In this naturopure hf 380a review, we look at the Heaven Fresh’s NaturoPure HF 380A. Heaven Fresh is a Canadian based company that provides air and water purification. They opened their UK office in 2006. Heaven Fresh’s NaturoPure HF 380A air purifier is manufactured in China and is one of three air purifiers that Heaven Fresh produces. It is the largest unit they offer and has seven filter stages.
Pros:
- Remote Control
- Low price point
Cons:
- X Low overall quality of manufacturing
- X Poor air flow and filtration efficiency
- X Large amount of leakage
Marketed as:
The NaturoPure HF 380A air purifier is clearly marketed towards allergy sufferers, especially those suffering with asthma and rhinitis, as well as anyone who is concerned about the air they breathe. As Heaven Fresh advertises the NaturoPure HF 380A as their “top of the line” product and the “ideal air purifier that...effectively removes virtually all types of pollutants”[1], “removing bacteria, germs, viruses, allergens, dust, pollens, mould spores, unpleasant odours such as cooking smells, smoke, carbon fumes and many other airborne pollutants.”[2]
The NaturoPure air purifier is available to purchase online from Boots, Lloyds Pharmacies, Mothercare, Healthy House, Tesco Direct, Curry’s and Robert Dyas and is priced between £250 and £270.
Review
When we took the NaturoPure HF 380 air purifier out of the box it became right away apparent that the overall manufacturing quality of this air cleaner is quite poor. The button control pad, for example, is only a foil covered plastic interface that has the three main buttons to operate the unit on it.
Quality of the control pad of the Naturopure HF 380A
However, worse than the plastic buttons is the silver effect foil that covers them. The quality and feel of it are below what you would expect from an air cleaner at this price range. The overall design of the NaturoPure HF 380A air purifier is very old fashion and this air purifier is not going to blend in easily with the average 21st Century home or office.
The foil cover of the Naturopure 380A air purifier
The first filter is a washable pre-filter which is intended to capture larger particle pollution and helps to prevent the subsequent filters from premature loading.
The seven detachable filters of the Naturopure unit
The second filter inside the NaturoPure air cleaner is a washable dust collection grid, which is marketed as an “Electrostatically charged plasma array”[3]. This sophisticated sounding grid aims to capture airborne particulates, such as dust, mould, pollen and bacteria. It tries to do so by acting as a magnet and attracting particles to the grid. This filter should probably be cleaned at least every two weeks by damp dusting it with a cloth.
Next in line is the carbon filter. Carbon is used to absorb harmful gasses and chemicals. However, the quality of the carbon used and the amount used is key for an air purifier to be effective in retaining chemical and odour pollution.
Carbon filter of the Naturopure air cleaner
Heaven Fresh does not say how much carbon the Naturopure HF 380A air purifier uses in its filter or what type of carbon it consists of. But when you open the unit, you can see a very slim sheet of carbon that is roughly 1cm (0.5 inches) in thickness. This amount of carbon is much less then we would expect to find in a decent air purifier, and will not filter our gases and odours for very long.
The next filter in the Heaven Fresh Naturopure HF 380A is advertised as a HEPA air purifier. A proper HEPA filter is the main shield against ultrafine particle pollution such as fine dust, pollen fragments and other general air pollution.
We wanted to know if this filter is an actual HEPA filter, as the term HEPA is not properly regulated and many manufacturers claim to be using HEPA filtration when they are actually not. Unfortunately, neither Heaven Fresh or any of its retailers provide a performance certificate in regard to the filters actual performance.
"HEPA" filter of the Naturopure HF 380A
The next filter in the Heaven Fresh NaturoPure HF 380a air purifier is the “TiO2 photocatalytic oxidation filter”[4]. This filter is meant to also filter chemicals, bacteria and odours out of the air. It does this by apparently releasing “free radicals” which destroy the contaminants.
This filter is activated by ultraviolet light (UV). Even though UV light does effectively neutralise bacteria and viruses, it only does so if the bacteria and viruses are exposed to it over a period of several hours.
A UV light in an air purifier is normally not especially effective, as the pollution in the air flowing through the air cleaner is travelling too fast to be affected. Therefore, the UV light will only destroy bacteria and viruses from building up within the unit itself but will do very little to destroy bacteria and viruses in the air passing through the unit. Another problem with using UV light is that it can emit ozone - which is a severe lung irritant.
The seventh and last means of filtration in the Naturopure air purifier is the ioniser at the back of the unit. This ioniser releases “trillions” of negatively electrically charged ions into the room with the outflowing air. This is designed to cause a ‘static electricity’ effect. The airborne particles in the room then cling to ceilings, floors and walls, reducing the number of airborne particles that are actually flying around in the air. Depending on the strength of the ioniser, a by-product of ionisation can again be ozone.
Leakage:
When examining the inside of the Heaven Fresh Naturopure air purifier and its filters, you can see that there are large open spaces surrounding the filters. This shows us that the unit is clearly not airtight and air passing through the unit can escape through the gaps, unfiltered.
Heaven Fresh Naturopure HF 380A filter 3
The Naturo Pure HF 380A air purifier is not advertised as leakage free (very few air purifiers are); however, this amount of leakage is a problem, as users will clearly not be breathing in the “purest air possible” as Heaven Fresh claims. We were left wondering why someone would go to the trouble of putting seven different filter types into an air purifier if the air purifier has such high levels of leakage?
When we tested the level of contamination that went into the unit and compared it to the level of contamination that comes out of it, the unit only filtered about 87%. Our test was done under the most favourable circumstances, as the level of pollution going in was very low (in the low thousands) and the unit and its filters were brand new. Several of the filters in the Naturopure 380A air purifier will lose filtration efficiency quickly.
Sound Pressure:
When we turned the unit on, we were not surprised to find that the unit did not “operate virtually silently”[5] as Heaven Fresh had advertised - at least not on his highest speed setting. You can, of course, run it on a lower level, however, the question is if you still achieve an appropriate level of air flow.
As mentioned earlier, the Naturopure air purifier is advertised as having a maximum airflow of 106cfm (180 m3/h) and as being designed for rooms of up to 60m2. With an average ceiling height of 2.5m (8 feet) and running on the highest setting, the Heaven Fresh Naturopure 380A air purifier will not provide a very good result. Keeping in mind that the unit will be far from silent and at best have a filtration efficiency of 80-90%, the low airflow on top of that is a very disappointingly poor result.
The Naturopure HF 380A air purifier has, of course, a silent whisper mode, but no details are provided on the amount of air flow on this level. But based on the airflow on the highest setting, we are not convinced that the Naturopure air purifier will effectively filter the air even in the smallest of rooms.
Summary:
The Naturopure HF 380A air purifier is not well built. The unit looks and feels like it was designed and developed in China in the 1980s and thus gives us the overall impression of a past generation of air cleaners.
There used to be a time when air purifiers were more focussed on superficial ‘bells and whistles’ (such as an excessive amount of different 'filtration technologies'), rather than actual performance and quality of manufacturing. The Naturopure HF 380A fits right into this category, with its seven low-quality filters, interface, air quality monitor and timer. The filters of the NaturoPure air cleaner are all very thin and poor in quality, and as a result, will clog up quickly and have to be changed often.
The NaturoPure air purifier is clearly not leakage free, which means contaminated air will find its way through the machine past all seven of its filters. In our opinion, the Naturopure 380A air purifier disappoints on all fronts - not just because of the NaturoPure's overall performance is poor - but also because of the over exaggerated and misleading claims the manufacturer and some of its retailers are making about this air cleaner.
Specifications:
| Price: | £270.00 |
| Weight: | 8.3kgs (15lbs) |
| Size: | 24in (height) x 13.5in (width) x 10in (diameter) |
| Filter type(s) (according to manufacturer): | Ioniser HEPA filter Activated carbon filter TiO2 Photocatalytic oxidation filter Germicidal UV lamp Dust collection grid Washable pre-filter |
| Frequency of filter change: | HEPA/Carbon every two years |
| Cost of filter: | TiO2 Filter: £12 Carbon and Hepa filter set: £29.95 UV light: £12.99 Dust collection grid: £15.99 |
| Theoretical filtration efficiency (according to manufacturer): | 99.7% (0.3 micron) |
| Actual filtration efficiency: | 87.5% (0.3 micron) |
| Air flow on highest speed setting: | 180m3/h (106cfm) |
| Adequate room size (according to manufacturer): | 60m2 |
| Country of manufacture: | China |
| Power consumption: | 80W / 220-240V |
| Warranty: | 3 years |
Customer Reviews:
[1] http://www.heavenfresh.co.uk/index.php/learn
[2] http://www.heavenfresh.co.uk/index.php/ naturopuretm-hf-380-a-multiple-technologies-intelligent -air-purifier-with-remote-control
[3,4,5] http://www.heavenfresh.co.uk/ media/wysiwyg/uk/ HF_380a_bro.pdf
