Woosh Air Smart Air Filter review: It knows when to scrub your air

The Woosh Smart Air Filter is one of those simple ideas that leave you wondering why no one thought of it before: It’s a disposable air filter that fits in a sensor-laden permanent frame that’s linked to an indoor air quality monitor (more on those sensors in a bit). The monitor links in turn to your smart thermostat via your Wi-Fi network. When the monitor detects compromised air quality, it triggers the thermostat to cycle your HVAC system’s fan. This enables the filter to remove airborne particulate pollutants.

Your initial outlay for the filter, frame, air quality monitor, and its gateway is $225; disposable replacement filters—manufactured by 3M—cost $22 each. You’ll need to provide your own compatible smart thermostat to get the most benefit from this system. Ecobee, Nest, Sensi, and Honeywell T-series and Lyric Round models are supported as of this writing. My review was conducted with an Emerson Sensi Touch 2 (my review of that product is in the works).

Installation and set up

The bundle reviewed here consists of an indoor air quality monitor, a Wi-Fi gateway, and a rigid plastic frame into which you’ll install a disposable air filter. The gateway sticks to your HVAC system’s air handler with the help of a magnet. The filter frame requires a pair of AAA batteries, and the gateway runs on two AA batteries (all four are included in the box). Woosh Air estimates these batteries should last at least one year. The air quality monitor needs to be plugged into an AC outlet inside the house.

Today, Woosh Air’s filters are available only in 1-inch thicknesses, but a Woosh representative said the company has 3D-printed spacers for HVAC systems that use thicker filters. These, however, are not yet available for retail sale. When you need to replace the filter, you’ll unlock the frame; fold up the old filter, remove it, and toss it in the garbage; drop in and unfold the new filter; and then relock the frame.

Jason D’Aprile/Foundry

The filters are rated MERV 13, which is generally considered the highest rating compatible with residential HVAC systems. My service technician informed me that filters rated higher than MERV 13 that can overly restrict air flow through an HVAC system, potentially damaging it. When I installed Woosh Air’s filter in my admittedly older system, the furnace immediately began to exhibit signs of stress, indicating that the filter was too dense. Woosh sent out a MERV 8 filter for this review, which resolved the problem—for the most part. Buyers should check their HVAC manufacturer’s recommended filter MERV rating or speak to their HVAC service professional before installing this system.

This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart thermostats.

Even with the new filter, Woosh Air’s plastic frame left gaps around the edges of my HVAC system’s filter slot, which allowed outside air to be pulled into its plenum, causing a horrible whistling noise. The solution was to install a third-party product called FilterLock (about $10 on Amazon), a thin film material with magnets that seals the filter slot and prevents outside air from being sucked past the filter. Woosh Air also offers a gasket-type product of its own (also $10) to improve the seal around its filter frame.

With that bit of drama sorted, the rest of the Woosh Air installation went fine. The app walks you through the entire process, including connecting the Bluetooth gateway to your Wi-Fi network (only 2.4GHz networks are supported). On a day-to-day basis, the app will track your indoor air quality and estimate the filter’s remaining useful life.

Woosh is a bit vague as to how the algorithm used for this purpose works, but it involves data collected by the filter frame’s sensors and tracking the HVAC system’s day-to-day operations. The app will not only notify you when it’s time to replace the air filter, it can also be configured to automatically order a new one when it’s needed.

Jason D’Aprile/Foundry

Getting Woosh Air’s product to work with your smart thermostat is simple: Just indicate which thermostat you’re linking it to and then log into that thermostat’s account to grant the necessary permissions. Once that’s done, Woosh Air’s air quality monitor will trigger the thermostat to turn on your HVAC system’s fan when poor air quality is detected. This worked seamlessly for me. The app can also send notifications to inform when your air quality is low and each time it turns the fan on and off.

Using the Woosh Air Smart Air Filter  

Woosh Air’s air quality monitor measures pollutants in the PM2.5 and PM10 ranges, accounting for particulates such as dust, pollen, smoke, and bacteria. The Woosh Air app reports these details, maintains a history of your indoor air quality, and also reports on the outdoor air quality for your home’s location.  

An LED on the air quality monitor changes color to provide a visual indication of your home’s indoor air quality: Green means air quality is good, red indicates the need for fresh—or at least filtered–air. The Woosh Air app can support additional air quality monitors—available for $99 each—if you want to track levels in more than one room.

Jason D’Aprile/Foundry

The sensors in the Woosh Air filter frame measure air pressure, ambient temperature, and ambient humidity, but these readings are not displayed in the app. Woosh Air says it can crunch this information to detect HVAC system problems such as dirty or frozen evaporator coils as well micro cracks in the same.

If those types of problems are detected, the company will send you an email with data and charts that a service tech might find useful during troubleshooting. Personally, I’d prefer seeing this information in the app and getting a push notification when problems are detected rather than waiting for an email that might get trapped in a spam filter.

Should you buy a Woosh Air Smart Air Filter?

First, make sure your HVAC system uses 1-inch air filters and that it can handle those rated MERV 13. And you might find, as I did, that you need to add something to seal any gaps between Woosh Air’s filter frame and your HVAC’s system filter slot. You’ll also need a compatible smart thermostat for it to work, and while that list is short, all of TechHive’s most-recommended thermostats are on it.

With those issues resolved, I found the Woosh Air Smart Air Filter system to be a clever and unique smart home solution that improved my home’s indoor air quality.