Introduction

The RabbitAir MinusA3 Air Purifier is a multi-filter air purifier that is designed to run very quiet. It has an MSRP of $749.95 for the standard white or black design and offers various color and design options that are available at a $20 increase. When it is time to replace the included filter set, which will vary based on what is being filtered and how much the unit runs, the filter replacements have an MSRP of $115.95.

Setup

The box comes with the air purifier, filter set (pre-filter, medium filter, activated carbon charcoal filter, BioGS HEPA filter and customized filter – odor remover in this case), power cord, wall mount bracket and manuals. The air purifier can be mounted in the standard direction or upside down. The reason for when you’d want to mount it upside down is that the button controls are towards the top of the unit, and depending on how high you mount it, could make them unreachable if they were on the top side. The mount for the wall hanging takes 8 screws (not included) and has two sections that can accept the pegs from the back of the air purifier. The pegs on the back of the air purifier unscrew out so that they reach far enough out so that they can hang the unit on the wall mount and you can use either the top or bottom pegs depending on which direction you are mounting it. Once mounted, you can plug the power cord into the back of the unit. Previous models had the power cord permanently attached. The unit can also be setup to be free standing on the floor, table or location of your choice.

I mounted the device on the wall, in the upright position, replacing my previous RabbitAir MinusA2. The wall mounting process was very simple. The purifier is designed to cover up to 1070 square feet, and my smoking area is about 120 square feet, so well within the capacity of the purifier.

Cigar Accessory Review: RabbitAir MinusA3 Air Purifier

Evaluation

The controls for the unit are accessible on the top of the unit (if mounted in the traditional fashion or floor standing) or via the RabbitAir app that you can install on your phone or tablet. Full control is possible using either method as I didn’t see any functionality that was limited to just one method or the other. With the size of my space, I just typically pressed the power button on the unit to start it up and the same when shutting it down rather than using the app on my phone.

Cigar Accessory Review: RabbitAir MinusA3 Air Purifier

When turning on the unit, you have the option to leave the system in auto mode where it will sense the particles in the air and adjust its fan speed accordingly or you can manually place the unit at any fan speed you choose. In almost all cases, I would leave the unit in auto mode as I found it did a good job of only increasing speed when it sensed smoke in the room. It has enough speed options that it’s not just a low or full speed option and it tries to keep things as quiet as possible.

While smoking and the system is running, it does a good job of circulating the air and removing a fair amount of smoke. After finishing a cigar, I would typically let it run for another 30 minutes to help clear out as much residual smoke and odor as possible.

Something I’ve noticed, and it’s not unique to RabbitAir systems is that after an air filters initial use of filtering smoke, when the unit is running and there is no more smoke in the air, the filters are distributing a musty smell, which I’m assuming is a byproduct of the various filters in the unit and the trapped smoke and odors. This is noticeable when starting up the unit prior to lighting up a cigar or when the unit is running after you’ve finished a cigar and the smoke has been cleared from the room. While smoking, I am not able to smell the mustiness as the smoke smell masks it.

There is no replacement for fresh air, so the times in which you’d consider a unit like this is if you are smoking indoors and don’t have the ability to have a constant flow of fresh air through the space. Typically this would be because you are using enclosed cooling or heating to keep your space comfortable and utilizing outside air would negate the heating/cooling effects or because there just isn’t good outside air flow in the space that you are smoking. In these situations where fresh air is not an option, the RabbitAir does provide good filtering while smoke is in the air.

Pros

• Very good filtering of smoke
• Simple and robust controls (on the unit or in the app)
• Various colors and designs
• Easy filter replacement process

Cons

• Expensive
  • Up front purchase cost
  • Filter replacements
• Circulated musty smell when not smoking
  • This is not unique to this particular device, but something I’ve found in all of the air purifiers I’ve used

Conclusion

The unit does a great job of filtering smoke and it’s easy to use. The biggest decision though will be to determine if the cost is worthwhile. There are a number of air purifiers that you can find on the market at a lower cost, but they may not have the aesthetic that fits in your space and that may be enough to bring you to this design. I have no issues with the function of the RabbitAir MinusA3 and will continue to use it during the Winter months when I keep my smoking space fairly closed up while using a space heater.

* RabbitAir provided this unit for review

Cigar Accessory Review: RabbitAir MinusA3 Air Purifier