The best air purifiers in 2022 - Tom's Guide
You will know when you've got one of the best air purifiers, because you will actually feel the difference at home. A good air purifier will clear the majority of pollutants from the air quickly and quietly, leaving you breathing fresh, clean air. They're one of those appliances that you can't live without once you try. They can alleviate allergies, just like the best vacuum cleaners, help you sleep better at night and can help deodorize the home too — a useful feature if your kitchen constantly smells after using one of the best air fryers or one of the best instant pots.
If you treat yourself to one of the best dehumidifiers as well, you will find it can really improve the quality of your air at home. In fact, some air purifiers even claim to protect against COVID-19 coronavirus by filtering any airborne particles which are carrying the virus, according to Consumer Reports. While air purifiers can't catch everything and aren't a replacement for clean, outdoor air, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, they're still a useful addition to the home, particularly if you spend a lot of time indoors. Not sure which to buy? We've rounded up the best air purifiers to help you choose.
Air purifier sales and deals
Want to invest in a new air purifier? Check out our air purifier sales and deals page first to grab a bargain. Some of our favorite brands have made an appearance, so it's worth keeping an eye on.
Meanwhile, Levoit, Coway and other brands unveiled a batch of brand-new air purifiers at CES 2022. Check out our roundup for all the latest models.
What are the best air purifiers?
Our extensive research compared over 30 brands and after assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each, we found the best air purifiers to suit every home.
We recommend the Coway AP-1512 HH Mighty as the best air purifier overall. It's a strong performer considering its price point and offers an abundance of filters including a HEPA filter, prefilter, ionizer and odor filter. It's also quiet in use, which is particularly important if you want to use it at night.
If you want style as well as substance, then the Blueair Blue Pure 211+ is worth considering. It's available in a range of colors including pink, blue and yellow, so it really makes a statement. This air purifier is powerful, but is admittedly loud, so perhaps not one for the bedroom at night. It doesn't feature a HEPA filter either, but BlueAir claims its filters are just as effective. Consumer Reports also noted that this model was one of the best for catching COVID-19 droplets in the air.
If you're shopping on a budget, then the Levoit LV-H132 or the Blueair Blue Pure 411 are your best options. Both are affordable, but will make a difference to the quality of your air. IKEA's new Förnuftig air purifier is also worth checking out. Although, you might need to buy more than one to see similar results to our winner.
The best air purifier you can buy today
The Coway AP-1512 HH Mighty is consistently ranked among the best air purifiers on the market — and with good reason. It's also one of the quickest to sell out at online and brick-and-mortar stores.
It's reasonably priced for how well it works and it has most of the features we'd want in an air purifier, including a programmable timer, four fan speeds and a filter indicator light. As a result, it's a bit hard to find in stock right now.
Replacement filters are fairly cheap and energy costs relatively low, which makes the Coway one of the least expensive air purifiers of its caliber to maintain year to year.
Finally, the Coway AP-1512 HH Mighty is easy on the eyes. It comes in sleek black or white and is relatively compact compared with many other purifiers of similar performance, so it simply fades into a corner.
The Coway Mighty is one of the only purifiers we considered that has an ionizing function. The effectiveness and safety of ion filters is questionable (due to possible ozone production), but you can just turn this function off. We also noticed that the noise rating does get quite loud on the higher settings, up to 53.8dB, which is something to be aware of.
The Blue Pure 211+ is highly rated for its solid performance in removing dust, smoke and pollen from room air.
The Blueair's filters aren't true HEPA-certified, but they are still effective. They work by giving particles an electric charge, which causes those particles to stick to filter fibers.
The Blue 211+ pre-filter comes in five different colors, from eye-popping yellow to low-key gray, so you can customize the look for your space. The machine also has a filter indicator light to let you know when it's time to replace your main filter.
Possible downsides of the Blue Pure 211+ include more noise on lower speeds compared with similar machines, and relatively high purchase and maintenance costs. For example, it draws more power than the Coway on similar speeds (though it moves more air) and it is a bit louder and more expensive (both upfront and over time).
The Blue Pure 411 is like the 211+'s much smaller sibling. It uses similar filtering technology and features and comes in a variety of colors.
Where the Blue Pure 411 stands out is in price and efficiency. The purifier is inexpensive to buy (just over $100) and maintain (around $20 annually for replacement filters), and it uses significantly less energy than most other air purifiers we researched. The machine is also small and quiet, making it a great choice for your bedroom. In addition, it's compact size is ideal for smaller spaces or apartments.
The one thing to keep in mind is that if you plan to move your purifier from room to room, the Blue Pure 411 won't be very effective in larger spaces. Also, this doesn't capture pet dander or fuzz, so not ideal for pet owners.
Coway's Airmega 400 is a high-performing air purifier at a high price, but reviewers generally agree that the trade-off is worthwhile. The Airmega 400 has a dual carbon + true HEPA filter, which allows it to clean the air in a large space over a short period more effectively than other machines.
Coway claims the Airmega 400 is good for filtering rooms of up to 1,560 square feet, but you'll likely get better performance in rooms that are half that size. If you put the purifier in a space up to the maximum recommended size, it'll do two or fewer air changes per hour. In addition, it has five fan modes that are super quiet, and a brightly colored LED ring that tells you how dirty your air is.
Bear in mind, due to its size, this may not be suitable for small spaces or rooms. However, the Airmega 400 is large but sleek, and has convenient features like a programmable timer and a display shut-off to minimize disruption during sleep. There's also a "smart" version (the Airmega 400S) that you can integrate with an Alexa device or a mobile app.
Like its smaller cousin the Coway AP-1512 HH Mighty, the Airemega 400 was out of stock everywhere last time we looked. Hopefully, it will be available again soon.
The Austin Air Healthmate HM-400's main selling point is its high-performing and long-lasting filters, which handle everything from mold and pet dander to gas and chemical contaminants.
It isn't CADR-tested, but it gets high marks from reviewers for filtering volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that come from household products such as paints, pesticides and air fresheners better than most other machines on the market. What's more, many users with extreme allergies reported a significant reduction in their symptoms.
In addition to being effective, Healthmate HM-400 filters last for up to five years. You can vacuum or clean the pre-filter periodically in that time as well.
Criticisms of the Healthmate HM-400 include a fairly time-consuming filter-replacement process, which is also expensive. Along with the noisy medium and high fan speeds, the unit doesn't have some basic features (such as a programmable timer or filter indicator light) that you'd expect even at a lower price, and it's fairly power-hungry.
While the Healthmate HM-400 is pricey, it's a good option if you have particular concerns about chemicals and odors or suffer from extreme allergies.
Honeywell air purifiers get decent reviews across the board, and the HPA300 is a good unit for a fairly reasonable price.
It has among the highest CADR ratings for smoke, dust and pollen of the units we recommend, and it can filter slightly larger rooms effectively. It also has four speeds (compared with three on most units), a programmable timer and adjustable control panel lights. Customer with severe allergies have recommended this air purifier, while others have mentioned how quiet it is on higher speeds than some other units.
The HPA300 is built to last and easily portable, so you can move it easily between rooms. Where the Honeywell HPA300 could fall short is in its filter-replacement and maintenance requirements. Both the true HEPA filter and pre-filter are disposable and must be replaced every six to 12 months. The HEPA filter is actually three filters that reviewers said can be tricky to get in the exact right spot, and can be costly.
The Levoit LV-H132 is an Amazon best-seller and the most budget-friendly purifier on our list. Reviewers said it does a decent job for the price, especially with pet odors. It's also a sleek machine that's lightweight, compact and portable, so you can easily move it around your home.
At this price, you can't expect bells and whistles — and the Levoit LV-H132 doesn't have any. There is no programmable timer, and the device's filter indicator light reminds you to check your filters but does not tell you when it's time to actually replace them.
You have to toss all three filters every six months to a year, as the pre-filter isn't washable. But two replacement sets will cost you just $30.
Reviewers report that the Levoit LV-H132 is fairly loud on higher settings, so sensitive sl...
Comments
Post a Comment