Nikura AIRI Waterless Diffuser review: This clever gadget has fixed everything I find annoying about diffusers

I love a diffuser. There is often one puffing away somewhere in my house, whether I'm trying to make the living room smell lovely or winding down with a lavender scent before bed.

But there are two things about traditional diffusers that are irritating: constantly having to top them up with water and, even more irksome, trying to plug the cable back in once they're full. You can't exactly tip a diffuser full of water on its side to find the tiny socket, which can turn what should be a two-second job into an annoying bit of fumbling around. Alternatively you have to fetch a jug of water and top it up in situ, trying hard not to get water everywhere.

The Nikura AIRI Waterless Diffuser changes all that. There's no water to top up, no tank to refill and, because it's rechargeable, no cable to wrestle with every time you want to move it.

Instead of filling a tank, you simply screw a bottle of essential or fragrance oil directly into the diffuser. It then uses nebulisation technology to disperse the undiluted oil into the room.

The AIRI costs £55 on its own and is available in black or white. There are also bundles with three or five oils, starting from £70 - although it’s currently on sale for £60. The Essential Oil Classics Bundle contains 10ml bottles of Lavender, Lemon and Peppermint, while the Sleep Blends Bundle brings together Calm, Cosy Night In and Sweet Dreams for bedtime. Alternatively, the Best Sellers Bundle contains five 10ml bottles spanning both essential and fragrance oils: Lemon, Lavender, Peppermint, Fresh Linen and Calm.

What’s great is that you're not tied to Nikura's own oils. AIRI is compatible with 10ml, 20ml, 30ml and 50ml bottles, although Nikura recommends a 10ml bottle for optimum performance. Very thick, high-viscosity oils aren't suitable. But I tried my device with three different oil brands and all fitted perfectly.

There are three intensity settings. On low, AIRI releases a 1.2-second burst every 210 seconds, dropping to every 150 seconds on medium and every 90 seconds on high.

You can also choose between one, three and six-hour running times, after which it switches itself off automatically.

Nikura says it can cover spaces of up to 60 square metres, which makes this more than just a bedside diffuser. Battery life depends on how you use it, but the brand says you can get up to 80 hours of misting on the low setting with the ambient light switched off.

What I like about the Nikura AIRI Waterless Diffuser

For me, its biggest selling point is how much faff it removes from something I use all the time. With a traditional diffuser, using it means finding the oil, filling the tank with water, adding the right number of drops and eventually emptying and refilling it. None of those things is particularly onerous, but when you're doing them regularly, it's not ideal.

AIRI makes the whole process much simpler. Screw in your chosen oil, choose your intensity and timer and you're away.

Going waterless also changes the way the fragrance is delivered. Traditional ultrasonic diffusers mix essential oil with water before sending a scented mist into the room. AIRI uses the oil directly, without diluting it first.

There's another benefit to ditching the water that I hadn't initially considered: there's no water tank to clean. If I leave water sitting in my favourite NEOM diffuser for too long, the reservoir can start to develop a slightly brown residue, which means emptying it and giving it a proper clean before I use it again.

AIRI doesn't have a water reservoir at all, so that's another little maintenance job taken out of the equation. The diffuser itself will still need occasional cleaning, particularly when changing oils, but there's no water sitting around in a tank between uses.

Another big plus for me is portability. Once charged, AIRI can move around the house with you, so the same diffuser could sit in the bathroom while you're having a bath, move to the living room for the evening and end up beside the bed later.

I also like having three intensity settings rather than simply an on/off button. It means you can dial the fragrance down in a smaller room or increase it when you want the scent to travel further.

What I don't like about the Nikura AIRI Waterless Diffuser

At £55, AIRI is more expensive than a basic ultrasonic diffuser, so you're paying a premium for the waterless technology and rechargeable design.

Using undiluted oil means you’ll get through the bottle quicker which you may need to factor into the overall cost.

My verdict so far

I'm already sold on the principle. Filling diffusers with water and wrestling with cables have become genuine irritations for me, so the idea of simply inserting an oil bottle and pressing a button is hugely appealing.

For that reason, the £55 price tag makes sense to me - I’m happy to pay for the convenience factor and already have the AIRI on my Christmas wish list so I can keep the second one permanently in the bathroom.