AppleInsider is supported by its audience and can earn commissions on qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate and Affiliate Partner.These affiliate partnerships do not affect our editorial content.
SmartMi 2 air purifier has HomeKit smart, UV germicidal and good coverage.If it weren’t for the messy setup process, this would be a great purifier to add to your home.
For pollen, the SmartMi 2 has a Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) of 208 cubic feet per minute (CFM) compared to 150 CFM for the P1.Smoke and Dust have the same 196 CFM as the 130 CFM on the P1.
The SmartMi 2 is rated for a room size of 279 to 484 square feet, while the P1 covers 180 to 320 square feet.This allows for some overlap in room sizes.If you have a 300 sq. ft. room, you can easily choose any purifier, although the SmartMi 2 has some advantages beyond just being faster.
One of the most attractive benefits is the integrated UV light.Ultraviolet light is designed to kill airborne viruses and bacteria caught by the filter.
We don’t test this ourselves, but there is plenty of research showing that UV light has a propensity to reduce bacteria and viruses, including COVID.We don’t have the tools to effectively measure this ourselves, but all things being equal, we prefer a purifier with UV disinfection over one without.
The SmartMi 2 air purifier is just over 22 inches tall compared to the SmartMi P1′s 14 inches tall.It has a nice dark metallic blue-gray body on a slightly reflective pale gold base.
Don’t worry, we don’t like gold, but the yellow hue is minimal, reflecting more of the color in the room around it.Perforations around the bottom two-thirds allow air to be drawn in from all directions and exhausted from the top.
At the top is a useful display that shows relevant information.There is a ring that surrounds the information and changes color depending on the air quality, making it easy to see from across the room.
This ring combines values from TVOC and PM2.5 readings into a common color value.A ring is a ring if it is excellent, yellow if it is good, orange if it is medium, and red if it is unhealthy.
There are also some brand logos that look so.It’s not a logo, but a pollen icon.The icon changes color like the outer ring, but represents PM2.5 and PM10 values, which include airborne pollen.
Below the pollen icon is the current PM2.5 reading.If you prefer color-coded rings, here are the numbers.For TVOC, a single bar graph displays the data graphically.
There are two capacitive touch buttons on the top of the device, one for power and the other to cycle through modes.Using the button, you can cycle through sleep modes – the lowest fan option for bedtime, a manual mode you set in the app, and an automatic mode that adjusts the fan based on air quality.
With the smaller SmartMi P1, you can also cycle between fan speeds, which is something we’d like to see here.If you want complete control over the speed yourself, you’ll need to do so via the HomeKit or SmartMi Link app.
Once you receive your SmartMi 2, you can be up and running in minutes.There are various plastics and tapes covering the different parts you need to remove.
This includes the filter located on the rear panel.The filter is a cylinder that draws in air 360 degrees.The rear panel has a handle that you can squeeze to allow it to turn freely and away from your body.
Sensors automatically shut down the purifier when the filter is removed, preventing unfiltered air from flowing through the system or spinning the fan inside by hand.
Once the plastic is all removed, you can plug in the power cord.It is a standard polarized C7 AC power cord.When plugged in, your current filter life is displayed on the screen before it starts filtering the air.
With the addition of HomeKit, the SmartMi 2 integrates perfectly with all other HomeKit accessories.You can include it in scenarios that automatically execute based on various factors or situations.
Purifiers are added to HomeKit like any other device, regardless of manufacturer.You can pass the HomeKit pairing code located inside the filter cover and it will be instantly recognized by the Home app.
It then walks you through the standardized process of adding it to the network, assigning devices to rooms, naming them, and switching any suggested automations.We add our products to our production studio, where we spend most of the day.
When you tap an accessory, you can turn it on or off and adjust the speed of the fan.When the fan is all the way up, the device can get very loud.
Swipe up for more and you can access all device settings.Change rooms or names, add automation and other preferences.
Technically, the SmartMi 2 adds two paired accessories.You have a purifier and an air quality monitor.The monitor will give you a description of the air quality – good, good, poor, etc. – as well as the PM2.5 concentration.
You can split the two devices to show up as separate accessories in the Home app, or pair them together.
In the beginning, our intention was to use the SmartMi 2 as a full HomeKit device.That is, without relying on third-party apps for any additional control.
Part of this ideology is simplicity.It’s easier to just use the Home app than to move between two separate apps, which is a benefit of HomeKit accessories in the first place.
We plug in the air purifier and scan the HomeKit pairing code later.The purifier has been added to the home app without any problems.
But as data started populating in the Home app, air quality wasn’t listed.It just reads “unknown” and not for us.
We know the sensors and air purifiers are fine because the current air quality is displayed at the top of the device.Chances are it just needs time to measure the air accurately, so we let the machine run for a week before taking the time to retest.
Even after a week of operation, the air quality is still not showing in the Home app.Aside from a full reset, we think the next option is to try the manufacturer’s SmartMi Link app.
When we launched the app, it asked us to create an account.Fortunately, the app supports Sign in with Apple, which really helps with privacy and reduces the need for another password.
After creating an account and logging in, the purifier did not show up automatically despite being on the web.After some fiddling and force-quitting the app, we had to manually add the purifier.For this, we had to reset the Wi-Fi.
We held down the two buttons on the top of the device until the Wi-Fi icon started blinking and quickly appeared in the SmartMi Link app.The app then asked us to re-enter our Wi-Fi credentials.
It’s a clunky experience and repeats the Wi-Fi process that HomeKit already facilitates in the background the first time you pair.After doing this, the purifier successfully displayed in the SmartMi Link app, but displayed as “Not Responding” in the Home app.
Now we had to reset the Wi-Fi again, adding it directly to the Home app a second time.This time around, however, the purifier has been spotted as a HomeKit device that can be added to the SmartMi Link app without having to set it up again.
At this point, we have the purifier we want in both apps, and looking back at the process, if we create a SmartMi account, add to HomeKit, and go back to the SmartMi Link app, it seems like we would have for maximum success.The new firmware update we installed may have fixed some of these weird loading bugs as well.
We won’t delve into these details because of its mundaneity, but instead highlight the tedious process that users have to go through to troubleshoot connectivity issues.
After all, we did successfully display air quality in the Home app, and it was worth the money.
Since we’re using the SmartMi Link app, we had to check out its many additional features, including those not supported by HomeKit.
The app’s home screen displays air quality readings and visualizes the air and pollution entering the purifier.The slider allows you to quickly change modes.
Swipe up to see filter age, screen brightness, timer and sleep timer.You can also enable or display sounds, child lock and UV lights.
In the app you can see a graphical interpretation of air quality over time.You can see it over the course of a day, week or month.
As I mentioned, we installed the SmartMi 2 air purifier in our studio of about 400 square feet.It’s not enough to clean an entire basement, but a 22′ by 22′ room should be acceptable.
Compared to other purifiers in our house, the SmartMi 2 is very loud at top speed.We certainly don’t let it run in our studio, bedroom, or living room when we’re there at top speed.
Instead, we keep it at a lower speed and only crank it up when we’re leaving the house or there’s some sort of little problem or air problem that calls for it.
We were very happy with cleaning the purifier because the exterior can be easily vacuumed and the top of the purifier is removable allowing us to wipe the blades.It’s one of the most user-friendly designs we’ve tried.
The filter it uses is a four-stage filter that includes a layer of activated carbon.This activated charcoal can help reduce odors in the air, one of our biggest concerns for so many animals.
HomeKit automations and routines work flawlessly, making it a solid air cleaning solution—at least not after we got through the awkward setup process.We hope SmartMi allows firmware updates to be performed through the Home app, further reducing the need for the SmartMi Link app.
If this was a year or two ago, we’d probably still highly recommend the SmartMi 2 because of the small number of models available.VOCOLinc PureFlow never had replacement filters available, and Molekule was small and expensive.
Post time: Aug-01-2022