Tried and tested: The best high-tech gadgets to sanitise your home

The Jetsons promised we’d get robotic maids but a new generation of hygienic tech can clean your home in even more unexpected ways. We’ve tried them - and here’s our picks.

The Mercedes of air purifiers can clean your entire living area

SAMSUNG AX90T AIR PURIFIER WITH WI-FI

The Mercedes of air purifiers can clean your entire living area

$999, samsung.com/au

The Samsung Air Purifier AX90T features a Wi-Fi connection and can be controlled remotely.

PROS

– Three-layer filter system

– Works in rooms up to 90 sqm

– Surprisingly quiet for a big machine

CONS

– Requires clear space to work

– Needs its own power point

– A substantial investment

Whether you’re concerned with smells, smoke, allergens or bacteria, this premium air purifier promises capture or inhibit it all … and lets you control it from your smartphone. The AX90T is a beast, standing 1.1m tall and weighing 15kg, but it’s attractive and surprisingly quiet. A touch panel lets users control fan speed, set a timer, trigger sleep mode, or check air quality, dust and gas levels in their home, and a coloured light offers an instant status update. The machine uses a pre-filter, carbon filter and True HEPA filter to catch everything from pollen and odours to mould, and it has a Wi-Fi connection so you can operate it from a phone or with a voice assistant.

VERDICT: ★★★★★

DYSON PURIFIER HOT+COOL FORMALDEHYDE

This machine heats, cools and tackles household pollutants

$1099, dyson.com.au

PROS

– Ready for summer or winter

– Captures formaldehyde and allergens

– Can be controlled with an app

CONS

– Quite expensive

– Filter will require replacement

– Can be noisy when heating

Dyson won plenty of human fans when it launched fans with no blades. Its cooling machines have evolved a lot since then, however, and will now also heat a room and purify the air inside it. The latest model is equipped with HEPA H13 and carbon filters to remove dust, pollens and other allergens, as well as a catalytic filter to trap formaldehyde molecules from wooden furniture, new carpets, or cigarette smoke. The machine has a small display but also connects to an app using Wi-Fi to report on its findings, which can be surprising.

VERDICT: ★★★★½

ECOVACS DEEBOT T9+

The next generation of robot vacuums can empty itself

$1299, ecovacs.com.au

The Ecovacs Deebot T9+ robot vacuum features improved obstacle avoidance.,

PROS

– Can mop or vacuum, identify floor type

– Empties dirt and dust itself

– Will spread air fragrance

CONS

– Dustbin is modestly sized

– Doesn’t get into all corners

– Not as good as a human cleaner yet

Robotic vacuum cleaners have come a long way since they were considered novelties and this model is proof. The Ecovacs flagship will not only vacuum but mop floors, and it has the smarts to tell what action is needed where. Its mopping action is also more thorough than in past models, which should please owners of tiled and wooden floors, and it can vary its vacuuming power depending on the job. The Deebot T9+ also comes with a charging and emptying station to dispose of dirt, as well as a better 3D mapping function and object avoidance system so it doesn’t get stuck under chairs or baffled by cords.

VERDICT: ★★★★½

PANASONIC PORTABLE NANOE X GENERATOR

This coffee cup-shaped device promises to clean the air around you

$299, panasonic.com/au

PROS

– Small enough to fit in a cupholder

– Tackles odours as well as dust

– Captures pollens, inhibits viruses

CONS

– Can distract in quiet spaces

– Only purifies air in small areas

– Costly for small device

Panasonic’s latest creation is well timed for what could be a nerve-racking return to working outside the home. The company’s Portable Nanoe X Generator is small enough to pass as a large coffee cup and only requires power from a USB port. It works differently to most air purifiers, using an electrode to generate particles that attach themselves to airborne and surface pollutants, like pollen, mould and, yes, viruses. It can also tackle smells. The unit does make noise that can be distracting in a quiet space, however, and it also only works in a three square metre area so you need to stay close.

VERDICT: ★★★½

LG TONE FREE FP9

Wireless earbuds that cancel noise, then cancel bacteria

$319, lg.com/au

PROS

– Earbud case features a UV light cleaner

– Customisable equaliser settings

– Strange microphone mode

CONS

– Modest noise cancellation

– No wireless charging

– Artificial call audio

What are earbuds doing in a list of clean gadgets? Sanitising themselves, that’s what. LG’s latest music makers arrive in a case with a UV light that, when plugged in, cleans the speaker mesh of these earbuds for five minutes. LG claims this kills 99.9 per cent of bacteria (though does nothing about ear wax). The FP9 earbuds also offer active noise cancellation, an ambient sound mode, equaliser settings in an accompanying app, and “whispering mode” that lets you take the right bud out and use it like a microphone in a noisy location.

VERDICT: ★★★★

Originally published as Tried and tested: The best high-tech gadgets to sanitise your home