If the Whirlpool Purafresh W440 is sitting in your living room, dressed in champagne gold, it is bound to act as a conversation starter. The air intake vent is at the back, which means you shouldn’t place it right up against the wall. The controls are on the top panel. There is no numeric air quality indicator. You will have to make do with the colour-based air quality indicator on the front. The control panel has an auto-lock feature, which ensures that any accidental touch of the buttons doesn’t result in a change in operation mode, fan speed, etc.
The Purafresh W440 has a four-stage filtration process, with the thick high-efficiency particulate air (Hepa) filter at its centre. In a 430sq. ft (40sq. m) room, this maintains the air quality at around 20g/m3 of particulate matter (PM) in the auto mode that varies fan speed depending on air quality. There are also dedicated modes to deal with rooms that may have odour, or dust. At the highest fan speed, this can become a tad noisy—but that will happen only occasionally, such as when outdoor air is streaming indoors or the room is full of cooking fumes. The clean air dispersion is fantastic, even at the lowest fan speed, and this helps the cleaner air to spread faster.
Admittedly, Whirlpool may not be the first name you think of when looking to buy an air purifier for your home. While performance is good, it faces competition from the Honeywell Air Touch i8 (387sq. ft coverage area; around Rs20,000 on Amazon.in).
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