Air filters are something that I believe should be in every home. Even in my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the air is generally clean, there is a lot of pollen in the air at various points in the year. If you live in an area that’s seen consistent wildfires, you need a healthy supply of air filters even more than I do. There haven’t been many options for HomeKit-enabled air filters, though. Until recently, the only option was the VOCOlinc air filter. While I love this product, it has a large footprint, so it’s impractical for apartments or smaller bedrooms. I recently picked up the Meross HomeKit air filter for our bedroom, and it’s a great option if you need to filter the air in a smaller area.
HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework.
The VOCOLinc option is designed to clean the air of a 645-square-foot area, whereas the Meross is designed to clean a 207-square-foot area, so you can see that it will cover a much smaller place. Therefore, I recommend the VOCOlinc option for a larger living room/bonus room where the Meross will be perfect for a bedroom or the living room/central area of an apartment.
HomeKit Integration
Adding the Meross Air Filter to HomeKit was a breeze, as it is with all of the Meross products I’ve reviewed in the past. There’s a HomeKit code on the side of it, so once you scan it, it’ll go through the process of letting you add it to a room and enable some preset automations.
The Meross option excels over the VOCOlinc is the data shown in the Home app. With VOCOlinc, you’ll only have basic information about the product. With Meross, you’ll see the filter condition/life within the Home app so you can monitor the need for replacements.
We generally run the air filters at night to create white noise in our bedrooms, so I have automations set to turn on at 11 p.m. around when we usually retire for the evening, but we do a manual turn-off in the morning.
Hardware quality
The size of the Meross air filter is perfect for a bedroom, and it would easily fit beside/under a nightstand. My desk is in our bedroom, so I slide it under that.
The metal housing feels sturdy, and I also appreciate the child lock option to keep our kids from turning it on accidentally. The air filter includes one replaceable filter, and new ones should be purchased every three to six months (depending on your air quality).
Suggested HomeKit automations
Turn on at bedroom
To enable a turn on at bedroom automation: Launch the Home app > Automations. Choose what you want to trigger the automation. For this example, choose a Time of Day Occurs. Select your time and days of the week. If you want to use a different bedtime on the weekend than the weekdays, you’ll need to do this process twice.
Find the Meross Air Filter, and then set it to turn on. I have it set to turn off after four hours in my automation to save filter life.
Using Siri
If you have a HomePod or HomePod mini, you can use Siri to turn on the Air Filter on-demand. For example, say, “Hey Siri, turn on my master bedroom air filter.” Change the room name depending on where you use it.
Based on motion
If you have a HomeKit motion sensor, you can trigger the air filter based on someone coming into the room. In the automations section, choose A Sensor Detects Something to choose to turn on something when it detects motion, find your motion sensor, and then set your options. In this situation, it might make sense to turn it on for 30 minutes whenever it detects motion.
Wrap-up
The Meross Air Filter with HomeKit is an excellent addition to your smart home with its low footprint, manageable cost, and ease of use. The quality of the air you breathe is important, and running air filters throughout the day is an easy way to improve its quality. Having it all run through HomeKit makes it even easier to use.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
