Xiaomi’s smart air purifier has ‘grave quality problems,’ inspection finds

Xiaomi’s smart air filter

If you have a first-gen Xiaomi air purifier, it might be time to start looking for a replacement. After months of rumors about quality issues, the results of a Shanghai municipal product quality inspection have come out, and they’re not good. Inspectors looked at 36 different air purifiers and found issues with four of them, including Xiaomi’s. Among the four that failed to pass muster, Xiaomi’s was the only one bad enough to earn an extra note in the inspectors’ report: “grave quality problems.”

Specifically, the report says that Xiaomi’s air filter failed in two categories. The first (noise) may not be an issue for users who’ve already gotten used to the thing. But the other category Xiaomi’s filter failed in is Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR). CADR is a measurement of how much clean air the purifier puts out, so it’s not the sort of thing you want your air purifier having a problem with.

The exact problem isn’t clear, though. The Shanghai inspection report simply states that CADR was one of the issues with the Xiaomi air purifier, but it doesn’t go into any further detail. On the air purifier’s official Weibo account, Xiaomi has posted about the new report, noting that the device previously passed a Shanghai Technology Quality Control Department inspection with an A-rated CADR of 409 cubic meters per hour, and that several other authorities rated it with a CADR of above 300.

The company will contact Shanghai quality control authorities to further understand the situation, Xiaomi said.