By Tim Munoz
The Cherry Smart Air Purifier Ultra is a large air purification beast with a hefty weight to go along with its girth. Thankfully, its sleek and unobtrusive design allows it to blend in perfectly in the background of any modern Filipino home, with four smooth-gliding wheels to alleviate any issues with regard to its mass. A tasteful RGB LED strip adorns the top of the unit, dividing the main body from the exhaust vent and intuitive touch control panel. If smudging your fingerprints onto a nice and shiny touch panel isn’t your speed, the Smart Air Purifier Ultra also comes with a handy remote that’s just as intuitive and sleek as the main unit. The Cherry SAP3000 can also be controlled remotely via the Cherry Home App, as long as the unit is connected to a wifi signal.
Air purifiers have become all the rage in the past two years due to the global health crisis, but if you’re anything like me, then you’ve had one for quite a while now. Life with allergic rhinitis and a severe dust allergy makes a living in the metro quite hard on the sinuses, making an air purifier more of a necessity than a luxury. Sure, you could argue that you can just take antihistamines as a daily supplement, but nothing beats eliminating the root cause of the problem.
Air purifiers come in all shapes and sizes, and while they’re basically just a fan with some filters, I’m of the opinion that there are two deciding factors in picking the right one for you. The first would be the amount of noise the unit makes. This is something you’ll keep plugged in and operating 24/7, so you want a purifier that produces what you would deem as an acceptable level of noise in relation to performance. The second factor is the ease of use and upkeep. If the thing is a pain to operate and clean, then that’s not the one for you.
As someone with multiple air purifiers, I’ve decided to pit the Cherry Smart Air Purifier Ultra against my current room air purifier, the B****** 680i. Both units used their own proprietary HEPA filters and were tested in a 37sqm air-conditioned room with a 53dB ambient noise level. With my current air purifier only having three settings, I’ve decided to use speeds one, three, and five of the Ultra’s speed settings to correspond with the competitor’s settings.
Results: Room:
53dB B680i 1: 56.5 dB
B680i 2: 58.5dB
B680i 3: 68.5dB
Cherry SAP3000 1: 55.5dB
Cherry SAP3000 3: 59.5dB
Cherry SAP3000 5: 63.5dB
Both purifiers on the first setting barely produced any noise, only adding 2.5-3.5dB to the room’s ambient noise level; these levels are barely audible, and you really have to look for the sound to hear it. Settings two and three are where both purifiers kicked up a few notches in terms of noise and air volume, with the 680i averaging 68.5dB at max and the SAP3000 averaging 63.5dB at max. The noise difference between the two is marginal, but the lower hum of the Cherry SAP3000 paired with the lower noise level makes it all easier to ignore while going about your business. What really takes the cake is that the Cherry SAP3000 can clean up to 28sqm more for 3dB less noise!
The Cherry SAP3000 and 680i are fairly easy to use and clean, both designs are straightforward, and you don’t need a manual to figure out how either unit works. However, the SAP3000 has an advantage over its competition because it has multiple safety features that can prevent injury or damage to both user and unit. If the side or top panels are dislodged in the slightest, the unit shuts off, ensuring that no foreign objects come in contact with a moving fan. It also comes with a child lock feature, making it so that the control panel can’t be tampered with for as long as the child lock is on.
Now, this wouldn’t be a review if I didn’t have any constructive criticism to give, but honestly, I’d have to nitpick to say anything bad about this product. Considering the fact that Cherry’s site now lists this product at 15,999.00PHP, and my current 680i is listed at 43,950.PHP, the price-to-performance ratio of the SAP3000 is heavily lopsided towards performance, giving you more “bang for your buck” so to speak. But in the interest of being painfully honest, I guess my only gripe is that I can’t turn the LED strip off independently since I like sleeping in total darkness.
All in all, the Cherry Smart Air Purifier Ultra is a great piece of air sanitation technology that stands to compete evenly with industry leaders and at a fraction of the cost to boot!