Smart UV Air Purifiers Review

The Smart UV Difference

Air purifiers perform a variety of functions and depending on the design, one model may better suit your needs than others. Smart UV products employ UVC light to kill pathogens in the air and, in the case of their hand-held LED UVC-emitting device Helios, on any surface the light touches in your home or commercial location. Smart UV products do not contain filtration systems to remove dust, pollen, and other allergens from the air and may not be quite so useful for asthma and allergy sufferers. On the other hand, all of us could use fewer germs in our lives. So, their products may have some universal appeal.

Models and Features

Smart UV's product line is relatively narrow. At the time of this review, the company was offering two whole-room models. The first, the Apollo, is designed for larger spaces and has a range of about 645 square feet. Disinfection time depends on the size of the room where you've placed the device. The company recommends an hour-long session for larger rooms. The device features a motion-detecting safety device that prevents it from turning on until you have moved a safe distance away from its UV lamp and shuts the device down if someone comes near it while it's operating. The Apollo also comes with a remote to make turning it on and off safer and more convenient. It's very important to remember that you must leave a room while it's being treated. UVC light can damage the skin and eyes.

The company's compact model, on the other hand, has a shorter effective radius of 6.2 feet. It would have to be relocated once or twice during a single disinfection treatment in order to effectively sanitize a large room.

More importantly, these two models differ in one critical way. Smart UV's compact model is an ozone-emitting device; the Apollo is not. Ozone has been identified by health and environmental protection authorities as a harmful chemical. Humans and animals can both suffer damage to cells in their lungs and respiratory airways through ozone exposure. While some air purifier manufacturers assert that ozone is able to kill pathogens, experts say that is only true when ozone is present in levels well in excess of those considered safe. In fact, Smart UV instructs customers to ventilate a room for 45 minutes after it has been treated with their compact model. We're not sure whether the compact model is ineffective at killing germs or potentially harmful to the health of those living in your home. Nor does that seem like a choice we'd like to make. Incidentally, California has banned the sale of ozone-generating air purifiers altogether. 

Price and Reputation

UV-C air purifiers are often more costly than filtration-based systems. Within its own category, Smart UV's Apollo device is reasonably priced. Smart UV is not rated by the BBB or on Trustpilot but that may be because it's a new company. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, UVC air purifiers have proliferated in the marketplace. So we'll leave you with one more reminder. None of these products have been definitively proven to kill COVID-19.