Briiv air filter review - here are my honest thoughts

How much would you be willing to pay for an air filter that not only looks good but does good for the planet too? That was the main question that kept coming up when I first spotted the Briiv air filter. 

The Briiv specialises in just one product, its recyclable air filter which it claims to be the most sustainable air filter in the world. It uses fully biodegradable filters and uses a tiny amount of electricity to run, that's before we get to how good it looks which let's be honest is the true main attraction here. I have never seen an air purifier illicit so many cries of 'Ooo she's pretty!' But all that comes with one quite significant drawback - the price. 

Yes, you can get all this in one beautiful air filter package, but it will cost you £329. Coming in at over £100 more than the top-rated appliance in our best air purifiers guide. So I decided to take the Briiv for a test drive in my small London flat for a couple of months to see if it delivered on all its promises to justify the extra expense.

Briiv air filter: Key Specs

• Filter: Moss, coconut, activated charcoal
• Noise: 60 Decibels on highest setting
• Power: 5V
• Room size: Suitable for room size up to 28m²
• Dimensions: 6m x 6m room

Unboxing

The Briiv prides itself on its eco-friendly credentials and the packaging reflects that arriving in all cardboard. The body of the air filter was packed with cardboard strips and the moss filter was kept in a hessian bag held inside the glass cloche.

Inside the box were the air filter body, a bag of moss that requires changing once a year, and three cardboard matrix filters that last three months each. Inside the box, you also receive a voucher offering 10% off an order of charcoal filters when your supply runs out. 

When it came to instructions the Briiv has minimal ones included inside the box, but it does have a scannable QR code that will take you to an online portal to help with troubleshooting any particular issues. 

The setup is very straightforward. The glass lid can be lifted off the body of the air filter to change the charcoal filter, however, the first one is already set up for you. All you need to do is arrange the reindeer moss on top of the coconut layer and you're good to go. 

The Briiv needs to be plugged into to work and comes with a 140cm black USB cable and an adaptor plug. However, a huge perk of the Briiv is that it can be run via a power bank if you want to use it somewhere without an easily accessible plug. 

First impressions

The design is a huge part of the appeal of the Briiv, if looks very similar to a terrarium blending into the interior design of the room in the same way that a houseplant does. 

In fact, the comparison with a houseplant is what Briiv largely leans into, comparing the purifying ability of the Briiv to that of a standard houseplant. However, it is hard to check its claim that the filter is as powerful as 3,043 houseplants.

It is about the size of a kettle and is definitely not an air filter that has been designed to be tucked away out of sight. I get lots of compliments from houseguests on how good it looks on a sideboard or on a bedside table. 

Briiv air filter - Performance

Controls

To keep the look of the Briiv sleek the controls on the front are all powered via a light-up screen that illuminates when you wave your hand. The designers have taken it a step beyond a touch screen with the Briiv responding simply to your hand being held in front of the speed and button you want to press. The controls are simple offering the boost setting for the hour to clean the air in the whole room or setting one of 4 speeds to run continuously. 

However, if you are able to set up the app for the Briiv then it opens up a whole new range of control where you can set a schedule for each day with different speeds. I must admit I found the controls on the Briiv itself very tricky to use, they take a little patience to get used to as the controls don't react instantly to your touch.

I found the app helpful when it came to day-to-day use. Connecting up the Briiv app was a mission that took a lot of patience. But once I was connected I was able to easily set an air purifying schedule for it to run a boost an hour before I usually went to bed to clear the air, and then drop it to run on the quietest 25% mode during the night, before turning off while I was at work to save money. 

Air quality

The Briiv air filter is unique in that its three layers of filtration are biodegradable. It uses a fan to pull the air through these, with each layer working on smaller and smaller particles. 

The moss layer removes particles as small as 10 micrometres including dust, pet dander and pollen. The second layer is a coconut filter which removes particles as small as 5 micrometres including smoke particles. The final filter is a activated carbon nano matrix which filters PM2.5 particles from the air which pulls odours and VOCs out of the air.

Briiv claims that the air filter can deliver 53 cubic feet per minute of purified, clean air on the maximum setting. In a room that is 6m x 6m, it would take 60 minutes for the Briiv to filter all the air.

But what does all that mean in reality? The comparison to houseplants gives this away a little, this device isn't one for the heavy lifting removal of cooking smells etc. I used it in the living room while dinner was being cooked. While it didn't completely eliminate the cooking smells it definitely helped clear them up more quickly post-dinner when using the level 3 recommended for use while cooking. 

However, if you're looking to refresh the air in your home it does that amazingly well. After testing the Briiv on the boost setting in my bedroom with the door closed I was amazed by how fresh the room smelt. It was like the window had been open all day.

To visually see how effectively the Briiv pulled air through the filtration system I blew a candle out in my bedroom while it was running. The trail of smoke was drawn immediately into the Briiv. Pulling it away from being dispersed into the air or marking the walls. 

Noise levels

If there is one thing I can't fault the Briiv on it is noise levels. At its loudest on the Boost setting, it is about as loud as a games console, around 60 Decibels, below that the level 3 setting sounds like the hum of a fridge. The lowest setting noise level is 32 Decibels, which is comparable to a whisper.

Cost to run

Where the Briiv really stands out is the low cost to run. While the initial cost of the Briiv is high compared to other air filters or air purifiers it only needs 5V of energy to run. This means it would only cost £3.60 a year to run. However, bear in mind that you will need to purchase the yearly filters which will come to £34.99.

Customer reviews

Customer reviews of the Briiv are a little divided with the app and controls being called out as tricky to use. On the John Lewis website, it has 3.4 stars out of 5 from an average of 10 reviews.  

One reviewer said it was particularly great for allergies and much quieter than the Dyson version they'd previously used. However, a handful of customers awarded it 2 stars saying while it did look great and improve air quality the controls were unreliable and became unresponsive frequently, and that the app schedule would need resetting every few days. 

Briiv did respond to customer concerns over the app saying that there was a known fault on the older versions of the Briiv causing issues with the new app. I had some similar issues with my own app, but Briiv were very helpful in sorting them out. However, I can understand how this could be frustrating when taking the hefty price tag into account.

Comparison to other models

I know I have alluded to it throughout this review, but I want to directly address the elephant in the room when it comes to the Briiv. It is at the top end of the price range when it comes to the air purifiers we have tested and is over £100 more expensive than our top-rated Blueair Blue 3210 air purifier.

This does feel like a lot considering the cheaper Blueair model promises to change the air in a room five times in an hour. It also lacked any air quality monitoring features to demonstrate visually how it was removing pollutants. 

However, where it compares favourably to other versions is the aesthetic, cost to run and the environmentally friendly credentials. It uses a minimal amount of electricity and is made from over 90% natural and biodegradable materials. 

Verdict

I really wanted to love the Briiv, it looked amazing on a shelf, had all the eco-credentials I wanted in an appliance and made my home smell amazing. 

However, it fell short on ease of use. Despite the controls appearing simple, they were fiddly and sometimes unreliable, I got away with leaving the Briiv consistently on the lowest setting when I was struggling and putting it on boost manually once a day. Still, I couldn't help feeling a little shortchanged by this considering the initial upfront cost. 

If you're looking for an air purifier you're happy to leave humming along in the background, which looks good and treads lightly on the planet, the Briiv is for you. However, if you're looking for ease of use and simply to purify the air you might be more suited to a more affordable air purifier.