Tried and tested: SHARP Plasmacluster car air purifier

How clean is the air you breathe? It’s a question that bothers several people living in urban India. Given the rate at which airborne health issues can afflict you, it’s not an unfair ask. And the problem is particularly acute if you’re in a vehicle locked in with other passengers. The dust and germs from the road that get into the car each time you open the door, the microbes being breathed out by the others. It all adds up to a ghastly environment.

Thankfully, you can do something about it. You can of course buy a vehicle that comes with an ioniser that will kill the germs, or, you can get this. A Sharp Air Purifier. You can plug it into the car’s 12V power socket for it to do its work, which is killing germs using a charged ionic microbe killing pulse. A high quality class H14 HEPA air filter further cleans the air.

The magic involved

Basically, the unit sucks in ambient air, kills germs and recirculates it into the environment. I have been using one in my long term Compass for the past couple of months and while I can’t give you facts and figures on how many gazillion germs the machine has killed, I can tell you that breathing inside the closed cabin with the gadget on certainly feels lighter than otherwise. And it’s pretty easy to use as well.

That it comes with a 12V plug with an extra USB port is a bonus because that means I can charge the wifey’s phone on the go as well without having to unplug mine from the car’s Android Auto system. The only thing that the Sharp Air Purifier will ask of you is some space in one of the cup holders. Small price to pay if you ask me, for some nice clean air to fill the bags inside your thorax. If only, the asking price of Rs 12,000 was as small a price to pay.

words by Aninda Sardar