Recommended With Reservations
Mila Air 3 Critter Cuddler for $297: Mila makes seven bespoke filters that are designed specifically for moms-to-be, allergies, pet owners, etc. Add Milaâs built-in sensor and easy-to-use app dashboard, along with its wooden-legged modern box design, and the Mila is an immediate favorite. The more I cover air purifiers, the more go big to go quiet comes to mind. Smaller models tend to run loud on their highest settings. The Mila was not as quiet as I hoped. At full blast, the Mila hit 70 decibels on my consumer decibel reader. And at 447 CADR m3/hr, the Mila would do nicely in the average American 200-square-foot bedroom. You could run the Mila at its highest setting for CDCâs recommended five air exchanges an hour in a 400-square-foot room, but that is a far noisier air purifier. I ran the Mila in my sonsâ 200-square-foot bedroom, and its auto setting adjusted correctly to the roomâs air quality. And while Mila gets its outdoor AQI (air quality index) from PurpleAir, it couldnât seem to find my PurpleAir outdoor monitor.
Briiv 2 Pro Air Filter for ÂŁ399: There are big claims in Briivâs 2 Pro Air Filterâs small package. At 2.5 pounds, the Briiv 2 Pro Air Filter is the smallest air purifier Iâve tested, though itâs far from the cheapest. The company claims that one Briiv equals the oddly specific 3,043 houseplants, and that it uses AI-powered air quality sensors. I donât usually review air purifiers that are not CARB-certified (California Air Resources Board), but I was intrigued by the Briiv. That said, the actual space the Briiv 2 Pro can clean is extremely small. I entered the dimensions of my dining room into the Briivâs website room calculator, and at 20 feet long by 11 feet wide with 9-foot ceilings, the room calculator summed up that I would need two Briivs to effectively clean my dining room. The calculator seems to contradict Briivâs claim that the Briiv 2 will effectively improve the air quality in a 794-square-foot living space in just 11 minutes. I currently have the Briiv 2 in my kitchen, and the first time its indicator light went red due to my cooking, I couldnât get the fan to activate. I ended up turning it to full blast through Briivâs somewhat clunky app. I played around with the app, and since then, my Briivâs fan auto-adjusts to bad air without needing my help. It also looks very cool.
Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro
Puroair 240 HEPA Air Purifier for $159: At under 9 inches tall, the Puroair 240 is a tiny air purifier. And like so many of the smaller tabletop models, itâs also loud. It might be effective in a small space, say a room about 100 to 150 square feet. And like most of the air purifiers we review at WIRED, itâs California Air Resources Board Certified or CARB-certified. I found its filter size too small to effectively clean an average-sized room. And while I still review smaller air purifiers, there are larger and quieter models on the market for relatively the same cost that have greater air exchanges in a larger-sized room. The Puroairâs indicator light is adjusted by the 240âs internal sensor and is green for acceptable, yellow for moderate, and red for poor air quality. At times I found the thin sliver of the indicatorâs light difficult to see. The 240 has auto or manual mode, a timer, child lock, and filter replacement light. It also has a three-stage filter, including the tightly woven HEPA 14, activated carbon, and prefilter. Lastly, the 240âs black plastic attracted a noticeable amount of fingerprints.
Others We Tested
Coway Airmega 250 for $313: The Airmega 250 has a decently large footprint, but itâs rated to clean a 930-square-foot room twice an hour. Thatâs why I put it smack dab in the middle of the first floor of my home to clean the air in my kitchen and living room. Every time we cook, the Smart mode automatically detects unhealthy particles in the air and ratchets up the fanâs power. It also recently did this when I had someone patch some drywall in my mudroom. (This mode works with the help of a PM10 and PM2.5 particle sensor.) The fan at its highest setting isnât that loudâI measured it at 60 decibels standing right in front of it. Thereâs a Sleep mode if you want it silent. You get the usual controls, like timer functionality and replacement indicators for the filter. Speaking of, the Airmega 250 uses a true HEPA filter that needs to be replaced once every six to 12 months. This, combined with the washable prefilter that you should be keeping clean every two weeks and the activated carbon filter, allows the air purifier to remove 99.999 percent of ultrafine particles down to 0.01 microns, or so Coway says. Itâs super easy to remove these filters to clean and swap them out. The whole system is roughly 21 pounds, so you can move it around fairly easily. Coway offers a three-year warranty. The Coway AirMega 250S is the same model but with Wi-Fi functionality, so you can control it via an app and see more details. The last thing I need is another app, but maybe you donât mind. âJulian Chokkattu
Coway Airmega IconS for $469: Coway continues to make some of the prettier air purifiers, as you might have noticed in this guide, and that continues with the Airmega IconS. It looks like an end table, and so I keep it right next to my couch. The star of the show is the Qi wireless charging pad, so when I sit down, I just plop my phone right on the purifier to let it recharge. Any phone with wireless charging support should work, though you may need to take your phone case off. Like all Coway purifiers, itâs powerfulâit cleans the air in spaces up to 649 square feetâeasy to control, and simple to clean. This version is Wi-Fi enabled and voice-controlled. âMedea Giordano
How to Shop for an Air Purifier
How does a busy shopper find the right size purifier for a room they want to clean? The US Centers for Disease Control recommends that one should aim for five air exchanges per hour, in a metric known as the ACH. When looking at an air purifier, look at the cubic feet per minute in airflow at the lowest setting. When measuring the cubic footage of your room, you need the area of the room times the height. Imagine a one-foot cube of styrofoam. How many cubes could you fit into a room?
Anyone shopping for an air purifier also needs to look for two acronyms and terms. First, look for CARB certification, which means that the air purifier passed the rigorous standards of the California Air Resources Board. Next, check the filter type. Below, we break down the differences. Also, donât forget to unwrap your filter! Thereâs a special kind of horror that comes with realizing youâve been running your air purifier with a plastic-wrapped HEPA filter.
HEPA Filters: This is a high-efficiency particulate air filter that can remove at least 99.97 percent of dust, mold, pollen, bacteria, and airborne particles as small as 0.3 microns. It’s a great option for those who suffer from allergies or respiratory issues, since it can help to clear out airborne particles that can trigger symptomsâlike sneezing, sore throat, difficulty breathing, coughing, and more. It’s worth noting, however, that HEPA filters don’t remove volatile organic compounds from the air the way activated carbon filters do. But these are typically paired with carbon filters.
Activated Carbon: Activated carbon filters (also known as activated charcoal) are highly effective because they are very porous and have a large surface areaâallowing the filters to absorb gas pollutants, odors, and VOCs. Theyâre best for removing fumes, smoke, and chemicals from the air. But these filters have to be replaced more often depending on the environment. For example, if thereâs a wildfire in your area and the air purifier is working more intensely than usual, itâs important to replace a saturated filter to avoid toxic gases from being released back into the air.
Washable Air Filters: A few of the air purifiers we’ve listed in this guide come with washable prefilters in addition to a HEPA and/or activated carbon filterâwhich is what you’ll typically find. These are the most cost-effective since you don’t have to buy new ones each time you need to replace a filter. Simply remove it, scrub it with soap and water, and let it dry.
UV-C Sanitizer Filters: Ultraviolet filters use UV light to kill viruses, parasites, mold spores, and bacteria. They can’t remove airborne particles, VOCs, or gas pollutants, so they’re only fully effective when combined with a HEPA filter. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, UV lights without proper lamp coatings have the potential to emit ozone. We recommend checking this list from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers for air purifiers that have been shown to emit little to no ozone.
How to Check Your Air Quality
Many large states and cities are required to report the local outdoor Air Quality Index, which was established by the EPA and measures the concentrations of major air pollutants, like ground ozone and carbon monoxide, that are regulated by the Clean Air Act. We like AirCare (iOS, Android), but your state or county may have even more localized apps.
To check if your indoor air quality stacks up, consumer monitors like the Temtop M10 ($90) and Airthings View Plus ($300) also measure carbon dioxide, temperature, and humidity, in addition to pollutants and particulate matter. The M10 measures formaldehyde too, a noxious chemical that off-gases from common household items, such as particleboard furniture and some foam mattresses. Need more information? Check out our complete guide to checking your air quality.
Air Purifiers We Donât Recommend
Ikea Starkvind for $150: Ikeaâs Starkvind air purifier hit the American market in 2021. It’s stylish and relatively inexpensive and has the option to add on a carbon filter for gases such as benzene. It can be purchased either on its own or built into a wooden side table, but itâs worth noting that the Starkind took me an hour to assemble. While it is CARB-certified, meaning it passed the rigorous standards of the California Air Resources Board, it does not have a HEPA filter. Thinking I had an early version made for media, I went to my local Ikea. I bought a Förnuftig, and its manual listed the filter as HEPA. Itâs not. We reached out to the company; at the time of publication, Ikea said it was still routing the question to the appropriate team. The question remains: If youâre buying an air purifier, why not buy a HEPA? âLisa Wood Shapiro
Dyson Purifier Humidify+Cool Formeldahyde for $1,000: Dysonâs Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde reminds me of those 3-in-1 appliances that are an amalgam of a toaster, coffee maker, and egg cooker all in one. But if youâre going for an air purifier that removes gases, then I would opt for one that removes formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. My review unit was never able to oscillate, but itâs supposed to. (I tried troubleshooting through the manual, but the more features that an item has, the more that can go wrong.) It also has a two-year warranty, which seems short. âLisa Wood Shapiro
Morento Air Purifier for $100: This CARB-certified purifier caught our attention earlier this year for its value. With a CADR of 200 cubic feet per minute, the Morento is not only more powerful than most other purifiers at its price point, it’s got all the features of higher-end models, including a PM 2.5 sensor and ring-light indicator, plus smart capability through the Havaworks app. During the testing period, however, the fan never increased speed to compensate for higher PM 2.5 levels, even when I burned incense in the room to raise the level into the 500s. This persisted despite the machine being set to auto mode both in the app and on the machine itself, plus my cleaning the sensor and resetting the unit by unplugging it. Regardless, even if this feature had been working properly, the Morento gives a strangely wide margin for acceptable PM 2.5 levelsâthe ring light indicator continued to glow green (âgoodâ) up to 75 PM 2.5, which is 15 times more than the World Health Organizationârecommended level of 5 micrograms per cubic meter. âKat Merck
