Xiaomi Mi 3C Sensible Air Air purifier Evaluation

How is the air high quality in your house? Lately I used to be involved that the air high quality in my home wasn’t good. I made a decision to construct my very own air high quality sensor. Then I made a decision so as to add out of doors air high quality monitoring to Residence Assistant as I improved upon my air high quality sensor design. We’ve lately had some traditionally poor air high quality in our space. My sensors additionally confirmed poor air high quality in our dwelling at the moment. So, I made a decision it was time to put money into an air air purifier. And since I like all issues sensible, I went with the Xiaomi Mi 3C Sensible Air Air purifier. Right here’s my evaluate.

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Standards for air air purifier

I’m not an professional in air purifiers, so I wished to get my toes moist earlier than going all out buying an costly one. Listed below are my standards:

• In a position to enhance the air in a single room (300-400 Sq. toes can be nice)
• Comparatively cheap (lower than $100 ideally)
• Integrates with out a lot headache with my sensible dwelling hub, Residence Assistant (I would favor a neighborhood integration to a cloud integration)
• Has an built-in air high quality sensor
• It makes use of simply replaceable HEPA filters

There may be extra issues I must be searching for, however these are the first options I’m inquisitive about.

Different fashions I thought of

Of the standards above, the first limiting issue is the mixing with Residence Assistant. Listed below are three further fashions I investigated:

These all had their shortcomings. Within the case of the Levoit, it solely integrates with Residence Assistant through cloud management. Not a deal breaker for me, however not preferrred. It additionally doesn’t have an air high quality sensor. Though I’ve air high quality sensors I can use, it might be good to place this in a location with no sensor so I can know the way nicely it’s working.

The meross additionally lacks an air high quality sensor. Plus, integration with Residence Assistant takes a bit of extra work as it’s essential to use a Residence Assistant Group Retailer integration as there is no such thing as a official integration. All you are able to do is flip it on or off; you possibly can’t management the fan velocity. The excellent news is that it does have native integration. It additionally works with Apple HomeKit, which suggests you could possibly use homebridge or just like combine it with extra management in Residence Assistant.

Lastly, the Dyson seems nice, however it’s too costly. Though the mixing with Residence Assistant is doable and native it takes just a few steps and isn’t formally supported.

Extra ones I learn about however didn’t contemplate:

• Ikea Starkvind air air purifier — This can be a Zigbee air air purifier. If in case you have a Zigbee radio in your Residence Assistant ecosystem this provides native management.
• Different Levoit Fashions — You possibly can’t get ones that work with bigger rooms and have air high quality sensors, however you’ll pay extra and nonetheless be restricted to cloud integration.

Why I selected the Xiaomi Mi 3C

The Xiaomi Mi 3C appeared to tick all of the marks:

• It has an formally supported Residence Assistant integration that makes use of native management
• It’s rated to work in rooms as much as 409 sq. toes
• It has an built-in air high quality sensor with a visual readout
• Makes use of simply replaceable HEPA filters

Notice the value of this unit fluctuates fairly a bit. I put a worth tracker on it and ended up shopping for it for underneath $100. I recommend you look forward to a sale.

There are numerous Xiaomi Air purifiers that can work. They provide some various options and completely different protection areas and costs. Listed below are some others price contemplating:

Xiaomi Mi 3C setup and adding to Home Assistant

Xiaomi setup was a piece of cake. You have to download the app and set up your credentials. Then the app should automatically discover your Mi 3C and then you can control it via the app.

Home Assistant setup is just as simple. Add the Xiaomi Integration and then supply the credentials you used when setting up your account. The integration needs these to get a token for initial setup, but after that, control from Home Assistant is local. You’ll then have Home Assistant entities that allow you to turn on and off your Mi 3C and monitor its filter life, motor speed, PM2.5 reading, and more.

Xiaomi Mi 3C use and effectiveness

This is the best part. It works! I had some bad air quality going on in the house, and I turned this on in my office the air quality in my office was significantly better than in the rest of my house, as measured by the Mi 3C and my homebuilt air quality sensor.

That’s the bottom line. However, there are a few other things I’ll note about the machine:

• It has a quiet mode, and it is almost silent in this mode. But other fan speeds are noticeable.
• The display can be very bright in a dark room. Luckily, you can control the display brightness, and even turn it off. And you can do that all from Home Assistant too.
• Although you can automate when it turns on via Home Assistant you don’t have to. It has an auto mode that will turn it on when the air quality gets bad.
• The Home Assistant integration has been rock solid.
• It has a couple of control buttons on the top that can adjust the LED brightness and change the mode (auto, quiet, etc.) of the air purifier.

Final thoughts

I’m happy with this purchase, and I may buy more air purifiers or at least one for our bedrooms. After suffering through almost two weeks straight of bad air quality this year, I started to really feel the effects, and I wish I had already bought one of those. I’ll be prepared next time.

Do you have an air purifier? How well does it work? Does it integrate with Home Assistant? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.