Air purifiers for homes are most certainly an essential now. They are no longer the luxury to scoff at. And no longer the unnecessary accessory that demands you mock its owner. It is no surprise then that brands such as Philips, Honeywell, Dyson, Blueair, Panasonic and Atlanta Healthcare have become household names, and the citizens of our extremely polluted cities are queueing up to buy indoor air purifiers for different rooms at home. Eureka Forbes, a brand well known for a variety of purification products, including water purifiers and vacuum cleaners, are also taking the air purifier space very seriously. Their line-up currently includes a purifier called the Eureka Forbes Dr. Aeroguard SCPR 660H and this is priced at Rs 37,990.
At this price point, it is facing some serious competition. Because we have some really competent air purifiers available at lower price points too. These examples of brilliance include the Philips 3000 Series (around Rs 24,999), the Honeywell AirTouch S8 (around Rs 26,500) and the Blueair Classic 280i (around Rs 26,999). So why then would you want to spend significantly more on the Eureka Forbes Dr. Aeroguard SCPR 660H?
In terms of the design, the Eureka Forbes Dr. Aeroguard SCPR 660H isn’t exactly a beauty to look at. It is made well, in the sense that the panels fit well and things don’t exactly feel cheap. But that is subjective too. The dual colour finish is fine to look at, but it isn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination. Compare this with the enamel white of the Philips 3000 Series, the pure white of the Blueair Classic and the royal silver colour option of the Honeywell AirTouch S8, and you really begin to wonder who thought the Dr.
Aeroguard SCPR 660H would fit well in that space. Anyway, we move on. The controls are at the top, which basically means you get one large round dial and two sets of displays on either side of it. Why two displays? Because the layout of the menu options, the font size in use and the lack of intuitiveness of it all requires two displays to fit everything. If you are perplexed in terms of how to use this, at least initially, we can feel your discomfort. Compare this with the slick touch sensitive control keys, well labelled mind you, in all the aforementioned alternatives, and the contrast is undeniable.
A purifier is really worth its salt in terms of the performance. And by that, we mean how quickly it can clean the indoor air and keep it that way. The Eureka Forbes Dr. Aeroguard SCPR 660H brings to the table a 6-stage air filtration process, which it calls “best in class”. Fair enough, let’s see how well this works. Not well enough, apparently. Within one day of placing this in the living room to test the 400 cubic meter per hour (m3/h) clear air delivery rate (CADR), we had a problem. The wall directly behind where the Eureka Forbes Dr. Aeroguard SCPR 660H was placed started to adopt a layer of dust, dirt and a sooty texture, of the colour commonly known as black. At least a shade of black.
A closer inspection revealed that the design of the clean air vent at the top curves slightly towards the back, and that meant the air that the Eureka Forbes Dr. Aeroguard SCPR 660H was throwing out after apparently running them through the multiple layers of filters was hitting the wall. That design wouldn’t have been a problem otherwise, but this layer of newly deposited black points to a larger problem—the filters are passing through the dust, pollution and other unseen particles back out into the air, the air you would assume is clean and pure. The same air that your parents would breathe. Your better half would breathe. And your baby would breathe.
It is quite unfortunate that the Eureka Forbes Dr. Aeroguard SCPR 660H didn’t really get the deserved attention in terms of the filter quality. Which is perhaps the most essential part of an indoor air purifier. The humidifier add-on, the shoddy controls and everything else can be ignored for a moment, if the Eureka Forbes Dr. Aeroguard SCPR 660H had actually delivered on the clean air bit. It doesn’t. We cleaned the wall, and then tested the Philips 3000 Series purifier at the same location (it also has a vent which is positioned towards the back of the purifier) and the wall remained spotlessly clean.
There is, in our minds, no need to really delve on the rest of the nuances. The Eureka Forbes Dr. Aeroguard SCPR 660H has not delivered, at least in our experience, on the air purification aspect. And that is an instant deal breaker. No air purifier should be this incompetent. You can save some money, and buy the more competent Philips 3000 Series, the Honeywell AirTouch S8 or the Blueair Classic 280i instead. Trust us, they will do a better job. And also look at home in a larger space, such as a living room.
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