Rabbit Air MinusA2 review

Rabbit Air has gone full-on making this air purifier either blend into your home or be the centerpiece of any room. Boasting a 5-stage BioGS® HEPA filtration system, highly sensitive odor and particle sensors, WiFi compatibility, app control, and cutting-edge Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motors, this unit covers most bases when it comes to purifying the air in the home.

With one look at the MinusA2, you’ll realize that Rabbit Air is trying to do something different. In a market full of white boxes, the MinusA2 takes air purifier design to the next level with its innovative way of living comfortably with a unit in the home.

Coming in at just over $600, the MinusA2 is aimed at an audience who appreciate the finesse of design and those who love their gadgets with features… lots of features.

As with all our hands-on reviews here at HouseFresh, we bought this unit with our own money, so we have no biases to give a better review than we would under normal circumstances.

Will this futuristic unit triumph? Or is it style over substance?

The lowdown on the Rabbit Air MinusA2

The specs

Customizable look and simple operation

Five different cover designs to personalize your MinusA2

Okay, so I’ve already gone on about the design of the MinusA2, but let’s take a closer look. We opted for the black version over the normal white model because, let’s face it, it looks so much cooler.

The shiny gloss front panel holds a Knight Rider-esque light bar stretching most of the unit. Down the front right-hand side is where the controls live, along with more lights and indicators.

But if you’re more into decorative aesthetics, Rabbit Air has you covered, as it offers five different designs to choose from that will transform your air purifier into a functional piece of wall art.

A great feature of this unit is its free-standing or wall-mounted ability. You receive all the parts you’ll need for both options without buying any extras. If you choose to have it freestanding, it measures just 19.25 inches in height, which means it won’t be towering over anything, and (size permitting) you could even have it on a desk or table. The MinusA2 has a remote control; super handy when mounting the unit to the wall.

The control panel is clearly labeled and extremely easy to navigate. There are four buttons: Speed (to control fan speeds), Mode (to switch modes + to reset the filter indicator), Mood Light (to turn the light on and off + to turn the Negative Ion Generation on and off) and Power button.

Here are some notes on the buttons:

• You must press and hold the Power button for two seconds to turn the unit on or off. 
• There are five speeds, so pressing the Speed button takes you through Silent > Low > Medium > High > Turbo.
• The Mode button is a dual control button: pressing it briefly allows you to change between Pollen Mode and Auto Mode. But when you press and hold this button, it will reset the Replace Filters Indicator.
• The Mood Light button is also a dual control button. When pressing it briefly, it turns the mood light on and off. Pressing it and holding it for three seconds allows you to turn the Negative Ion Generator on and off.

We found that for general use, Auto mode worked better for us. When you set it to Auto, you can forget about it and let it do its job. We noticed the fan speed and air quality sensor changing when cooking and moving around the apartment more than usual. 

A great feature of the Rabbit Air is the light sensor. When testing the unit in the bedroom overnight, we noticed that when you turn the lights out, the A2 will turn its light out so it won’t disturb your sleep. This happens because when the room is dark for three minutes, the MinusA2 goes into Sleep Mode. It’s worth mentioning that Sleep Mode doesn’t override Pollen Mode or the fan speed you have set manually.

Something I like about the MinusA2 is that it comes with an air quality sensor onboard, allowing you to track air quality levels in your home — by the way, this makes the air purifier capable of offering Auto Mode in the first place!

The Air Quality Indicator light indicates the air quality in the room the air purifier is in. Depending on the amount of pollutants in the air, the colors shift from blue (good air quality) to purple to pink to red (bad air quality).

Another thing I like about the onboard air quality sensors is that you can adjust the sensitivity levels. All you need to do is press and hold both the Speed and Mode buttons for three seconds. Afterward, you will see the Air Quality Indicator and Auto Mode Indicator blinking. This means that you can now use the Speed button to set the sensitivity level you prefer: low (Replace Filters), standard (Pollen Mode) and high (Auto Mode). Press and hold the Speed and Mode buttons for three seconds to save the new sensitivity level.

Unfortunately, the RabbitAir app is not great.

You’d think it would be standard practice to have wireless capabilities with air purifiers by now, but it still seems to be an extra feature (I hope this changes soon). The MinusA2 has these capabilities, and Rabbit Air has created its own app for their units. 

You can connect to the MinusA2 from the comfort of your couch or before you get to your house to remotely turn your unit on/off, check the room’s current air quality, change fan speeds, and engage Auto Mode.

The app is probably great… when it’s working. At first, the unit wouldn’t connect to my wifi at all. Eventually, when it did connect, it would work for a while, then disconnect by its own free will.

This continued until I got to the point where I didn’t use it all. I hope Rabbit Air updates the app to improve its UX and functionality as being able to access the air purifier remotely would be extremely useful.

6-stage filtration system

This is where Rabbit Air stands tall over other brands.

The MinusA2 comes with a large six-stage filter to battle airborne contaminants, which fits snugly in the front of the unit.

Here’s a breakdown of the six stages:

Stage 1: Pre-filter	The pre-filters main task is to capture larger airborne particles like dust mites, pet hair, and pollen. This filter is hand washable, which means it not only doesn’t have to be replaced with the other filters, but it prolongs its lifespan (if you wash it regularly, of course).
Stage 2: Medium filter	You don’t commonly find a medium filter on a lot of units, so this is a bonus. It’s designed to care for particles larger than 1 micron, like bacteria, mold, and dust particles. Having a medium filter means the HEPA filter doesn’t have to work as hard and should last longer.
Stage 3: BioGS® HEPA filter	A HEPA filter has the most critical role in any air purifier: it removes the tiniest particles out of the air to make it clean. Rabbit Air’s BioGS® version traps 99.97% of allergens and particles 0.3 microns in size. Basically, whatever sneaks through stages 1 and 2 will be caught here.
Stage 4: Customized filter	The MinusA2 allows you to tailor the unit to match your needs. Each of the 4 customized filters is engineered to tackle different contaminants. You can choose from Germ Defense, Toxin Absorber, Pet Allergy, or Odor Remover.
Stage 5: Activated carbon filter	Rabbit Air claim that its filter is more effective than typical Activated Carbon filters. It reduces chemicals and odors in the home, like vape/cigarette smoke, VOCs, and cooking odors by trapping them in its activated carbon layer.
Stage 6: Negative ions	Not strictly a layer of the filter, these invisible molecules released from the unit latch onto contaminants, weighing them down. This makes it easier for the filters to trap these particles.

Something I didn’t like as much is that the (dreaded) filter replacement indicator is located on the side of the control panel and is pretty small, making it easy to miss. This means that you’ll have to keep an eye on it. Rabbit Air states that you should replace the filter every 12 months if you’re operating the unit 24 hours a day. 

Air Cleaning Performance [CADR]

The Rabbit Air SPA-780A was sent for an AHAM CADR test and certified in 2011. You can see the full CADR report at Energystar.gov:

Noise levels test results

Noise is a key factor for me. As the fan spins around, collecting all those harmful toxins, it starts to generate noise, and if it’s too loud, it’ll deter me from turning the unit on. 

On Silent mode, you can hear the fan gently hum away, which is great if you have it in the bedroom as it won’t keep you awake. Turbo mode, on the other hand, is where the MinusA2 ramps noise levels up. Unfortunately, it does get quite loud and noticeable even over the TV. It’s no jet engine though!

Here’s a video so you can hear it by yourself:

The full Air-purifier-power.com noise to airflow specification for the Rabbit Air SPA-780A (decibels per cubic foot per minute) is:

Speed 1 – 25.6 dBA @ 58 CFM
Speed 2 – 31.1 dBA @ 80 CFM
Speed 3 – 37.4 dBA @ 112 CFM
Speed 4 – 44.5 dBA @ 159 CFM
Speed 5 – 51.3 dBA @ 218 CFM

Air purifiers are engineered around the motor.

The current state-of-the-art engine is the Brushless Direct Current Motor (BLDC) motor.

These produce no sparks, no ozone, less heat, low noise, low vapor emissions, weaker electromagnetic fields, and last longer than the older designs prevalent in the industry.

With the ionizer on and the fan on low, there are trace ozone emissions, approximately .002 parts per million.

This is very low ozone, comparable to many other air purifiers which may claim “zero” ozone emissions.

Rabbit marketing is up to date with published specifications—many builders hide noise and other emissions behind vague platitudes.

MinusA2 has roughly the same noise emissions as its predecessor, the near-silent 582A.

Cost to run the Rabbit Air MinusA2: $169.12 per year

1. Electricity costs = $64.12 per year

At its minimum fan speed, the Rabbit Air MinusA2 only recorded 7 watts, the same as a compact fluorescent. Compared to competitors, it pulls much less power; the Honeywell HPA300, for example, recorded 30 watts when running at its lowest fan speed. When setting the MinusA2 at its top fan speed, however, the unit pulls 61 watts. If you were to run this air purifier at its top speed non-stop for a full year, it would cost you $64.12 per year.

Over the life of the MinusA2 low power consumption will offset some of the higher purchase price.

2. Filter costs = $105 per year

The filter costs are not cheap, but luckily, you shouldn’t need to replace the filters sooner than 12 months. The good news is that generic replacement filters are easily available online if the official MinusA2 replacement is too expensive for your wallet.

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Bottom line

The Rabbit Air MinusA2 is a hard worker and looks great.

Its six-stage filter system makes light work of airborne pollutants, and you can see it working with its air quality indicator. 

Yes, the app can be a little problematic, and the buttons are small, but it makes up for these issues when cleaning the air in rooms up to 815 sq. ft.

The Rabbit Air MinusA2 fits perfectly well into creative spaces, apartments with little floor space (thanks to its mountable nature), and those who want their gadgets with a little more style.