Vitesy Natede Smart Air Purifier review: filters air with the power of houseplants

Price on writing: £239 | Buy now from Amazon

How we tested

Mumsnet editor Poppy tested the Natede Smart Air Purifier in her 3-bedroom home over the course of 2 months. Set up in her sitting room, she took detailed notes on the air purifier's user-friendliness, effectiveness and how helpful the app was.

Related: Best air purifiers

Natede Smart Air Purifier: our verdict

One major drawback with air purifiers is the need to buy replacement filters. Depending on the brand and model you go for, these can set you back up to £85 per year for a brand-name replacement filter. So I was excited to test out the Natede Smart, an ingenious invention that uses a living houseplant to purify the air, rather than a replaceable filter.

Setting up the purifier was no more faff than potting a plant. Granted, that's more involved than a tradition air purifier with filters, but you can genuinely set and forget the Natede Smart, so a bit of effort to get it going didn't bother me.

Using about the same amount of energy as an LED bulb, I put the air purifier in my sitting room, in a damp-prone corner next to our very old single-glazed windows.

The air purifier has a number of settings (more on this later), and I opted to leave it on silent mode the majority of the time. In this mode, the Natede Smart works at minimum power and cleans the air in the background.

Completely silent on this mode, you literally wouldn't know the Natede Smart was there. It looks like a futuristic plant pot and the only sign something was different was the big reduction in the damp that tends to form on the wall by the window.

I've been impressed at the difference the Natede Smart has made to the air quality in my sitting room, and I love looking at all the graphs on the app, which analyse impurities, humidity and temperature.

Read next: Best dehumidifiers

How easy is the Natede Smart to set up and start using?

There are a number of steps involved in setting up the Natede Smart, I'd set aside about half an hour to get it up and running. Firstly, there are only a few plants that are compatible with the air purifier:

• Sanseveria Trifasciata (snake plant) is recommended for optimum performance

• Aloe Vera

• Anthurium

We had a big aloe vera that could have done with being split up and repotted, so I took a section of the plant measuring about 10cm across to use in the air purifier. The manufacturer recommends using its own brand potting soil, but I just used some cactus and succulent mix I had already.

The purifier comes with a bag of expanded clay beads, which you distribute around the edges of the pot (above right). The plant and soil go in the centre of the pot, then you just need to plug in the purifier and set up the app.

Easy to connect to WiFi and very user-friendly, the app invites you to give your purifier a name (we went for Vera Duckworth) and choose from a number of different modes.

There are no buttons on the purifier itself, so you do need to have your phone handy in order to control it. I would have liked a remote control, but the app works very smoothly and has lots of interesting information about the quality of my air.

Related: The best budget dehumidifiers under £100

What's the Natede Smart like to use day-to-day?

In a word: inconspicuous. Unusually, silent mode is genuinely silent, and the purifier keeps on top of impurities perfectly well. I'm lucky enough not to suffer with allergies, but if you want more powerful purifying, there are the following modes to choose from:

• Auto: switches on when impurities are detected

• Standard: Normal power to maintain good air quality over time

• Performance: maximum power to destroy pollutants

• Custom: Choose your favourite settings according to your needs

• Timer: set a purifying schedule

As I'm using the purifier to keep on top of mould growth, silent mode works well for me. If you're dealing with road pollution, unwanted smells or allergens, there's a mode for everybody.

I like being able to see the air quality in my living room throughout the day. I can even see on the graph when the pets come into the room and the 'fine particles' (aka hair) reading shoots up.

The filter doesn't need replacing, just washing under running water. This makes the air purifier exceptionally low maintenance and low-cost.

Read next: Best washing machines

Does the Natede Smart offer good value for money?

At £239 the Natede Smart Air Purifier is about in the middle of the air purifier market. When you take into consideration the fact that you won't need to buy replacement filters however, it starts to look like a bargain.

The Levoit LV-H133, which retails for £150, requires a new filter every 6 months. For a branded Levoit filter, that's £65 twice a year, or £35 for unbranded dupes.

The way the Natede Smart uses a plant really appeals to me - sure, it's bulkier and more futuristic than my other pots, but I prefer how it looks to any characterless device.

I think it's great value for money over the lifetime of the air purifier, and my aloe vera seems pretty happy with it, too.

About the author

Poppy O'Neill is a Content Editor at Mumsnet and a mother of two. She's been researching and reviewing the products Mumsnetters swear by for 3 years, with a particular focus on home essentials, laundry and fans. From a highly-recommended retractable washing line to the best quiet fans money can buy, and Mumsnet's favourite dehumidifier to the steam generator iron that'll cut your ironing time in half, she loves to deep-dive into research and find the very best products on the market.

Poppy is also an award-winning, best-selling children's and parenting author of books such as Don't Worry, Be Happy, The Extraordinary Book That Makes You Feel Happy and Mother Power. She specialises in children's mental health and her books are used by therapists, teachers and SENCOs across the UK. She won a The Week Junior Book Award in 2023, her books have been translated into several languages and she's been featured in The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Sun.

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