Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 SPA-625A Air Purifier

If you like your small home appliances with a side of modern design, you’ll be pleased to add the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 SPA-625A air purifier to your living space. With a white plastic housing, accents of royal blue or leaf green and fluid lines, this air purifier has a modern, minimal look that fits in well in a variety of rooms.

But the Rabbit Air offers more than just good looks: it effectively cleans indoor air of dust, smoke and pollen. Our editors put this Rabbit Air model to the test, and sent it out to a group of parent testers as well, and everyone was impressed with its quality, ease of use and value.

Designed for large spaces up to 625 square feet, the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 offers one of the largest coverage areas of the air purifiers we tested. It features a filter replacement indicator and filter status, auto mode, a negative ion generator that can be turned on or off, an air-quality indicator ranging from low to high (including odour and particle sensors) and five fan speeds. For ease of use, there’s also a carrying handle and remote control.

Since the main function of an air purifier is filtering particles from the air, the type and quality of the filter is a top concern. The Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 includes three: a washable pre-filter that traps large allergens, dust and particles; an activated carbon filter that reduces chemicals and household odours; and the BioGS HEPA filter, which traps particles as small as 0.3 microns.

Our testers rated the product’s quality as very good to good, and found its design to be aesthetically appealing. In terms of removing dust, pet dander, odours and cleaning chemicals, they agreed the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 is effective. To evaluate air purifiers in our lab, editors created an airtight testing enclosure and sprayed dry shampoo in the space for five seconds.

On its highest fan setting, the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 worked really well, taking the particles per cubic centimetre count from 40,000 down to 100 within 10 minutes.

Our editors also looked at the Rabbit Air’s clean air delivery rates (CADR), an indicator of how quickly a device filters tobacco smoke, pollen and dust from the air in a testing chamber. Based on the CADR, the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 doesn't perform as quickly as some of the other air purifiers we tested, with a smoke CADR of 154, which is typically multiplied by 1.55 to determine the maximum suitable room size for the air purifier (because smoke is the smallest of the three particulates tested).

It's worth noting that Rabbit Air focuses on the number of complete air changes in an hour to determine the suitable room size, because there are lots of types of fine particulates that people want filtered, real-life environments are different than a testing chamber, and ionizers in some air purifiers can skew results.

In a room that's 625 square feet, the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 changes the air twice in an hour, which generally improves air quality. If someone in your family suffers from allergies or you have an air quality concern in your home, you should aim to have the air changed at least four times in an hour—and in those cases, this air purifier would be suitable for rooms up to 313 square feet.

We recommend using Rabbit Air's Air Change Per Hour Calculator to see how many air changes per hour you can expect in the room you plan to use it in (tip: toggle between the low and medium fan settings; high settings tend to be pretty noisy on all air purifiers, so you probably won't want to use it continuously).

Setting up the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 is fairly easy, but not totally intuitive. We found the quick start guide very helpful, but  you'll need to refer to the manual to understand the symbols on the display and to figure out how to make the most of the air purifier.

Parents appreciated the remote control, though some wished the Rabbit Air could be controlled through an app. Nevertheless, once you’ve figured out how it works, it's easy to set it and forget it. Plus, we really like that this air purifier automatically pauses when the front panel is removed—a really nice safety feature if you have inquisitive little ones.

Noise is another factor to consider if you're planning to use an air purifier in a bedroom of a light sleeper. The Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 isn’t the quietest air purifier we tested (it's pretty mid-range), but two of three testers felt the low and medium speeds were quiet (one said it was somewhat loud, even on the quietest setting).

It's worth noting that all air purifiers are pretty noisy on the highest setting, and that's only going to kick in when it's really needed. And of course, a bit of white noise in the background can be a plus if you have young kids who nap throughout the day.

One of the things we really appreciate about this air purifier is its five-year limited warranty, which is the best coverage offered by the products we tested. It's also Energy Star certified, and the 18-month lifespan of the HEPA and carbon filters means you're spending less in the long run compared to a lot of other air purifiers on the market. And when it comes time to replace the filters, both our editors and parent testers found the job quite easy.

Final word

If you are looking for a design-forward air purifier that can handle a large space, the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 SPA-625A is definitely one to consider. Parents gave it good or very good ratings for quality, and a good rating for overall ease of use, and two out of three also rated the value good. Editors were also impressed with the Rabbit Air's range of features, effectiveness, sleek design and the child safety feature.