In many parts of India, winter is also pollution season with AQI levels rising well above what is acceptable norms anywhere in the world. But even as we buy air purifiers to clean the air indoors, we often ignore our cars in which many of us spend long hours every day.
But there are solutions in the form of car air purifiers, many of which have been available in India for the past few years. The Qubo Car Air Purifier is one of the more affordable options I have encountered.
The Qubo Car Air Purifier has a very simple cylindrical design which reminded me of a Bluetooth speaker. There is a touch sensitive power button on top that also lets you change fan modes and a power power at the back that can be plugged into the USB socket in the car.
On its own, the air purifier can switch modes depending on the air quality inside the car. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/Express Photo)
The size of the unit, made of aluminium alloy, is compact and good enough to slip into the cup holder in the front of my car. But since the slits to suck in air are on the sides, with the clean air being pushed out of the top, I suggest you keep it in a place where the inflow is smoother.
The power button on top changes fan speeds with each press which is a good feature, if you are aware how bad the pollution is inside. I preferred to crank up the fan when there was a damp smell inside the car a couple of times and it worked well in making things a bit more breathable.
On its own, the air purifier can switch modes depending on the air quality inside the car. This happened a few times when I had a window up. But when I had kept the windows down, when the outside air was almost hitting levels of 300 PM2.5, this purifier seemed lost on what to do. So I suggest you use this when the car is air tight only.
Also, at full speed, you can hear the purifier working and you might need to crank up the music volume a bit to suppress this noise. The filter comes with three layers — pre-filter, HEPA and dynamic activated carbon — to keep the air inside clean. An LED indicator of the AQI level inside would have been a good feature to add to users’ peace of mind.
At Rs 2,599, the Qubo Car Air Purifier is certainly among the more affordable air purifiers you can get your hands on. It is tough to expect an LED AQI indicator at this price, but that is a feature you need to figure out how your investment is working. Get this if you travel a lot with children or older people.
