Australia is one of the countries with the cleanest air and where we live, down on the south coast in Western Australia, there are no major industrial polluters.
Yet, I’m a big fan of air purifiers.
Why?
This summer we had the smoke from bushfires.
Now, we’re entering the burning-off season. More smoke to penetrate our houses.
Winter weather is coming soon with woodstoves smouldering overnight.
And then there’s the pollen season…
How about indoor pollution from pets, dust and even electronics?
And don’t forget the harmful nanoparticles from fragrances, scented candles or cooking with gas.
Yep, everyone – even in the countryside, will benefit from air purifiers.
So, today we’re reviewing one of the latest air purifiers in the famed Ionmax range: the Breeze Plus Smart Air Purifier, also known as the ION422.
On DRN we’ve reviewed many air purifiers from the Ionmax stable over the past decade or so.
We’re grateful they sent us the Breeze Plus to try out.
This unit is functionally not heaps different from the previously tested ION450 or the ION430.
First Impressions
The Breeze Plus is somewhat smaller than the models I just mentioned, but still capable of covering a room up to 66 square metres.
As an aside, on the box it mentioned coverage up to 35sqm, so I contacted Ionmax.
They said: Apologies for the confusion regarding the box—we haven’t updated our packaging design to reflect the correct CADR calculation yet.
The 66 square metres is correct.
This Clean Air Delivery Rate is a bit of black magic to calculate, but I digress…)
Suffice to say, it will handle just about every room in the house.
And because it is very portable, you can bring clean air into every room as needed.
The Breeze Plus has a clean and sleek look.
The design is similar to the other models we’ve tested with all the interactions happening on the slightly slanted top panel.
This touch control panel has buttons for power, Auto Mode, Sleep Mode, fan speed, UV, Negative Ioniser, and the Timer button.
There’s also a secondary menu under the UV button to access child lock, HEPA filter reset and WiFi.
Central to the panel is the round display screen.
All the current button functions are displayed together with the air quality indicator.
It’s all well-thought out and simple.
The Filter
The 3-in-1 filter is easy to replace.
Generally, any time after 6 months, depending on how polluted the environment is, the ION422 will indicate it is time for the HEPA filter replacement.
I have found I could stretch the time in between by vacuuming the pre-filter when it gets dusty.
Filters are a reasonable 50 bucks for the 3-in-1 HEPA filters.
Or for better value you can buy the Breeze Plus Bundle which gives you 3 filters for just $100 extra.
The App
The Ionmax app is supposed to be your remote control.
Everything these days needs to be connected to the internet and I’m not necessarily a fan of that trend.
For me, walking a few steps to change settings and see immediately what happens, far outweighs the time spent on logging in – if you’re lucky enough to be able to connect to the ION422 in the first place.
Initially, like everyone else it seems, I struggled to get the connection.
The WiFi has to be on the 2.4 GHz network only.
I finally got lucky, but it wasn’t all that easy.
I had read the reviews on the Google Play store before installing the app and knew what to expect: the app scored a miserable 1.2 out of 23 reviews.
But hey, we got to see what regular customers have to go through…
I must say my longer-term experience with the app was OK.
The only additional value of the app would be that you get historical data on the PM2.5 values (indicating the amount of indoor pollution) as well as Filter Time remaining.
There is also the generic Tuya Smart app which Ionmax recommends to use if you have trouble connecting.
Overall Experience
The Breeze Plus is very effective in reducing the tiny airborne dust particles in your house.
Having the purifier on at night also helps you sleep better.
We have it on at full blast in the bedroom and that bit of white noise of the fan also seems to help with falling asleep…
Talking about noise levels: the fan has four settings.
We measured the following: At Low speed it is barely audible at 31dB.
It’s 44 at Medium and 55 on High. Turbo is around 60dB.
All very reasonable.
The power draw is also very minimal. 55W at full blast and just 7W at Low speed.
When we light up our fireplace there’s always some initial smoke and smell emanating from the woodfire.
That’s when you see the high PM2.5 values which quickly go down to normal levels when we use the Breeze Plus.
Our Recommendations
My message to folks interested in the Ionmax Breeze Plus: you can’t go wrong with this air purifier.
It is good value for money and does exactly what you want it for.
It’ll make a great difference in your overall indoor air quality and for some people who normally struggle with breathing, this can be a game changer.
And it has a proven 99.97% effectiveness against viral infectivity with the HEPA filter.
Just don’t buy it for the “SMART” feature.
The app is not really necessary (IMNSHO) and can be finicky to connect to.
Warranty and Discounts
Every residential Ionmax product has a standard 2-year warranty.
However, a 2+2 year warranty is available when you register the product.
Have a look at the product page for the Breeze Plus Bundle here as it has the best value.
Ionmax has kindly offered our readers a 10% off all their main products, which includes all air purifiers and dehumidifiers.
Use discount code DRN0425 at checkout (valid for 3 months after publication date of this article). Free shipping for orders over $499.
