In-Depth Review and Testing of the PARTU BS-08 Air Purifier

If you’re concerned about your home’s indoor air quality, you’re not alone. Americans are buying more indoor air filters than ever before. This is partially because are homes have become so well insulated in recent years. On its face, this isn’t a bad thing. The environment and energy savings are on everybody’s mind, and a well-insulated home won’t just help the environment, it will also save you money.

But without fresh air circulating from outside, your indoor air can get stale. Worse, anything that’s already in the house, like pollen and mold spores, will have no means of escape. And indoor dust can continue to accumulate, in addition to chemicals like formaldehyde that can outgas from furniture and upholstery. Cleaning chemicals, cooking smoke, and other irritants will also build up, all of which can add up to a miserable breathing experience for anyone with a sensitive respiratory system.

A HEPA air filter can eliminate many of these irritants, helping your entire family to breathe easier. Today, we’ll be reviewing the PARTU BS-08 Air Purifier, which pairs a HEPA filter with an ionizer to keep your indoor air as clean as possible. It’s an ideal choice for anyone with chemical sensitivities, allergies, and other issues. And even if you think you’re fine, do you really want to risk your health by breathing recycled, contaminated air?

We evaluated the BS-08 based on several criteria, including the quality of the filtration, the user experience, and the overall design of the unit. Let’s take a deeper dive!

Overall Design

To begin with, we looked at the basic design. This is secondary to some of the other features – okay, it’s secondary to all of the other features – but an air filter is going to be sitting on your dresser or kitchen counter, so like it or not it’s part of the décor. The PARTU BS-08 is a small black cylinder that’s 17 inches high and 9.6 inches in diameter. With a total weight of 6.5 pounds, it’s hefty for the size, but that’s a side effect of packing a lot of features into a small package.

At the bottom of the cylinder, a series of horizontal slots run around the circumference of the unit, allowing for plenty of airflow. Clean air is released through the top of the unit, around the circular control panel. The panel is angled at about 45 degrees, so it’s easy to read and operate. The buttons have a soft touch, so all you have to do to operate them is to brush them with your finger.

At the top of the control screen, a series of three indicator lights will light up to show you which speed setting is currently active. Appropriately enough, you can cycle through these options by pressing the “Speed” button. An additional button controls the power, while a third button cycles through different light options. The brightest setting works as a very bright night light, while the second setting is fairly dim. The lowest setting shuts the light off, both saving energy and keeping your bedroom nice and dark. When the light is on, it cycles continuously through 7 different colors, which is attractive, and can turn your filter into a conversation piece.

The “Anion” button will release a rush of ions into the air, similar to an ozone air purifier, but without the accompanying smell and health risk. These ions have a negative charge, which causes them to bond with positively charged particles in the air. When the ions attach to air pollutants, they drop harmlessly to the ground, and will easily clean up next time you mop your floor or dust your furniture. Meanwhile, they won’t be suspended in the air you breathe.

The “Filter” light looks like a button, but it’s not. It’s simply an indicator to let you know when the filter needs to be changed. This typically happens every 6 to 8 months, although the exact time frame will vary depending on how dirty your home’s air is to begin with. The BS-08 ships with a single filter, so make sure to order a replacement or two at the same time as the purifier. This will save you from panicking later on, or from being forced to pay extra for overnight shipping.

5-Stage Filtration

The BS-08 uses a 5-stage filtration system. The outer layers filter out larger particles, while smaller particles are captured by progressively finer filters as you move towards the inside of the machine. This design is fairly standard on an indoor air filter, and it allows you to clean the outer, coarser filters by hand, which means you’ll only have to worry about spending money to replace the inner filters.

The outermost layer is a coarse outer pre-filter, which traps clumps of dust or cat hair to prevent them from getting inside the filter and gumming up the works. The next layer is the replaceable accordion-style HEPA filter, which traps particles down to 0.3 microns in diameter. This is fine enough to capture the vast majority of mold spores and pollen, as well as very fine dust. An inner charcoal filter takes this a step further, and eliminates harmful fumes such as formaldehyde, as well as the ultra-fine pollutants from cigarette or cooking smoke. It will also trap many airborne viruses and bacteria.

The inner two layers are more for structural purposes. The fourth layer is a membrane net, which prevents loss of carbon from the carbon layer, improving your purifier’s efficiency and prolonging its useful life. The fifth and final layer is a semi-rigid mesh scaffold, which provides structure to the other filter layers and keeps them from sagging inside the unit.
If you’re looking for an even more powerful air filter, consider the Bulex HEPA Air Purifier. It’s a bit pricier than the PARTU, but it captures particles as small as 0.1 microns, which is very impressive.

What Does the PARTU BS-08 Remove?

As we’ve already mentioned, there are plenty of reasons to own an indoor air filter. But let’s break this down a little bit more. What exactly does the BS-08 remove, and how can each of these things help improve your indoor air quality? Here’s a closer look.

To begin with, many people believe that you can remove pet dander simply by vacuuming. This is partially true. Larger particles will certainly get sucked up by your vacuum. But unless you own a HEPA vacuum, which can cost an arm and a leg, smaller pet dander particles will simply slip right through your vacuum filter and get pushed back out into the air through the vacuum’s outflow vent. Dander is a mixture of hair and skin particles, and it’s the cause of the vast majority of pet allergies. And even if you’re not allergic to your pets, you may have guests who flare up the moment they walk into your house. A quality air filter can cut down significantly on this source of irritation.

Pollen is also a common source of allergies. And while it’s just a seasonal problem outdoors, pollen from outdoors can enter your home through open doors or windows in the spring and fall, and then become trapped there when you close your house down for the summer and winter. This can turn your seasonal allergies into a year-long source of misery. Eliminating these particles can also eliminate your need for an antihistamine.

While mold spores can enter your home from outdoors, they can also come from inside your house. Bathrooms and basements are a frequent source of this pollutant. In addition, dust and dust mites are simply unavoidable. They’re a frequent cause of indoor allergies, and a quality filter will remove them with ease.

Cigarette smoke is also a concern. Now, we’re not here to judge anybody, but secondhand smoke can be a serious health hazard for children, pets, and other non-smoking family members. Not only that, but nobody wants their house to smell like stale cigarette butts. The charcoal filter in the PARTU will filter out the vast majority of these particles, as well as similar particles from cooking grease, scented candles, and fireplace fires.

Finally, there’s the issue of fumes from upholstery and furniture finishes. Some of these fumes contain harmful chemicals like formaldehyde, which can cause cancer. The filter on the BS-08 will absorb many of these chemicals. It will also eliminate odors from smelly foods like onion, garlic, and curry. These foods can be delicious to eat, but nobody likes the smell they leave around in the morning.

Ease of Operation

The BS-08 features a built-in memory that will remember all of your settings. This is a useful feature if you only use it at night, or if you prefer to turn it off while you’re not at home. When you power your unit on, it will operate with exactly the same settings. So if you were running on full power with the lights turned off, it will restart on full power with the lights turned off.

This purifier is also very quiet. Even at full power, it only produces 25 decibels of noise. This is quieter than a whisper, literally, so you won’t need to worry about it keeping you or your kids awake at night.

Final Verdict

So, how does the BS-08 stack up to the competition? To begin with, it filters particles down to 0.3 microns, which is the HEPA standard. In other words, when it comes to particulates, it doesn’t over-perform, but it’s more than good enough for most people’s purposes.

In addition, the inner charcoal filter does a fantastic job of cleaning odors, fumes, and other nasty chemicals. In this regard, it very much exceeds your run of the mill HEPA filter. We particularly appreciated the anion feature, since it performs the same cleaning function as an ozone filter without subjecting you to the hazardous effects of breathing ozone.

Finally, the BS-08 has an easy-to-use interface, and is very attractive to look at. Whether you want to leave the colorful LED lights on for decoration, or keep it dark to save power, it’s good to have options. We’d say the PARTU is a great value for the price.