“Heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race”, not only Michael Jackson but also Kent seems to be think in the same direction. While Jackson did this with his songs, Kent hopes to do this by offering an Air purifier that aims at cleaning the air especially in a congested city life.
The Science
The Kent Aura Air Purifier uses HEPA technology, basically High Efficiency Particulate Arrestor; a dust collection technology from Japan with an inbuilt ionizer that keeps the air fresh. Kent Aura catches and traps SPM (suspended particulate matter) as small as 0.3 microns with an efficiency of 99 %. with a ‘Specially treated/high grade adsorbent carbon media/ Catalytic Carbon adsorbent filter’ for purifying the indoor air.
What is Particulate Matter?
This was my first question, the marketing stresses on this and the Air Purifier takes a lot of pride in the removal of this. Particulate matter is basically, soot, tobacco smoke, smog, oil smoke, fly ash and cement dust. So the Kent Aura can clean the air from these particulates, especially helpful if you are living near a construction site, a smog filled city space and if there is presence of a lot of smoke in your area.
Image source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particulates
But what about other kinds of dust?
There are other kinds of dust that a common home environment does have, these are typically, house dust, viruses, cat allergens, pollens etc. Since the Kent Aura is not equipped to handle these, it cannot clean the air of this unfortunately. The filters do a specific job, therefore this cannot be applied anywhere in the hope of bettering the air without understanding the issue.
Features
The Aura air purifier comes with simple to use and interesting features out of the box such as timer, so that you can keep the air filter on for specified hours only, a helpful Filter change indicator, child lock feature while the entire operation is done as quietly as possible.
Filters
The Air Purifier does come with filters and if you so ever need to change them, it does come at an additional cost. There are namely two replaceable filters the composite Pre filter along with carbon Filter costs Rs.920. The HEPA filter costs Rs. 2100. The filters don’t need to be changed often, but this typically depends on the level of pollution, average filter life is around 2000 hours and under normal conditions should last for more than a year.
Testing Experience
Kent RO Systems was kind enough to send along their “Kent Pollution Monitor” to see before and after effects of using their air purifier. Interestingly my area in Mumbai is quite a clean space with a lot of trees and plants around. Rightly so, the Kent Aura monitor indicated this instantly saying “Excellent” with the monitor showing approx. “PM 30-33” on the reader.
I still proceeded to start the Air purifier in a closed room for two hours. The monitor of course did not show any difference in the air quality as there was no issue to begin with. I did feel the entire room was filled with a synthetic perfume smell that originated from the purifier. The room had got stuffy due to the closed doors and windows and the air purifier perfumed smell, not a good sign. The purifier is clearly not helpful if your rooms don’t have acute issues like particulate matters.
However, when tested by a friend who lives in a congested place, he could feel the difference in the air. The monitor did indicate a change but only slightly. While you cannot expect drastic changes like fresh Himalayan air under two hours, the Kent Air Purifier’s certainly has its uses. The more acute the issue of air pollution, the better this would work as a temporary solution.
Does it really help?
The straight answer is, your mileage will vary as it is dependent on several factors. There are only two ways of knowing before buying this, one is through your very own senses while the other way is to check with Kent pollution monitor itself. Hopefully the company offers this as a service to potential customers before plonking down Rs. 15,000 on an Air purifier.
Note the Air purifiers come in two different capacities depending on your room, the Aura for 270 sq feet costs Rs. 15,000 while the Eternal Air Purifier for 377 sq feet costs Rs. 22,000.
By-Nikhil Rastogi
The Science
The Kent Aura Air Purifier uses HEPA technology, basically High Efficiency Particulate Arrestor; a dust collection technology from Japan with an inbuilt ionizer that keeps the air fresh. Kent Aura catches and traps SPM (suspended particulate matter) as small as 0.3 microns with an efficiency of 99 %. with a ‘Specially treated/high grade adsorbent carbon media/ Catalytic Carbon adsorbent filter’ for purifying the indoor air.
What is Particulate Matter?
This was my first question, the marketing stresses on this and the Air Purifier takes a lot of pride in the removal of this. Particulate matter is basically, soot, tobacco smoke, smog, oil smoke, fly ash and cement dust. So the Kent Aura can clean the air from these particulates, especially helpful if you are living near a construction site, a smog filled city space and if there is presence of a lot of smoke in your area.
Image source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particulates
But what about other kinds of dust?
There are other kinds of dust that a common home environment does have, these are typically, house dust, viruses, cat allergens, pollens etc. Since the Kent Aura is not equipped to handle these, it cannot clean the air of this unfortunately. The filters do a specific job, therefore this cannot be applied anywhere in the hope of bettering the air without understanding the issue.
Features
The Aura air purifier comes with simple to use and interesting features out of the box such as timer, so that you can keep the air filter on for specified hours only, a helpful Filter change indicator, child lock feature while the entire operation is done as quietly as possible.
Filters
The Air Purifier does come with filters and if you so ever need to change them, it does come at an additional cost. There are namely two replaceable filters the composite Pre filter along with carbon Filter costs Rs.920. The HEPA filter costs Rs. 2100. The filters don’t need to be changed often, but this typically depends on the level of pollution, average filter life is around 2000 hours and under normal conditions should last for more than a year.
Testing Experience
Kent RO Systems was kind enough to send along their “Kent Pollution Monitor” to see before and after effects of using their air purifier. Interestingly my area in Mumbai is quite a clean space with a lot of trees and plants around. Rightly so, the Kent Aura monitor indicated this instantly saying “Excellent” with the monitor showing approx. “PM 30-33” on the reader.
I still proceeded to start the Air purifier in a closed room for two hours. The monitor of course did not show any difference in the air quality as there was no issue to begin with. I did feel the entire room was filled with a synthetic perfume smell that originated from the purifier. The room had got stuffy due to the closed doors and windows and the air purifier perfumed smell, not a good sign. The purifier is clearly not helpful if your rooms don’t have acute issues like particulate matters.
However, when tested by a friend who lives in a congested place, he could feel the difference in the air. The monitor did indicate a change but only slightly. While you cannot expect drastic changes like fresh Himalayan air under two hours, the Kent Air Purifier’s certainly has its uses. The more acute the issue of air pollution, the better this would work as a temporary solution.
Does it really help?
The straight answer is, your mileage will vary as it is dependent on several factors. There are only two ways of knowing before buying this, one is through your very own senses while the other way is to check with Kent pollution monitor itself. Hopefully the company offers this as a service to potential customers before plonking down Rs. 15,000 on an Air purifier.
Note the Air purifiers come in two different capacities depending on your room, the Aura for 270 sq feet costs Rs. 15,000 while the Eternal Air Purifier for 377 sq feet costs Rs. 22,000.
By-Nikhil Rastogi
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