I tested an air purifier that doesn't need filter replacements – here's why I'm convinced 5 months on

For this Vitesy Eteria portable air purifier review, I put this new cost-effective and sustainable indoor air purifying solution through its paces. I'll also see how it fares in comparison to the best air purifiers the Ideal Home team have tested.

Founded in Italy in 2015, Vitesy has since solidified themselves as a leader in innovative air purificiation technology, prioritising sustainable and smart solutions to fight air pollution and even food waste. If you're thinking that the Vitesy name sounds familiar, it's probably because you've heard about their viral fridge purifier: the Shelfy.

Eteria is the brand's latest addition to their roster; a personal air purifier portable enough to be carried to and used in any space. Although its recommended room size is only a measly 15m², Vitesy have designed the purifier to move with the user throughout day to day tasks. They claim that the Eteria's compact and lightweight design makes it easy enough to take with you from room to room, creating a 'bubble of clean air around you' while you go about sleeping, working, studying, cooking, and more.

The Vitesy Eteria portable air purifier stands out from other models currently on the market as it has ditched the popular HEPA filter and has instead opted for the use of a photocatalytic, ceramic filter which (get this) doesn't need changing or replacing at all. Unlike HEPA filter replacements, which can set you back a couple hundred of pounds over a few years, you simply need to wash the ceramic filter under water to clean it, saving you money whilst being super sustainable.

But, does it actually work? I tested the Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier in my own home for over five months to deliver my verdict on whether or not it's worth the purchase, and if the brand's high claims regarding the lack of filter replacements are exactly as they say.

Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier review

Specifications

• Recommended room size: 15m²
• CADR: N/A (Vitesy air purifiers are not rated by the CADR system)
• Maximum air flow: 34m³/h
• Noise levels: 30-52dB (advertised), 30-65dB (actual)
• Filter type: Double step – fabric pre-filter and WO3 PCO photocatalysis oxidation filter
• Dimensions: D16 x W24 x H16cm
• Weight: 1.25 kg
• Wattage: 7.5W
• Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
• Timer: Yes
• Auto mode: Yes

How I tested

Jullia Joson

I'm Jullia, Ideal Home's Junior Writer and Certified Expert for Vacuums in training. My job involves curating buying guides and features for a lot of things that fall into the home tech and cleaning category, including – but not limited to – vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, the best dehumidifiers, and more.

I tested the Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier in my own home to see how it coped with everyday fluctuations in air quality caused by smoke, VOCs, cooking fumes, and odours.

Assembly and set up

The Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier arrived in a small, compact cardboard box, and assembly is super easy and straightforward. It's comprised of three parts: the main purifying unit, the monitoring module, and the cable.

The unit comes in a high-quality dust bag and the smaller parts tucked in a neat cardboard box with instruction manuals. Simply unbox each part and attach the purifying unit to the monitoring module, following the manual for guidance.

They should click into place intuitively via a magnetic connector. This ensures everything stays together securely whilst also allowing for flexibility if you wish to remove the main unit, take it with you, and attach it to another module that you might have placed in another room, for example.

To set up your air purifier, you need to download the Vitesy Hub app. Once you've downloaded the app, you can complete the set up process, which includes connecting your device to Wi-Fi, naming your device, and choosing your preferred settings. This is also where you can select your desired mode, brightness of the LEDs, and track air quality data through in-depth graphs. The Vitesy Eteria can also be connected to digital assistants like Google Home and Amazon Alexa to allow you to keep track of air quality hands-free.

Unfortunately, the Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier can't be used without first being set up to the app, which can be either a positive or negative depending on your preferences. As someone whose whole house is set up on a Smart system, I didn't mind it at all as all of my home tech is controlled from my phone. However, I understand how this can be frustrating if you prefer to control your device using on-board controls – or at least have the option to do so. The Eteria has zero on-board controls in sight.

Design

The Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier is, suffice to say, extremely stylish and minimalistic in its design. It's certainly a far cry from its bulky and unappealing air purifier counterparts.

At the time of writing, Vitesy offer the Eteria in two colourways: white and black. I chose white as it best aligned with my personal design preferences, and I wasn't disappointed when it arrived on my doorstep. The fabric filter is a light grey colour, and it has a light teal tab at the top of the unit, which acts as a carrying handle when you're bringing it from room to room.

The fabric filter can be washed and is removable to allow access to the ceramic filter when it's time for maintenance, which Vitesy recommend doing every two months or so to ensure maximum effectiveness; but more on that later.

The monitoring module is also very sleek, and extremely compact. When the air purifier is set up, it emits a white LED light, which changes to a slight orange colour to alert you of any present air quality issues. The brightness of this LED light can be configured in the Vitesy Hub app.

Performance

The Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier offers six different modes, covering a wide range of fan speeds. This includes: Auto, Silence, Standard, Performance, Custom, and Timer.

When using the Auto mode, the air purifier will use its built-in sensors to adjust the fan speed automatically based on air quality in any given moment. For example, if the Eteria detects bad air quality, the fan will automatically adjust to the highest fan speed until the room's air quality returns to normal levels. In the Vitesy Hub app, the air quality levels are set at 'poor', 'good', and 'perfect'. When the air quality is the latter two, it'll simply stay in its Auto standby mode – which I can best compare to its Silence mode.

To test how effectively the Vitesy Eteria can pick up on changes in air quality in Auto mode, I lit a match close the air purifier and let it burn out to create smoke in the air. It took the Vitesy Eteria 21 seconds to register the smoke particles and for the indicator light to change to that red-orange tint I mentioned earlier, thus, bringing the fan speed up a few levels to tackle the smoke pollutants. It then took an additional two minutes and 41 seconds for the Vitesy Eteria to clear the air return to 'good' air quality.

When I left and returned to the room, my nose could still pick up traces of the remaining odour caused by the smoke, and it took over 10 minutes for the slight scent to dissipate completely.

I got better results when I tested how the Vitesy Eteria would react to me spraying aerosol deodorant in its vicinity. It took 15 seconds for it to register the VOCs present in the deodorant, knocking the air quality to 'poor' and amping up the fan speed to work on extracting these pollutants. It took the Eteria two minutes and 30 seconds to return the air quality back to 'good', bringing the air purifier back to its standby mode.

Even after the air quality had returned to 'good', I could still detect a faint deodorant odour in the air when I left and re-entered the room, but nothing that could be dubbed a deal breaker as this cleared quicker than the remaining smoke traces from the previous test.

I also tested the Vitesy Eteria in the kitchen to see how it fared with cooking odours. I live in a newly renovated home, so the extractor fan is still in good condition and does its job fairly well, so I was keen to see how the air purifier would perform in comparison. I've also got my MeacoDry Arete Two Dehumidifier & Air Purifier positioned in my living room, opposite one of my kitchen entrances, which I switch to its purifying mode every now and then to tackle strong cooking smells.

To complete the test, I shut the kitchen door, made sure my singular window was closed, left the extractor fan off and started frying two rashers of bacon, with the Vitesy Eteria positioned on the worktop next to my hob in Auto mode. Disappointingly, the Eteria never detected a change in air quality, despite the kitchen clearly being filled with cooking smells, so it never amped up the fan speed to counter it.

Despite that section of the test being a slight fail, I decided to just manually change it to Performance mode after the bacon was done cooking, assembled my bacon butty, and left the kitchen, closing the door behind me. I allowed 10 minutes to pass before returning where the loud Performance mode was working overtime. The scent was still slightly detectable, but had definitely minimised since switching it to the suitable mode. However, since the air purifier never detected the change in air quality, the app stated that the room was still 'good' even through my bacon trials.

In short, my extractor fan and the purifying mode on my MeacoDry Arete Two are significantly more effective at extracting cooking fumes and smells. I've been using my Vitesy Eteria primarily in my bedroom and home office over the months I've been testing it anyway, and I think it's far better suited for this sort of environment of general day-to-day air purification. I don't think the kitchen is where it best thrives.

If dealing with cooking fumes is a top priority for you when buying an air purifier, I'd instead recommend taking a look at the Philips 3000i Series, the Blueair Blue Max 3250i, and the AEG AX91-604GY Connected Air Purifier. These devices effectively picked up on the change in air quality and all averaged around 11 minutes to bring air quality back to 'good'.

Ease of use

As far as ease of use goes with the Vitesy Eteria, all of it pretty much relies on the use of their app – which as I mentioned earlier, can either be a positive or negative depending on how you feel about Smart tech and relying on tech to control your devices. There are zero on-board controls on the Eteria, meaning that it's basically non-functional without the use of the app.

I've personally not had too many issues with this way of control, as the Vitesy Hub is pretty responsive and intuitive to use for the most part. The only glaring issues I've had is when my Wi-Fi connection isn't great, as it doesn't register you choosing another mode due to poor connectivity. While this is quite subjective as Wi-Fi connection differs for everyone (and mine can be very jittery), it's annoying that something as simple as changing modes can be gatekept by this.

Therefore, I understand how this could be frustrating for someone who isn't all that keen on always needing their phone on them or wants to just quickly switch modes without having to pull their phone out or rely on Wi-Fi connectivity. For example, the Blueair Blue Max 3250i has both app and inconspicuous on-board controls, letting users choose their preferred method of use.

But, rest assured that when Wi-Fi isn't an issue, the Vitesy Hub app works well and switching modes is very simple. On the first page, you'll be met with your six options, which you can choose according to your preference. If you decide to use the Custom or Timer modes, you'll have to toggle a few more options to personalise them to how you want them, but the Auto, Silent, Standard, and Performance mode require no set-up and can be switched to with the click of a button. I keep mine on Auto and let it do its job, switching fan speeds according to environmental stimuli it encounters.

With the app, you're also given an insight into your tailored air quality data, which gives you an overview on the temperature, humidity, VOC, and CO2 levels in the room your air purifier is placed in. You can look at this data at a glance or its history over the course of a day, week, or month. As with any other apps, you can turn on notifications so you get alerts when the Eteria detects poor air quality, too, giving you even more control.

Noise levels

The Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier can be very quiet in certain modes, with the brand claiming that sound levels measure between 30-52dB depending on the mode you choose – but in my own tests, I found it much louder than advertised in specific modes.

The quietest mode that still employs the use of the fan is the Silence mode, which I can only best describe as a very gentle whirring in the background. Thankfully, this quiet 30dB is what it defaults to when it's in Auto mode and hasn't detected any poor air quality. It's not distracting at all, and I can happily work in my office without feeling like it's imposing in any way. It really is what it says on the tin: silent. If anything, my laptop fan gets far louder when it's putting the work in!

However, I will say that while it's still on the quieter side, the Standard mode is notably louder and quite the jump up from the Silence mode. Even then, the sound level meter app I used on my phone still classifies this rough 48dB output as a 'quiet whisper'. I'm not particularly sensitive to sound, as I quite enjoy working along to white noise or background chatter; however, I can definitely see why just the Standard mode alone could be a distraction for those who are more sensitive to sound.

The Performance mode, however, was a complete shift. It's understandable that the air purifier requires a mode as such to eradicate strong pollutants, but its sound levels increased much higher than Vitesy advertise. According to my noise level meter app, the air purifier's sound levels were measured at a rough 65dB, which the meter app detected as being akin to a 'quiet street'. I understand that Performance mode is tailored to specific situations, such as being used in the kitchen to eliminate the smell of cooking odours, so it shouldn't really bother you in day to day life as it doesn't last long. But, it's still something to keep in mind.

That aside, the Silence and quietest end of the Auto mode are a pleasure when working or sleeping. Of course, when in Auto mode, the air purifier will detect poor air quality data and shift the fan levels up all the way to the loud Performance mode to manage indoor air quality accordingly. So, if you want no disturbances, simply keep the Eteria in Silence mode during night-time or in the middle of an important work meeting.

Portability

As air purifiers go, the Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier is extremely lightweight and compact, coming in at only 1.25kg and measuring D16 x W24 x H16cm. This makes it the lightest air purifier we've tested at Ideal Home so far, even weighing less than the recently reviewed Blueair Blue Pure Mini Max, which weighs in at an equally impressive 1.4kg.

Considering the Vitesy Eteria's purpose is to be used as a 'personal' purifier that moves with the user, it only makes sense that portability was at the forefront of this device's design. The main purifying unit is attached to the monitoring module via a magnetic connector, allowing it to be picked up and moved easily. For this purpose, it also has a light teal coloured carrying handle at the top of the unit.

Since the Eteria is so small, it sits comfortably on the top of a dresser, bedside table, kitchen worktop, and more without looking bulky or out of place.

Energy use

The Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier is very energy efficient, using just about 7.5W of power irrespective of what mode it's in. According to Vitesy, it consumes less than an LED bulb, giving you the confidence to keep it on for 24 hours a day without worrying about cost, allowing you to breathe clean air guilt-free.

It isn't quite as low as Blueair air purifier line, which starts at only 2W of energy at the lowest setting, but the Eteria still rounds out to costing less than 1p per hour to run – which is next to nothing compared to the higher average cost of running an air purifier.

Filter replacement

For the Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier, the concept of filter replacement and maintenance is where it gets interesting, because there are zero filters to change. Unlike most air purifiers on the market, which use HEPA filters that require replacing every six months or so to keep the unit running at full efficiency, the Vitesy Eteria uses a photocatalytic, ceramic filter, in which its maintenance only requires being washed under running water to be good as new again.

To access the filter, you simply have to remove the fabric filter, then pull out the ceramic filter with its drawer. The fabric filter can be hand washed under running water or put in the washing machine at 60°C. The ceramic filter, on the other hand, just needs to be washed under running water and then left to dry. Just be sure that the both the fabric and ceramic filter are completely dry before reinserting. Vitesy recommend doing this every two months or so to ensure maximum effectiveness.

Since the Vitesy Eteria employs this reusable system, you effectively will never have to spend any additional money on buying replacement filters, as you would with models that require HEPA filters. This is a huge plus considering some of the more esteemed air purifiers on the market already come with a hefty price tag, and then you have to factor in the cost of buying filters over the months and years you use it. Not to mention, realistically speaking, a majority of people (myself included) will simply forgo cleaning an air purifier as regularly as they should be because of the extra effort and cost that comes with it.

With the Eteria, there are no hidden costs and what you pay for arrives complete. Sure, air purifier maintenance is every couple of months with the Eteria as opposed to the every six months schedule that comes with other HEPA filter air purifiers, but this isn't really a huge deal breaker for me as Vitesy have made it so easy to do.

Verdict

So, should you buy the Vitesy Eteria Portable Air Purifier? Overall, I was impressed with what this air purifier has to offer. It has fast response times, is lightweight and portable, and it costs almost nothing to run. Considering its compact size, it's definitely far more suited for smaller rooms like bedrooms and home offices, rather than used in open, communal spaces like living rooms and kitchens. Our testing process has shown that it's capable of quickly detecting a change in air quality as a result of the likes of smoke and VOCs, however, struggled when it came to dealing with cooking fumes.

Its portability and ease of maintenance is definitely its biggest draws, allowing you to slot it nicely on a worktop without making the space feel cluttered, move it from room to room as you wish, and save money on filter replacements in the long-run. Say goodbye to hardy maintenance, because the Vitesy Eteria is the easiest device I've had to maintain in a long time.

However, as mentioned, it's not without its drawbacks. While its Smart functions and Wi-Fi connectivity makes for a streamlined and easy to use device, its functionality is unfortunately gatekept behind the strength of your Wi-Fi connection. Without this connectivity, you'll struggle to make the most out of this air purifier. It's also louder than the brand advertise, with the Performance mode reaching up to 65dB, which can certainly be a distraction depending on where you're using it.

At its RRP of £189, it's definitely on the more premium side of the cost spectrum, and considering it lacks a little in dealing with cooking fumes and covers a really small area, it can feel like it's missing something. However, considering you can save a lot of money on not having to purchase filter replacements over the month and years you use it, the costs can even out in the long-run.

That said, I'll be continuing to use my Vitesy Eteria in my home office indefinitely, as it's ticked my personal boxes and more for personal purification in my small home office.