13 Best Air Purifiers of 2024 - Reviewed - Reviewed
Air purifiers are an excellent way to improve indoor air quality and are helpful during allergy season when pollen and other allergens can cause itchy eyes and runny noses.
The air circulating in our homes and offices can be surprisingly poor. However, the best air purifiers will help you breathe easier by removing dust, smoke, viruses and bacteria, and common household chemicals.
For years, our experts have been testing the best air purifiers in our lab and at home, evaluating their ability to remove pollutants from the air. Some other factors include noise level, ease of use, appearance, and filter cost. Only the top-rated air purifiers made this list.
The best air purifier we've ever tested is the Blueair Blue Pure 311i (available at BlueAir) which uses multiple filters to remove particles to improve air quality. Whisper quiet and easy to use, our top pick has an attractive design that's also functional—the fabric prefilter is washable. For a value-packed HEPA purifier, we love the Winix 5500-2 (available at Amazon)—it's a top performing air purifier with low operating costs.
However, which air purifier is the best for you will depend on the size of your space, automation features, and, most notably, air quality concerns, so we have air purifier recommendations for specific use cases.
Credit: Reviewed / Dave Ellerby
The Blue Pure 311i's prefilter is easy to remove and wash.
Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi
The Winix is a value pick with a few elite features, like an air quality monitor and strong VOC filtering.
Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi
Doubling as an attractive side table, the Blueair DustMagnet 5410i has powerful smart features that will help you get the most out of it.
Credit: Reviewed / David Ellerby
The LG PuriCare AeroTower's unique shape, tall stature, and overall weight can make it a hassle to move from room to room.
Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi
With a fresh design that doesn't scream "I'm an air purifier," the Coway Airmega Icon won't look so out of place in your living room.
Credit: Reviewed / Dyson
Credit: Reviewed / David Ellerby
Credit: Reviewed / Dave Ellerby
Made for bedrooms, the Vital 200S monitors sunlight and goes quiet at night, to keep from interfering with your sleep.
Credit: Reviewed / David Ellerby
A lack of air quality sensors is a trade-off for the inexpensive cost of the filter.
Credit: Reviewed / David Ellerby
The Medify's filters are rated HEPA 13, a high-efficiency type often used in medical facilities that are effective at removing the aerosols that spread SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID.
Credit: Reviewed / David Ellerby
Credit: Reviewed / David Ellerby
The Puro Air 240 air purifier offers excellent filtration based on its HEPA 14 filter. Bonus: It's affordable!
Credit: Reviewed / Honeywell
What You Should Know About Buying Air Purifiers
Type of Air Purifier
When buying an air purifier, focus on your main air quality concerns, which will help you decide what type of filter you need.
If you suffer from allergies, are concerned about airborne viruses and bacteria, or encounter wildfire smoke, you need a particle filter. Particle filters don't remove chemicals, though. To tackle these, your air purifier will need an activated carbon filter or other chemical removal stage.
For the tiniest particulate matter, like smoke and virus-carrying aerosols, you need a high-efficiency particle filter. HEPA filters stop smoke, dander, mold, and other particulates. HEPA filters also may be able to trap viruses and limit the spread of airborne diseases, including COVID-19.
Be careful when choosing, as some filter manufacturers use "HEPA like" or "HEPA type." These are marketing terms that don't clearly define filter quality.
If you're investing in a HEPA filter, also look for an air purifier with a prefilter. These trap larger items, like pet hair, before they get to your other filter stages. A HEPA filter might not work well if it gets clogged with cat hair.
Room Size
Most air purifiers list a coverage area in square feet. For reference, a typical living room or master bedroom is in the 200 to 300 square foot range, while small rooms like bathrooms have considerably less square footage.
Get an air purifier that is the right size for your room. If it's too small or tucked behind other furniture, it won't filter the air effectively. If it is too large, you'll pay for fan power and a filter area you don't need.
Some manufacturers also report clean air delivery rating, CADR. As explained by the EPA), CADR shows how efficiently the air purifier removes pollutants. If available, the CADR is a more direct performance guide than recommended area coverage. Choose a CADR value about two-thirds of your room's square footage.
Cost of Air Filters
When testing purifiers, we calculated the annual cost of replacing filters, which can greatly impact affordability. Higher-performing filters, such as HEPA air filters, remove small particles but often cost more. The same is true with air filters that have specific uses, such as VOC air filters.
Design
How much the design of an air purifier matters is a personal decision. We tested air purifiers with many looks, and we did factor appearance into our rankings. You should consider where an air purifier will be used when deciding which to purchase.
It could be worth spending a little more to get a more design-forward air purifier if it will be located in an open, large space, such as a living room. Meanwhile, if an air purifier will be tucked away in a bedroom, you can emphasize performance over appearance.
Air Purifier FAQ
How Do Air Purifiers Work?
We burnt incense near the Blueair Blue Pure 311i purifier to test whether it would sense the smoke and turn its fans on.
The heart of most air purifiers is a fan that pulls room air through the filters and returns filtered fresh air to the room.
All the air purifiers we tested had a particle filtering stage. Many had extra filter mechanisms to tackle chemical pollution, viruses, and bacteria.
Some air purifiers include an air quality monitor that automatically adjusts fan speed to match the pollution levels in your home. This keeps down energy and filter use.
What is a HEPA Filter?
High-efficiency particulate air filters (HEPA filters) are rated for how efficiently they remove particles at 0.3 microns. These filters should theoretically be able to remove 99.97% of particles at 0.3 microns. This measurement is a HEPA standard because particles of 0.3 microns are the most difficult size particles to capture. Particles above and below this size are more readily captured. Smaller particles are easier to capture because they diffuse very slowly through filters and typically get intercepted by the filter mesh. Larger particles are also easier because the filter acts like a sieve for large objects.
HEPA filters have a number rating from H10 to H14; the higher, the better. H10 and H11 filters are sometimes described as "True HEPA," and H13 and H14 filters as "Medical Grade."
Do Air Purifiers Actually Clean the Air?
Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi
We tested each air purifier's ability to handle smoke and other particles.
Yes, air purifiers clean the air, but the degree to which they perform varies, which is why we tested them.
Airborne particles come in a range of sizes. Allergens like pollen and mold spores are relatively large at 10 to 100 microns.
Most other problem particles are much smaller. Pet dander and dust mite allergens are in the 10-micron and less range. Smoke and the aerosol droplets created when you cough and sneeze that spread bacteria and viruses are even smaller, at 1 micron or less.
Most hairs are about 70 microns thick. This fact can help you visualize how small some of these particles are. You can't see most of the smaller particles. To stop smoke, bacteria, and viruses, get a HEPA filter.
Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi
Chemicals and VOCs can be major health concerns, we conducted lab tests to gather data on how each air purifier handled them.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are major chemical pollutants released by paint, plastics, cleaning products, hair spray, and glue. Nitrogen dioxide comes from burning fossil fuels, and although traffic fumes are a major source, it can make its way into your home.
Nitrogen dioxide and some VOCs have negative health impacts.
Particle filters don't remove airborne chemicals. If you're worried about chemical pollutants, ensure your purifier has carbon filters or other mechanisms specifically designed to trap or neutralize them.
How We Tested Air Purifiers
Credit: Reviewed / David Ellerby
We built an airtight chamber in our lab in order to measure how quickly each air purifier could remove particles and volatile organics compounds (VOCs) from the air.
In our lab, we tested how well air purifiers could remove dust, smoke, and VOCs from an enclosed space. We also rated air purifiers on noise and display light levels, ease of setup and use, their looks, and annual filter cost.
We tested how quickly the air purifiers remove smoke particles and volatile organics compounds (VOCs) from an airtight chamber in our lab. Each air purifier is placed in the chamber and turned to its maximum fan setting. If extra filter mechanisms are available, we switch those on. We record changes in particle and VOC levels, measuring the air cleaning rate for each air purifier.
For particles, we focus on those smaller than 10 microns, as they're small enough to make it into your lungs. While pet dander and dust mite allergens are in the 10-micron and less range, smoke and aerosol droplets created when you cough and sneeze are even smaller, at 1 micron or less.
Additionally, we assess how easy it is to set up each air purifier and change the filter, noting how many settings and filter stages it has. We also determine the annual cost of replacing filters.
Finally, the air purifiers go home with the tester to see if fan noise and display lights affect sleeping, conversation, and TV viewing. This also allows us to see how they look in a domestic setting.
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