We get a variety of different products to review here at What Gadget. In this review, we have been testing an air purifier from the brand Molekule. The Molekule Air mini + is a small air purifier that boasts medical-grade materials and PECO filter technology using UV radiation to destroy pollutants in the air.

 

First impressions

 

The Molekule Air Mini + is simple to use and comes with a simple app that records the air quality from good to very bad. This means there is no breakdown of the type of particles in the contaminated air. The Molekule Air mini + can’t detect volatile organic compounds. This makes the air purifier harder to tackle odours without manual intervention.

 

This air purifier is not cheap, costing £299, which is not cheap, and you will be forgiven for thinking it’s packed with features, but Molekule has kept things simple, which in this case is not ideal. I would have preferred a more detailed reading. What it does have is patented PECO technology. This breaks down organic matter at a molecular level. Unfortunately, it was not possible to confirm or deny if this was true. Along with the use of medical-grade polycarbonate would go some way to explain the price point.

Design

The key specs of this air purifier are the size, coming in at 8.26 x 8.26x 12 inches, and it’s not lightweight, coming in at 7.3 lbs. This air purifier can provide you with Room coverage up to 250 sq ft. It is advised to replace the filter every 6 months, and the controls are either by the device or via the app.

Now, when looking at Air Purifiers, they can vary in design; some look utilitarian, while some make a statement. This device sits in the middle. It comes with fancy design elements but won’t blow you away. The white medical grade polycarbonate outer has a textured matt finish with the branding inlaid in shiny silver. You will notice on the right side of the Air Purifier, there is a tan colored vegan leather handle to carry this Air Purifier. I would not say this was easy to carry around, so it’s more for design than being useful. Back to the device itself, there is a grey band that sits towards the bottom of the unit where the base meets the top section.

The control panel is subtle, as no lights are on subtle as no lights are on show until you touch the centre to awaken the Air Purifier. This centre button is used to turn the power on and off, cycle through auto protect and manual fan modes and reset the Air Purifier. Next to this is an indicator light for the air quality in the room. Green is good, yellow is for moderate, red is for bad and blue is for very bad.

There is a series of white dots to indicate the fan level, one dot means the lowest fan speed and five for the highest. It also shows an interlinked symbol to indicate auto-protect mode.  The Air Purifier also has a wi-fi symbol that flashes up when you start up or if there is a connectivity issue, and a filter symbol that indicates the filter’s health.

Features

The Air Mini+ is compatible with the Molekule app. This app has an easy-to-use interface with a cool-toned palette and animations. Despite the app being simple to use. However, setting up the Wi-Fi connection was a bit of a headache. Once connected, the purifier tab on the app told me what the current levels were from good to very bad. From this tab, you can change between Auto Protect mode and manually select a fan speed from one to five. There is also a percentage rating to show the PECO filter condition. When pressed, it provides further information on the filter and details on how to change it. Click on the More tab, and you can connect to Alexa, add more air purifiers to the app if you can afford more than one and also enable or disable notifications.

The indoor air tab shows a timed graph spanning 24 hours or one week. Unlike the Pro model, there is very limited information about the Air Mini+. The graph notes the IAQ using the same colour-coded system as shown on the purifier itself and the length of time the air quality was at that level. Unfortunately, there are no details on whether the IAQ was affected by dust, pollen, smoke or volatile organic compounds. Some consumers might be happy with this, but buying a cheaper model will provide more detail, so this is an area Molekule needs to fix. When you buy the Molekule Air Mini+ has received FDA clearance and is intended for medical purposes. It indicates it can capture 95% of particulate matter and destroy bacteria and viruses by exposing them to ultraviolet radiation, but this is only available at fan speed 3 or above.

Molekule states can destroy bacteria, mould and allergens and reduce odours and toxic gases with a 99.97% particle capture efficiency rate. As mentioned earlier in this review, Molekule recommends changing the filter every six months, which is expensive, costing £299

Performance 

Upon initial setup at home, I struggled to connect to my iPhone 14. I found that I needed to manually go into my Wi-Fi settings to find the Molekule Wi-Fi the purifier was trying to connect to. I had to find this out for myself; all I had was a button that appeared asking to connect to the Molekule network. Which would then throw up an error saying that it was unable to join. Once you discover that you need to join the network manually. My phone connected to the purifier.

I also had another issue when I was connecting the Air Mini+ to my Wi-Fi router; I was left with the spinning wheel until I gave up. Resetting the app and Wi-FI had no impact. I had to admit defeat. Now the Air Mini + was running overnight, and it was not collecting any data. The only indication of the air quality was a coloured indicator at the light on the top of the unit. The next morning, I tried again, but the app said there was an issue connecting to the network and to try and reconnect. This eventually fixed itself when I pressed the button to continue, and it linked to the purifier on the app.

Another issue I had was switching between manual mode and auto protection. The fan just speeds up to the loudest setting even when the air quality is good. We now have twins, so if the babies are sleeping and you have forgotten to set it onto auto, it’s very inconvenient. It’s also not ideal when you’re heading to bed. As it became more apparent, the fan took some time to reduce from its final speed when put into auto. Even though it had only been on manual for a moment, the IAQ was good, meaning that the fan noise was loud for longer than it needed to be.

We sprayed dry shampoo towards this Purifier and it detected it very fast. The fan sped up gradually as a result, changing the IAQ from bad to good within two minutes. The fan then slowed, even though the fragrance remained strong in the air. I manually set the purifier to full speed, and it took 40 minutes to clear the air.

Verdict

 

The Molekule Air Mini+ impresses with the use of medical-grade materials and a bacteria-busting PECO technology. The app looks great, but the data proved unreliable when it did not match the results from testing. The Air Mini+ has all the components of a great little air purifier. The lack of VOC detection means it isn’t living up to its full potential.

Overall, if you’re looking for an air purifier that comes with FDA class II medical device clearance, a simple fan setting and PECO filter technology. However, it’s not perfect; it comes with problematic wi-fi issues, no Bluetooth and basic IAQ readings.

Product Rating    

Design: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars

Features: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars

Performance: 2.5 out of 5.0 stars

Value for Money: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars

 

Overall ranking: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars – 3 stars

The Molekule Air Mini+ is available from Amazon, costing £299