Elechomes UC3101 Air Purifier review: Improve air quality and eliminate odours

While we mostly review devices that are tech no-brainers like laptops and smartphones, occasionally we review other products that are a little more borderline tech-wise. That being said, there’s usually some aspect of technology in these devices, not to mention it’s nice to review something a little different from time to time. Our Elechomes UC3101 Air Purifier review takes a look at an air purifier that constantly measures air quality and adjusts it’s speed accordingly to provide cleaner air inside your house or office.

Specifications

The Elechomes UC3101 Air Purifier has the following features and specifications:

• 1 Pre-Filter & 3-Layer Composite for Maximum Purification: The Elechomes Air Purifier is a quadruple threat. Armed with 4 layer-of-the-art filters, this purifier will trap and eliminate up to 99.97% of airborne pollutants -pollen, dust, pet dander, tobacco smoke, household odorus, PM2.5, and VOCs. Works great with particles as small as 0.25 microns and larger. Ideal for allergy and asthma sufferers.
• Dual Sensors: Two is better than one. The dust sensor and smell sensor work together to monitor air quality and identify harmful particulate matter and odour, adjusting the wind speed and purification settings accordingly.
• Smart Mode & Sleep Mode: Don’t waste your time fiddling around with your device. Just plug it in and let Elechomes air purifier do the work! Smart mode will purify and deodorize air automatically. Drifting off? Sleep mode turns off the indicator light, dims the touch panel, and quiets the fan for the perfect sleeping environment.
  Intelligent Timer & Child Lock: Gone for the day? Don’t let your air quality slip away! Set the working time and shutdown time between 1 hour and eight hours for automatic purification. Better still, the specialized child lock function prevents children from playing with the control panel.
• Extra-wide Coverage: Big room? No problem. The Elechomes Air Purifier provides fresh, clean air for enclosed spaces up to 350 square feet! It’s the perfect choice for bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, garages, offices, and so much more.
• Application area: 350 sq ft
• Sensor type: Dust sensor, smell sensor
• CADR (HCHO): 60m³/H
• CCM (PM): P4
• CCM (HCHO): F4
• Negative ion release: 8 million pcs/cm³
• Noise: 35-64dB
• Rated voltage: 120V
• Rated power: 65W
• Operation: Touch/remote control
• Material: ABS+Vitreous glaze panel
• Product size: 420 x 210 x 496 mm (16.5 x 8.3 x 19.3 inches)
• Weight: 8.5kg (18.74 lbs)

What’s in the box

• Elechomes UC3101 Air Purifier
• HEPA Filter
• Remote Control (batteries not included)
• User Manual

Design

The Elechomes UC3101 Air Purifier is a bit of a beast. Rectangular in shape, it stands upright and is 16.5 inches wide, 8.3 inches deep, and 19.3 inches in height. The back of the unit is plain while the front is split diagonally from top right to bottom left between a flat surface on the top half and grille triangle motif on the bottom half. When turned on, green, yellow, or red light shines through the grille portion to indicate current air quality levels. The Elechomes logo is printed in grey on the upper left corner of the front panel.

The front panel is removable. Once removed, you’ll encounter the pre-filter. Remove that and you’ll see the replaceable HEPA filter. Remove the HEPA filter and you’ll see the fan and internal components of the air purifier. Located near the top, above the fan located in the middle of the inside, is where the safety switch and smell sensor reside.

Both the left and right sides have a sunken handle near the top which makes it easier to move the unit around. The left and right sides have the same triangle grille motif as the front. The right side contains the dust sensor while the left side is the air outlet.

The top of the panel is where you’ll find the touch control area which is a clear panel. The top panel is framed with a silver plastic bezel piece which adds a bit of class to the look. From left to right, you’ll find alternating triangle buttons for the filter reset, automatic mode, sleep mode, and timer mode. In the middle is the particulate matter (PM 2.5) display. To the right of the PM 2.5 display are four more buttons for fan speed adjustment, negative ion function, child lock, and power. When a feature is active, the corresponding button is lit up with a blue LED so you can tell at a quick glance what is currently active.

The remote has two columns of three buttons each with similar functions. The left column is where you’ll find the power button, timer, button, and sleep/auto toggle button. The right column has buttons to adjust the fan speed, toggle the negative ion function, and turn the child lock feature on and off.

Finally, the bottom has four plastic feet with rubber bottoms. The power cord comes out of the bottom as well, centered in the back.

Even though it is on the big side, the Elechomes air purifier looks fine sitting in the corner of the living room or a bedroom.

Ease of Use

Before using the Elechomes UC3101 Air Purifier, you’ll have to ensure that you remove the packaging from around and inside the unit. Once that’s done, simply plug it into a wall outlet by where you want it placed and you’re good to go. The company does recommend placing it on a flat surface and leaving 20 inches of space around each side.

Once plugged in, the air purifier will beep and enter standby mode. Touching the on/off button on the air purifier or remote will turn it on in automatic mode and enable the negative ion mode. Touching the same button while on will put the air purifier back in standby mode.

When turned on and in auto mode, the air purifier will constantly monitor the air quality in the room and display the current particle matter value on the PM 2.5 display. If there is no odour detected, the PM 2.5 value is lower than 75, the front grille will light up in green. The grille will appear yellow if the PM 2.5 number is between 75 and 150 and red if it’s greater than 150. If there is an odour detected, the PM 2.5 value will flash on the screen and the front panel will appear red regardless of the PM 2.5 value. The colour also indicates the current fan speed while in auto mode, green for low, yellow for medium, and red for high.

Sleep mode can be enabled by pressing the sleep button and will put the air purifier in low fan speed mode and dim the display. This mode is especially useful for night time if the air purifier is in a bedroom.

The other functions are straightforward as well. Fan speed can be adjusted by pressing the button multiple times while the negative ion function is toggled on and off by pressing that button. Child lock is enabled or disabled by pressing and holding the button for three seconds. Finally, the timer can be set to turn off the air purifier in one hour increments, up to 8 hours. When the air purifier is on, each press of the timer button will add one hour to the timer.

All in all, if you can read icons on the touch control panel on the top of the air purifier or the remote, you’ll have no issues using it.

Performance

The Elechomes UC3101 Air Purifier covers a 350 square foot area, according to the specifications. For our review, I set it up in our living room which is roughly 220 square feet and adjoins onto our kitchen/dining room area which is another 170 square feet. While this is slightly above the recommended square footage, the air purifier seemed to perform well, obviously focusing its sensors on the living room area.

The air purifier couldn’t have come at a better time. The week it arrived, we were experiencing poor air quality from forest fire smoke drifting south from over 700 kilometers away. Even with the windows closed, the initial PM 2.5 reading was over 350 when we set up the air purifier. It took a while but after a few hours, it was down to around 30.

During this same week, when the display was reading 32, we opened the door to talk to someone for about 20 minutes and it shot up to 258 and switched the fan on to high due to the smoke. Once the door was closed, the PM 2.5 reading slowly decreased until it was back down to an acceptable level and the fan switched back to medium and low speed at the appropriate readings.

There was also a few times the unit fired up during a good PM 2.5 reading. The reason for this, as mentioned previously, is the air purifier also has odour detection. We soon realized that it was firing up the fan due to the aroma diffuser we had set up nearby. Upon moving the diffuser, the air purifier fired up less often when the air quality reading was good. I further tested the odour detection by placing everything from a lit candle to a plate of hot food near the unit. In every case, the air purifier fired up to dispel the odour.

When the unit is on, the air is sucked in through the front panel. The pre-filter traps larger pollutants including hair and lint. The HEPA filter is comprised of a composite filter for various particles. The antibacterial cloth surface kills bacteria and viruses while the HEPA technology traps dust and soot. Finally, an activated carbon layer reduces pollutants like benzene and formaldehyde, according to Elechomes. The internal negative ion generator absorbs trace amounts of gases which can be harmful.

While running in low fan mode, you can tell it’s running but it’s not overly loud. Once it ramps up to medium or fast fan mode, it does get fairly loud. As we had it set up in our living room, it was loud enough to require turning up the TV a bit in order to still hear it over the air purifier. While we didn’t test the actual noise level, the manual states that it peaks out at 64dB. On that note, it seemed to be roughly as loud as our window air conditioning unit to hopefully give you a better idea of the fan noise it generates.

The unit definitely works as can be seen in the (gross!) image below. The dust buildup on the pre-filter is a result of 2 months of constant use, most of the time in sleep mode but occasionally turned up when air quality gets really bad. Fortunately, the pre-filter can be blown off and rinsed off for re-use.

The included HEPA filter is rated for 3000 hours of use. When the air purifier detects the HEPA filter is no longer working as it should, the filter indicator light will glow. Once the filter is replaced, you’ll be required to press and hold the filter replace button until it turns off which will reset the filter usage time.

Price/Value

With an MSRP of US$199.99, the Elechomes UC3101 Air Purifier is fairly reasonably priced when it comes to air purifiers. While there are cheaper and more expensive models, the UC3101 is priced roughly in the middle and offers solid air purification, at least from what we found during our review period.

As of the time of this review, a replacement HEPA Filter for the unit will set you back $49.99. If you were to run the air purifier 24 hours a day, the filter will need to be replaced roughly every 4 months, meaning you’re added cost of running the air purifier is about $150/year.

Wrap-up

The Elechomes UC3101 Air Purifier seems to do an excellent job of keeping the air quality clean in smaller rooms and areas. During our testing, we were fortunate enough to be experiencing poor air quality and we did notice an obvious difference between before we turned on the air purifier and after, both in breathability and odour.

*We received a sample of the Elechomes UC3101 Air Purifier for the purposes of this review. In some of our articles and especially in our reviews, you will find Amazon or other affiliate links. Running a website does take money, along with time. Any purchases you make through these links often result in a small amount being earned for the site and/or our writers.

Last Updated on February 3, 2021.