air purifier review

We will be testing the new, slightly more powerful Blue Pure 411+ once we have access to our New York office again. Winix’s HR900 Ultimate Pet Air Purifier has far lower specs than that model and our less expensive top pick, the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty. From harsh cleaning chemicals to pet dander and pollen coming in, the air at home may not be as clean as you’d expect. Most offer a square-footage rating because it’s easy for a prospective customer to take their room’s dimensions and pick a purifier accordingly. The HEPA filters are clearly marked with the proper orientation, so there’s little danger of installing them incorrectly. Purifier manufacturers typically recommend annual replacement, but check the manual to be certain; some call for less-frequent or more-frequent replacement. In addition to these performance assessments, Tim measured the purifiers’ noise output at a distance of 6 feet, 3 feet from the ground, to determine their highest so-called quiet setting (maximum 50 decibels, measured as dBA). It reduced smoke levels by 99.9% in 30 minutes on high, and by 94.2% on medium. But if you have an air-quality emergency on your hands—like regional wildfires, or your charred dinner under the broiler—and you have a box fan, tape, the right sort of filter, and no time to buy an air purifier, it’s worth a shot. Right? In prior testing, he used his New York apartment and Wirecutter’s Los Angeles office. Regardless, the Air is weak. This model looks and acts like other Dyson fans, providing you with a stream of cool air when you need it. You should do the same if you try this hack. The tests ran for 65 minutes, with the machines on high. But at that speed the Mini produced an ear-splitting 66.3 decibels of high-pitched fan noise, measured from 6 feet away—completely unlivable in any living space, let alone the small spaces Molekule intends the Mini to be used in. The Z2000 (the “medium room” model), which by TruSens’s claimed specs is a direct competitor to our top pick, the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty, has a CADR of 112/117/95 on dust/pollen/smoke—in every case less than half the Coway’s CADR ratings, and below those of even our top pick for small rooms, the Levoit Core 300. We believe this result is anomalous, and likely due to variations in the initial test conditions (we measured the Core 300 in a separate round of testing). These are harsh chemicals that can be found in everything from old furniture to cleaning sprays. Air passes through almost unimpeded—thus the “high efficiency” in HEPA—but the mazelike web of fibers traps almost all the particles, from “big” stuff like pollen (10 microns or so) down to ultrafine, 10-nanometer (0.01 micron) stuff. If your environment has high levels of both particulates and volatile organic compounds (VOCs, or more broadly, odors), we recommend the Austin Air HealthMate HM400. In a small bedroom, dorm room, or office, the compact and affordable Levoit Core 300 performs extremely well and looks great. This model’s HEPA filter removes particulates (like pollen and smoke) from the air, and its second filter efficiently removes odors and VOC gases—an ability many purifiers lack. In 2018, Tim conducted testing in his New York apartment similar to what he did in 2019 in Wirecutter’s New York headquarters. Enviroklenz UV Air Purifier Review. He then ran the machines on high for an hour, turned them to their “quiet”/medium setting, and ran them for an additional two hours, with the purifiers and particle counter in their usual spots. To look at the Blueair Classic 405 doesn’t look like much: it’s a rectangular, plain-looking box. In early fall 2020, we received a few notes from readers about a pair of issues with their Coways. It has delivered exceptional air purification at the 0.3 micron HEPA standard in our testing. For convenience, we’ve listed our choice of the best air purifiers below, but you can keep reading this article to get the full lowdown on each model. As with the Winix 5500-2, we’ll be long-term testing the AM90 over the coming months and will report on its continuing performance. As a fan (heating and cooling), the Pure Hot+Cool is brilliant: it’s efficient, quiet and has a gentle air stream. The Blueair Blue Pure 211+ is our choice among air purifiers for large spaces of up to 650 square feet, especially when it involves open floor plans or high ceilings. 5.0 from 31 reviews. After 15 minutes he turned each purifier on, set to high. Hayfever sufferers, for example, should choose an air purifier that’s efficient for pollen removal. Hamilton Beach offers no cubic-feet-per-minute or CADR numbers on its 04386A air purifier, so we dismissed it. With new filters, it reduced them by 99.3% and 99.2%, respectively. The two machines are similar in power and noise output too, and they performed almost identically in our 2019 testing. In just 30 minutes, the Blue Pure 211+ reduced a heavy load of 0.3-micron smoke particles by 99.3% and 98.4% on high and quiet/medium, respectively, in our 2019 test, with filters that had seen eight months of 24/7 use. A 135-sqft room would need CADR ratings of 90 or above, for example. These suggest that this air purifier is designed for people with particularly bad allergies. It is not true-HEPA rated but is certified by AHAM to have a clean air delivery rate (CADR) of 350 and performed exceptionally well in our testing, where we measure each purifier’s effectiveness at capturing HEPA-standard 0.3-micron particles. Tim placed the machines at the midpoint of the room, approximately 3 feet from the wall and away from any obstacles. So over the course of five years, its running costs may be as much as $480—far more than the Coway’s roughly $270. Replacement filters every six months, at $22 apiece, will cost $198 over the course of five years (nine new filters). HEPA FilterYes. As a rule, it’s wise to “oversize,” which will let you run your purifier on slower and quieter settings while still cleaning a room’s air effectively. HEPA filters also have a lifespan, after which they’ll need to be replaced. Hydroxyls are highly reactive, and they rapidly combine with nearby materials. HEPA purifiers will capture the coronavirus if it is airborne, and some research now suggests it is. Read more in How we picked. In 2018, he established Wirecutter’s ongoing collaboration with The New York Times’s Smarter Living. It uses a charcoal filter in addition to a true HEPA filter to reduce both odors and allergens. One is noise output, and there the Winix 5500-2 is similar to the Coway AP-1512HH. To test our advice to run your purifier on high for an hour to create very clean air and thereafter on quiet/medium to maintain it, Tim ran a three-hour test in the 200-square-foot room, using the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty and our large-space pick at the time, the Coway Airmega 400. The Coway Mighty has also demonstrated the ability to maintain its high performance for years, even as we’ve pushed its filters far beyond their stated one-year lifespans. But to qualify as great, it needs to be powerful enough to clean the air in a large living room or playroom, quiet and dark enough for you to sleep near it in a bedroom, and inexpensive enough that it’s reasonable to have several spread throughout your home. But now-withdrawn company literature gave us an an idea of its volumetric limits: The company used to claim the Air provides “a full replacement” of the air in a 600-square-foot room in “under an hour” (and elsewhere “every hour”), and in a 150-square-foot room in “under 15 minutes.” That suggested that the Air has a maximum ACH of around 4 in a 150-square-foot room with 8-foot ceilings. We still prefer the Coway for its lower energy consumption, smaller footprint, display-shutoff feature, and more attractive look, but it’s a close race. Over the past seven years, we have conducted both lab-based and real-world tests of air purifier performance. Filter type: HEPA\Gas, Filter life: 1 year, Size: 1054 x 223 x 117mm, Max room size: 450 square feet, Number of speeds: 10, Auto mode: Yes, App control: Yes, Read our full Dyson Pure Cool Tower review, It might look like a dustbin, but this air purifier is powerful and perfect for larger rooms. The Levoit costs a bit more than half as much for the same upkeep—and, of course, roundly outperforms the Air Mini, as well. Although the Bissell air400 has specs comparable to those of the Coway AP-1512HH, it costs over $100 more at this writing, and it has relatively few reviews on Amazon and on Bissell’s own site. Philips Air Purifier Review. That’s 1.1 kilowatt-hours a day, 33 kWh per month, or 410 kWh per year for this Blueair model versus 0.2, 6, and 73, respectively, for the Coway. Read more in How we picked. For one, the Winix lacks a display-shutoff feature, which we value highly: the displays of most purifiers are overbright, and can disrupt sleep. Finally, you can look out for the Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR), which tells you how effective the purifier is at different types of allergen, compared to introducing clean air. That makes it very close to our former top pick, the Coway Airmega 400, at about $1,200. He also tested a popular hack: taping a furnace filter to a box fan to create a DIY air purifier. And, CADR scores are comparable across all products, helping you make the right choice. We do dismiss air purifiers that rely on ozone (O3, a molecule composed of three oxygen atoms) to “purify” the air. These devices are basically fans that suck in dirty air, clean it in a filter and pass out nice clean air the otherside. When we measured its performance in 2018 and 2019, each time on year-old filters, it again performed just as well as it did on day one, and it showed no difference in performance between the year-old filters and new replacements. Finally, in our 2018 “wildfire” test in Los Angeles, the Coway Mighty reduced a heavy load of incense smoke by 70% in 50 minutes—equaling the performance of some much more powerful competitors—in a room more than twice the size it is specced for. And we know of at least one Wirecutter reader and one Wirecutter staffer who didn’t realize they needed to remove the plastic before turning their purifier on, which rendered their purifiers useless. In the summer of 2019, we purchased a Molekule Air (the flagship model) and tested it. He did a 35-minute, five-match test in the 200-square-foot room with a 20-inch-square Lasko box fan and a 20-by-20-inch Honeywell FPR 9 (roughly MERV 12) filter, one of our picks in our guide to furnace filters. But to be considered one of the top 10 air purifiers, it has to be powerful enough brand to clean the air of allergens, viruses, mold, dust, smoke, and other fine particles; all of which you’ll find below in our best rated air purifier reviews for home use. Another way to look at it: You could buy and maintain two Coway Mighty units for less than the cost of some individual competitors. Air purifiers of the kind we recommend use physical filters to trap small particles in your home’s air. Last, on top of the machine’s weak performance and high cost, we found the Molekule app persistently laggy. And it’s fussy to maintain, with three small HEPA filters to replace and a prefilter that you have to Velcro in exactly the right place—otherwise it will prevent the cover from reattaching. The Winix C535 has gained tremendous popularity primarily because of the features it … The AM90 is equally as quiet, and its filter replacements cost only a bit less (roughly $43 annually, vs $50); but it draws more power than the Coway on the medium setting we recommend (13.3 versus 8.1 watts), doesn’t have a manual display-shutoff (only an automatic one, on its lowest-speed sleep mode), is physically larger, and only comes in one color—white. Generally we only test purifiers with HEPA certification. That generally means the medium setting on three-speed purifiers, or the high-medium setting on four-speed machines. The Oransi OV200 has budget specs, draws as much as 60 watts (our budget pick draws 3.6 on medium) and costs much more than our budget pick. While we were researching and writing this guide, LG discontinued its Air Purifier Tower AS401WWA1 and PuriCare Air Purifier Round Console. More details here. The HPA300 performed very well in our tests but was also extremely loud, topping out at 62 decibels on its highest setting and measuring 53 decibels on the higher of its two medium speeds. But unlike them, it also employs a truly effective adsorbent filter that efficiently captures gaseous pollutants, which include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like formaldehyde—a common component in the glues and foam padding used to make furniture—and, more broadly, odorous gases like those produced by pet urine and car engines. Blueair, maker of our large-space pick, the Blue Pure 211+, is launching a new version of the machine, the 211+ Auto. Despite our repeated requests (and co-CEO Dilip Goswami’s stated willingness to do so), Molekule never shared its airflow numbers (cfm, or cubic feet per minute). Featuring a thorough 4-stage filtration system, the NuWave Oxypure Smart Air Purifier draws upon a pre-filter, hygienic BioGuard filter, ozone filter and combined carbon and HEPA filter to offer clean and pure air quality. Our industry experts comprehensively lab test and review leading air purifier brands like Dyson, Philips and Winix to help you find the best performers on the market. No matter which Airfree air purifier you decide to get, you can rest assured that it destroys mold, dust mites, bacteria, viruses, pollens, pet dander, tobacco, and other organic allergens. But, like the Winix models, it only shuts off its bright blue air-quality indicator lamp when manually set to low. It only comes in dark gray, lacks Wi-Fi connectivity, and uses a one-year VOC filter, versus the AM90’s three-month filters. These results rank the Molekule Mini as the second-worst air purifier we have ever tested, behind—you guessed it—the other Molekule. However, the built-in air purifier can be used to clean your air, too. On its highest setting (speed 5), the Mini did well, reducing the smoke from five wooden matches by 96.2% in half an hour. And it’s light—a shade over 12 pounds—making it easy to move around via its convenient pocket handle. Not all air purifiers are giant boxes, as the Dimplex DXAPV3N demonstrates. We have long recommended running air purifiers on high for an hour and thereafter running them on the quiet/medium setting to create and maintain clean air in the home. They are made by the same company, and they are physically so similar that their faceplates and filters are interchangeable. (The HEPA 0.3-micron standard falls within the scale measured by the tobacco-smoke test.). We advise anyone debating between them to compare their prices (and appearances) and purchase whichever model you prefer. And the fact that it maintained its high performance even on very overused filters gives us confidence in its long-term performance. Install your purifier at least 18 inches from a wall and any furniture, ideally near the midpoint of the room you’re using it in. #mergeRow-gdpr {margin-top: 20px;} Using ACH, which measures volume, gives us a true picture of a machine’s capability. But unlike the HEPA purifiers, all of which proved capable of deeply cleaning the air, the Molekule left the air heavily loaded with particulates on every setting. It’s large and visually intrusive, too, consisting of a black tower almost 2 feet tall, 18 inches deep, and 10 inches wide. Over five years, that’s an extra $50. In our 2020 test, it reduced a heavy load of smoke in our 135-square-foot test space by 97.4% in half an hour on high and 92.6% on medium. 8.1 watts, so running it air purifier review on that setting consumes just 71 kilowatts.... 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