Is having an air purifier in your RV worth it? Well, one of the reasons I love to travel in our RV is to breathe the fresh air and see new sites. I grew up in Southern California at a time when the air quality would get so bad that we kids weren’t allowed to play outside. My parents were heavy smokers, too. So I moved to the county in California with the cleanest air in the state.
But, still, going camping often means places with pollen, dust and things like that. Get some good pollen in the air and I’m a sneezing fool. As such, when Dreo reached out and asked if I wanted to try their new Dreo Macro Pro True HEPA Air Purifier I was honestly skeptical because, well, do I really think this is worth bringing in an RV?
What is the Dreo air purifier?
Dreo is a company that makes all sorts of household electronics including fans, heaters, air fryers and more.
Their air purifier is a small unit with a three-stage filtration system that uses a medical-grade H13 True HEPA filter along with automatic air quality monitoring. It can vary the fan speed based on what the sensors tell it.
There’s also a pre-filter to trap dust, lint, fibers and pollen along with pet hair.
My experience
I am no scientist nor do I play one on TV but, according to research sent to me by Dreo, this unit processes about 176 cubic feet of air a minute. So even a large RV’s air would get processed completely in two minutes. Not bad.
In fact, the company claims that a typical room’s air gets exchanged about 247 times per hour.
I had mentioned the air quality monitoring and this unit, compared to others available on Amazon, includes dust sensing and full auto air quality monitoring. It can even tell you when to replace the filter.
A light on the front of the unit changes colors depending on what’s going on in the unit. A blue light means everything is a-ok. Green is good, orange means air quality’s moderate, and red is, as you would expect, not a good place to be.
When I took the interior wall down, I got the light to go red and the purifier kicked the fan into high gear.
Quiet
As for sound levels, when it’s running at the typical level, it produces about 20 decibels. Since normal conversation is about 85 decibels, that’s doggone quiet.
However, I had it in our RV and did some cooking and could hear the fan spool up as the system recognized more “content” in the air. At its highest noise level, the unit produces a claimed 52 dB. That is still pretty quiet, but you do hear the fan at that point.
In an RV?
So the biggest question: Is this air purifier something I would take in an RV? I get a lot of gadgets sent to me where I like them but wouldn’t take them along. This I would.
To really test this device, I brought it into a vintage trailer that we’re restoring (here’s the video channel on that) and pulled down a wall that had some damage. Honestly, it was pretty bad. The purifier kicked into high gear almost immediately.
From what I could tell, the air quality did improve markedly. I have no idea what was behind that wall, but it wasn’t pleasant. But what’s a little asbestos among friends, eh?
In all seriousness, since we do take our RVs to places where the pollen and dust count could be higher, taking this along makes sense. The size is certainly small enough, but I’ve also been happy with the performance.
Further, for those who travel with pets, the amount of pet hair that can get trapped in a small space like an RV could be the justification for this alone.
Other thoughts
When I was testing this I hadn’t finished the electrical upgrades to the vintage trailer yet, so I was running it with my Jackery “solar generator.” Power consumption is low at just 36 watts through a wall wart power supply.
I’ve had this for just over a month now so I haven’t had to replace the filter, naturally. But the company sells them directly for $29.99.
I had already installed a high-end filtration system in my house several years ago, so I shut that down and brought the Dreo unit inside. I can literally tell when I pull the plug on the larger unit at this time of year, when pollen is everywhere, so this, too, was one armchair way of testing the Dreo. My conclusion was that I couldn’t really tell the difference, but the price difference was substantial. The fancy air purifier we have in the house was almost $600—this one is just $149. Here’s a link to it on Amazon.
I can see this making a lot of sense for RVers who want to minimize pollen or pet dander without breaking the bank or taking up a lot of power or space in their RVs. I think you’ll be finding this one has a happy home in mine.
##RVT1043
Sounds like a quiet unit but normal conversational speech is usually 50-65 decibels not “near 80”. Persistent noise >70 decibels potentially can cause hearing loss. If your conversational speech is truly near 85 db then I’d recommend you see an audiologist for a hearing eval.
I could not find this brand on Amazon
Here’s a link to the product on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3pZlhwI Thanks for mentioning that, Karen. Have a good evening. 🙂 –Diane
I think the math is more than a little off
The article is getting “cubic feet” mixed up with “square footage”, big difference, could be off by a 100% if you have 10′ ceilings.
Excuse me! 247 air changes per hour, that must be a really tiny room! A room the measures 8’x8’x8’, with an air handler rated 176 CFM would have just over 20 air changes per hour. What else are they lying about?