Beko Air Purifier ATP5100I review: Fresh air on a budget

Air purifiers can be pricey. If you don’t want to spend hundreds, your options are limited.

That’s why we were pleasantly surprised by the price of Beko’s air purifier ATP5100I, which features a HEPA filter and antibacterial Hygiene Shield. It claims to remove 99.9% of bacteria and viruses from the air – claims which have been tested and endorsed by Airmid Health Group.

It’s suitable for a smaller room, such as a home office or bedroom. But what is it like to use? We took it home and tested it to find out.

Design and build

• Circular drum design
• Easy to clean
• Portable at 2.34kg

Beko’s air purifier is simply designed and its feature set is fairly limited. There are no wheels, there’s no remote control, and there’s no air quality display.

It’s a white cylinder standing 30cm high, with a 20cm diameter. There are no other colour options. The top plastic section houses the fan and the bottom metal grille sheath covers the filter. It’s easy to wipe clean and easy to vacuum the top.

But once you’ve placed it in a room, you realise there’s a lot of value in its simplicity. Its shape means it has a softer impact on the space than a rectangular box and it’s far easier to position. And it’s not a distracting addition to a room: it’s there to do the job of cleaning air in a room as discreetly as it can.

The lack of wheels could be problem for some, but it only weighs 2.34kg – one of the lightest air purifiers we’ve tested. Most people will find it a simple matter to carry it from one room to another.

It’s suitable for a 13m² room and it has an 180cm cable, which gives you plug point flexibility.

The filter

• Washable prefilter
• HEPA 13 filter
• Activated carbon filter

Alex Greenwood / Foundry

There are three layers of filtration with an extra ioniser option. As the intake grille is round and 360°, the purifier will pull in air from all directions. The first filter layer is a fabric pre-filter that captures large particles, hair, and pollen. Usefully, you can remove the fabric from filter drum and wash it. We haven’t seen this feature in any other air purifier, and it gives you more options for maintaining your appliance.

The second layer is the HEPA 13 filter. A HEPA 13 filter can remove 99.95% of all particles in the air measuring 0.2 microns in diameter, though this is worst case efficiency, so the filter also traps particles smaller than that. Suffice to say, HEPA 13 is a medical grade filter.

Then there’s the carbon filter that removes unwanted odours and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from the air.

You also have the option of turning on the ioniser using the rocker switch inside the purifier itself. This feature releases negative ions into the outgoing filtered air and helps to bind together airborne impurities so they can be more easily captured.           

To access the filter installation, simply turn the plastic top to remove it from the body of the purifier. You can pull the hollow cylinder of the filter out easily, and it is about 2.5cm thick.

When it’s time to change the filter, the filter change indicator will illuminate. You can buy replacement filters for £20 from Beko, which is good value.

Control panel and display

• Touch rim controls
• Timer
• Sleep mode

Alex Greenwood / Foundry

In keeping with the theme of simplicity, the purifier’s controls comprise three touch icons on its rim. The first is the power button, the second is the fan speed, and the third is the timer, which you can set for 2, 4 or 8 hours.

The purifier will turn on initially at medium speed, and then onto whichever speed was last used.

The sleep mode is activated by pressing the power icon for two seconds; this feature simply dims the icon lights when the purifier is in operation.  

There’s no display panel, nor are there any air quality indicators.

If air quality indicators are important to you, this Beko model won’t be right for you. However, Beko’s larger ATP6100I model has an air quality traffic light indicator. This means that it’ll give you a sense of whether your home air quality is poor, average or good, depending on the colour illuminated on the display. It stands 10cm taller than the ATP5100I and can clean a larger room – 24m² room with a clean air delivery rate (CADR) of 204 – and has an automatic fan speed setting.

You can buy it direct from Beko, Amazon or Currys. It has an RRP of £150 but at the time of writing, Amazon has a better price.

Or, there are air purifiers with a digital display that will show much more in-depth information about your home air quality. You can find some options in our round-up of the best air purifiers we’ve tested. The Jya Fjord is an excellent mid-range option, or if you can spend a bit more, have a look at Dyson’s Hot + Cool Formaldehyde.

Performance

• Three fan speeds
• Quiet 33dB setting
• Significant updraught on high speed

To set up the air purifier is simply a question of taking it out of the box and plugging it in. There’s nothing to unwrap or install.

In terms of noise, we found the low level to be extremely quiet, less than a desktop PC and roughly around 33dB. You can sleep at this setting level, and, remarkably, the filtered air draught could be felt at 70cm away from the air outlet, and our testers reported a far deeper sleep than normal, waking refreshed and ready for the day.

The medium setting has a sound level roughly comparable to a dishwasher, but again it really pumps out filtered air. We could sense the draught at 140cm. The high fan speed is more of a washing machine level of sound, and the air output is substantial, hitting the ceiling in our testing room.    

We could definitely see how the purifier will clear a 13m² room quickly. Beko suggests the purifier will deal with 36m² within 60 mins, assuming a room is three metres high, and reports a clean air delivery rate (CADR) of 110, although there are no specific CADR results for smoke, dust or pollen.

Price and availability

The ATP5100I is available in the UK and Europe. Sadly, it’s not for sale in the US, but we’ve reviewed plenty of air purifiers that are, in our round-up of the best air purifiers we’ve tested.

In the UK, it’s available direct from Beko, Amazon and Currys. It has an RRP of £100, which is very good value for a reliable air purifier. Still, at the time of writing, Amazon is selling it for much less – and we’d recommend snapping it up if you see it on offer.

Verdict

We really liked the Beko ATP5100I. It’s simple, easy to clean and doesn’t have design features that will gather dust. We also like its cylindrical shape, which just makes it easier to find a spot for in a room. The air output really has some oomph too, and finally the price point makes it a solid buy. For a bedroom or home office, it’s ideal.

For more options and to see all the air purifiers we recommend, have a look at our round-up of the best air purifiers we’ve tested.