Dreo Macro Pro True HEPA Air Purifier review
The Dreo Macro Pro air purifier cam onto my radar at the end of a truly low air-quality point in my house after a major kitchen remodel. My Airthings View Plus was regularly informing me that the quality of the air was extremely bad, and my nose was agreeing. This was with two other HEPA air filters running on that floor and two reusable main AC filters being washed every day or two.
TL;DR – works by pulling air through replaceable filter from all directions, does so quietly, auto mode a little delayed but not an issue. Good device.
Yeah, the particulate matter in my house was at an all time high even with all visible access to the kitchen being taped and plastic’d off like a Dexter kill room, the air was terrible. I couldn’t fault the contractors, you physically tape and plastic off you expect that would mitigate most of it, nope.
When the Dreo Air Purifier showed and got implemented most of the major construction was finished but the air quality was still abysmal. Fine particulate matter had dusted the house and everything had to be washed, swept, vacuumed, etc. This was going into a fight that had already been lost, but I put it in the same room as the Airthings and watched as the PM 2.5 fluctuated up and down throughout the days (sun/heat would cause the dust to rise).
I can’t say that it helped at this point, because there was too much to metric. I very much believe it did, but we’re talking construction level mess. With the Dreo and two others and two main filters and cleaning for three days straight the air returned to breathable and I was able to establish the baselne.
In manual mode it is as good as the filter + airflow can provide. This is the same with I would expect most true HEPA air filters. This particular one uses an H13 HEPA filter, which is about $30 if you buy the one they suggest. Or it looks like that’s a standard so you can possibly choose your own. I am not a HEPA filter guy and cannot attest to the quality differences between a $10.99 vs $29.99 H13 3-stage filter.
The Dreo Macro Pro pulls in air for 360 degrees, which means it’s pretty well suited for sitting far away from walls. Direction of airflow is intake on the sides to up and out. In normal running mode you don’t hear it running, in turbo mode it’s sort of a white noise sound. As a thing that moves air through a HEPA filter, it does it in the way you would expect it.
The cleaning of said air, commensurate with what a HEPA filter would do.
So let’s focus on what is different with this – the automatic mode. This is where I tried to measure what’s different between this and any other air purifier (there are many that look like this and are less expensive). Theory here is that auto is pressed it will sample the air and clean as needed. I generally would know when this time should be because it was probably when we were cooking. Food odors and cooking fumes would trigger my Airthings air quality alerts and then… we’d wait… and wait… and finally the Dreo would kick on, run a couple of roomfulls of air through the filter, and kick off leaving the air back to acceptable.
It did its job, but it was a little delayed in realizing it was time to do its job. Probably not an issue, but the only thing I had of potentially negative note on it. Dreo (Air purifier + air sensor) not as sensitive as device 2x-3x the price designed exclusively to monitor multiple air quality issues nonstop as its only goal. Probably not an issue for anyone.
A couple of things to note, based on reading various bits around the web when researching this there seems to be a misconception of what an air purifier actually is, does, and what “ozone-free” or “UV treatment” entails. An air purifier simply pulls air through a purification method, in this case the purification method is a 3-stage HEPA filter. Remove that filter and most purifiers are just a fan. Ozone-free means they are not using an ozone generating method to mask bad smells (ozone can be a lung irritant.) UV treatment is a method where air is exposed to ultraviolet light to kill bacteria (eliminates odors and some germs.) This is an ozone-free no-UV air purifier.
Overall, it works. Does what it says it will. I can’t speak to the advanced filter life algorithm as it’s not gotten dirty enough to need changing.
You can grab a Dreo Macro Pro at Amazon or at Dreo.com. The first link we’d get commission from Amazon, second link nope. You can also just go to amazon and search and we will not see a dime from this review.
