so watch this space.
Our full-length review continues below.
Many air purifiers struggle to blend into the background. Not so the Blueair Signature, which is available in a range of attractive colour schemes – with additional options for wooden legs and chrome trims. It’s not a unit you need to slide into the corner when guests visit.
That’s a good thing, but while it’s quite short at 44cm, it’s far wider than your average air purifier. Nevertheless, with some exceptionally rapid filtration times, and a pleasingly quiet operation, it’s more than in with a shout of being one of the best air purifiers on the market – even if it does come at a cost.
What do you get for the money?
The Blueair Signature costs around £350, and is the firm’s flagship model in terms of both price and features. Indeed, its maker claims it’s the most efficient and compact in its class.
For that not-insubstantial outlay, you get an air purifier with a clean air delivery rate (CADR) of 295m³/h (pollen), 270m³/h (dust) and 260m³/h (smoke). According to Blueair, that’s sufficient punch to clean an impressive 314m² of air in an hour.
Air passes through a fabric pre-filter, which is available in six colours, and a main filter that uses Blueair’s HEPASilent filtration – designed to quietly remove at least 99.97% of airborne impurities as small as 0.1 microns. The filters don’t have a fixed lifespan: rather than the need to change them at regular intervals, you’ll need to swap them when the app tells you to. But as a rough guide, Blueair offers a subscription service to send you £59 replacements at six, nine or 12 month intervals.
There are five discreet touch-sensitive controls on top of the unit, plus a delightfully retro LED matrix display, which is hidden when not needed. The fan button cycles through four speeds, plus there’s an auto mode and a night function which dims the screen and reduces the fan speed while you sleep. The lock button prevents settings being accidentally changed if, for example, the unit is doubling as a side table – although Blueair recommends you don’t plonk a cup of your freshly brewed coffee on it.
An Eco mode can be accessed via the app, and geofencing tech means the Signature can be set to switch on when you’re 15 minutes from home, with modes to select whether you’re travelling by car, bike, public transport or by foot, which is a nice touch.
A series of five light strips on the front of the unit scroll, Knight Rider-style, while air purification is in progress, and cycle through blue to red to clearly indicate how polluted the air is. There’s also a timer which shows how long until the air will be clean.
How well does it clean?
Let’s get this out of the way first. The Blueair Signature works very well indeed. In my standard air filtration test, which involves a lengthy spray of deodorant in a small room, it reduced peak PM2.5 levels of 309 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³) to fewer than 100 in 30 seconds. It took a total of one minute and 33 seconds to drop down past 25µg/m³, which is significantly quicker than any other air purifier we’ve tested. It may have been quicker still had the Signature not reduced its fan speed when our air quality meter reached 27µg/m³.
For more information on our air purifier testing methodology, from measuring noise output to monitoring PM2.5 particles, check out our How we test air purifiers page.
Of course, this test reflects relatively extreme circumstances. But the Signature shuffles through the gears efficiently even in its automatic mode: the setting you’re most likely to leave it on for most of the day. The same is true of its night mode, but here it sticks to lower fan speeds.
The fan itself is worthy of note, because it huffs out air in 360 degrees, and moves it at a fairly credible 2.0m/second in its most powerful setting. Because the unit is fairly short, it blasts air at a 45 degree angle, so you’re more likely to feel it in your upper body, rather than your knees. At 33dB in its low and night settings, it’s barely noticeable, and 43dB in medium settings is pretty much par for the course. Although 63dB in its highest speed setting is comfortably the loudest we’ve tested – possibly due to it shifting more air.
Yet for all this, power consumption is low when it’s merely ticking over, consuming 3.8W. It’s predictably more hungry at higher fan speeds, where it consumes 37.9W, but neither should make much of an impact on your bills, particularly if you schedule it to use cheaper off-peak power and set up geofencing so it’s not working while you’re out.
The best thing is that it’s all so easy to use. I like that the controls automatically illuminate as you move your hand near, and that its “AirSense” technology will clear stagnant air even if there is no pollution. The app is particularly slick in operation and displays historical air quality data and set schedules.
Filter replacement is easy too. You simply remove the pre-filter like a sock to gain access to the wraparound filter. The old one slides off, and you simply wrap the new one around and clip it in place. The clip itself is slightly fiddly, and you need to carefully stretch the filter around the base, but it’s not difficult. The NFC tag behind the filter also fires up Amazon to allow you to purchase a new filter: a very nice touch.
What could be improved?
I like the look and feel of the pre-filter, but the tactile weave of the fabric proved rather too tempting to my cat, who had to be warned off sharpening his claws on it several times. Given the propensity for pet owners to own an air purifier, and the £25 cost of a replacement, an alternative fabric would be helpful.
It’s also a little odd that the eco mode can only be accessed via the smartphone app.
Should you buy the Blueair Signature air purifier?
If home aesthetics are important to you, then the Blueair Signature should absolutely be on your shortlist. Yes, it’s not cheap, and you can spend even more on optional accessories so it appears more to your taste, but there’s no doubting its depth of efficiency and ability.
It’s exceptionally quick to filter heavily polluted air, and is remarkably easy to set up and use. Its low-speed power consumption is low, and the combination of simple scheduling and the ability for it to switch on and off depending on whether you’re at home will keep running costs low.
