Brilliant – pretty much ideal for me, but is it for you?
If you’re a regular user looking for a solid purifier with healthy humidification for a bedroom/room, and… if you’re also fine with hooking it up via Wi-Fi to the cloud and controlling it through an app, then this is top-notch gear worth every penny, and I recommend buying it. You don’t need to read/watch any further, buy it blind! But for more hands-on takeaways, see below:
It really is a good purifier and humidifier (evaporative, meaning the superior kind). It’s a smaller unit, suited for a smaller apartment or an individual room. Though I’m testing it in a 76 m² apartment in the kids’ room, and it even knocks down pollution across the entire apartment (provided the doors stay open).
Price: On Amazon, you can grab it for under 1,200 PLN. Is that a lot? For a good-quality combo of an air purifier, air quality monitor, and humidifier, it’s actually pretty cheap. In Polish retail stores, it runs around 1,500 PLN, but Amazon has a Polish branch, so you can snag it cheap.
Link to the purifier on Amazon below:
Why do you even need an air purifier?
The most dangerous pollutants are the ones you can’t see, so tiny (PM2.5) that they penetrate cellular membranes… PM2.5 gets into the air from fireplace combustion, car smog (exhaust, brake dust, etc.), industrial emissions, or indoor stuff like frying/baking. SMOG kills—there are tons of studies, reports, etc. proving this… here’s an introductory article: https://www.tvp.info/83937188/smog-w-ue-druzgocacy-raport-polska-w-czolowce-zgonow-z-powodu-pylu-zawieszonego-ile-osob-zabija-smog
Why do you need a humidifier?
To boost our immunity… wait, immunity? It’s simple: overly dry air below ~30–40% dries out and irritates the mucous membranes in the respiratory tract, leaving us more vulnerable to infections, etc. BTW, everyone claims healthy humidity is 40% to 60%, but deliberately keeping humidity closer to 60% in winter is overkill, borderline risky overkill even; aiming closer to 40% is plenty. High humidity in winter exposes every cold spot in the house/apartment to condensation, and what loves moisture? Mold…
Pros:
- Good PM2.5 measurement accuracy compared to outdoor air data
- Very solid build quality and aesthetics
- Relatively easy operation (well, water refilling could be better).
- Kid-proof design. Air outlet is on the side, not pointing straight up like on the top of a Xiaomi air purifier. If you have kids, there’s always the fear they’ll drop something inside or pour water into it… With the Philips 3400 Series, fat chance—it’s way more toddler-proof
- Evaporative humidifier – Yep, that’s the good kind that can safely run on tap water. A standalone humidifier costs a few hundred and takes up extra floor space – SPACE SAVER
- Really nice, functional app, which is both a pro and a con – great in itself, but it’s yet another app…
- HEPA NanoProtect… blah blah blah + simply a good activated carbon filter. Does what a purifier is supposed to do (verified with my own measurements). OEM filters are a bit steep at 100–150 PLN, because a decent HEPA filter COSTS A LOT. Knock-offs usually contain way less filter media
Cons
- The app, while a plus, is also a minus because it requires a Wi-Fi connection and the cloud. On top of that, you can’t connect online via a browser. But unless you’re paranoid about that—i.e., like regular folks, ~95% of us have other devices hooked up to Wi-Fi—it’s no real drawback…
- Well, theoretically you can hook it up to Google Home or Alexa, but it boils down to on/off and maybe readings—totally neutered compared to Philips’ own app.
- Refilling water could be easier, since you have to pull out the whole drawer and slide it back in carefully to avoid spills. For instance, on something like a Xiaomi humidifier, you can top it off directly from the top through the air inlet.
- The evaporative wick / water filter is replaceable – on Xiaomi humidifiers, those are plastic discs that you can wash almost indefinitely
- Hard to dig up any other cons. Solid piece of kit for reasonable money.
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