Table of Content
But their price difference isn’t—as of autumn 2022, the 5440i typically sells in the mid-$400s, more than twice the AM90’s usual price. The DustMagnet design allows the 5440i to serve double duty as a small side table, because the air blows out of the sides instead of the top as on most purifiers. That’s a nice additional use for an appliance that will sit in your living room or bedroom. But the horizontal airflow also creates a constant breeze in the room when the machine is operating, which might not be desirable. In our tests, on high, it reduced a heavy load of 0.3-micron smoke particles by 99.9% in 30 minutes; on medium, it reduced them by 94.2%.
And with a typical up-front cost of $100, it’s the cheapest of our picks to buy—but it’s not especially energy efficient. That aside, it’s a compact, attractive machine, and its display-shutoff feature makes it especially suited for bedrooms. The Core 300 replaces our former budget pick, the Blueair Blue Pure 411, which the Core 300 outperformed considerably. With a CADR of 350 cubic feet per minute on high for smoke, pollen, and dust, it handily outdraws most purifiers in its price range and many competitors that cost far more.
What Makes an Air Purifier Smart?
The Sharp FXJ80UW, which is recommended for rooms up to 502 square feet, is another excellent option for large rooms. At one point while testing it, I accidentally burned toast, and the FXJ80UW sensed the smoke from a different room. Its air quality monitor light went red and the machine automatically increased its fan speed. Smart air purifiers typically feature Wi-Fi for phone and/or voice control, and to collect information on the pollutants above, sending it to a companion app where you can monitor your home's air quality.
Purifier manufacturers typically recommend annual replacement, but check the manual to be certain; some call for less frequent or more frequent replacement. For optimal performance, vacuum, wipe down, or rinse off the prefilter every month or so. The prefilter catches larger particles, such as pet hair, and keeping it clean helps the HEPA filter work unimpeded on fine particles. The Coway Airmega 300, our previous pick for large spaces, is similar in specs to the Blueair Blue Pure 211+, our current large-space pick, which typically costs much less. Although the AC4825 performed well, it costs more to maintain than our current budget pick, the Levoit Core 300, because of its higher energy consumption—52 watts on medium, versus the Core 300’s 34.6 watts.
The Best Air Purifier
This put the particle counter well outside the airflow from the purifiers, eliminating the possibility of an artificially high measure of their performance and ensuring that the readings gave an accurate impression of the purifiers’ whole-room purification. The purifiers themselves sat at the midpoint of the opposite wall of the room, 2 feet from the wall, with no obstacles near their air intakes and outlets. The particle counter took readings continuously, with counts totaled in one-minute increments. HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters don’t capture volatile organic compounds . Some also employ a class of minerals known as zeolites, whose extremely fine pores allow them to function as molecular-scale filters.
The Coway and Blueair models, in contrast, scored 87.6% and 99.2%, respectively. The Dyson Pure Hot+Cool HP04, which incorporates a space heater as well as a purifier, in theory should have performed somewhat better than the TP04 because it can move a slightly greater volume of air. But in our tests it performed significantly worse, achieving just 77.4% and 55.1% reduction on its highest and medium settings, respectively. We cannot recommend either Dyson purifier, especially considering their high price relative to those of our much higher-performing picks.
Best Budget-Friendly Model
In October 2022, Molekule released a new type of filter for its current residential line-up, the Air Pro and Air Mini+, and that is also compatible with the discontinued Air Mini. (It does not work with the original Air, which is no longer in production.) The PECO-HEPA Tri-Power filters incorporate, as the name suggests, a HEPA filter. We’re glad they do, as HEPA filtration is a thoroughly established, extraordinarily effective method of permanently removing fine particulate matter from the air, down to at least 10 nanometers. That’s below the size of bacteria and viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The HEPA filters should have an arrow or other marking indicating the correct orientation. But what we discovered about the unsupported claims about and poor performance of the original machines remains relevant. If you simply need to remove particulates from your air in a large space, the Blueair Blue Pure 211+ is easier to live with—it’s quieter, smaller, and better looking, which is why it’s our main pick for large spaces.
LG PuriCare 360 Air Purifier
However, on its medium-high and high speeds, it produced a persistent rattle that we could not ignore, nor could we fix the problem by repositioning the machine and making sure that the filter was properly seated. On its medium and comfortably quiet everyday setting, it delivers 3 ACH, keeping the air extremely clean under normal conditions. Manufacturers typically base their room-size recommendations on tests with the machines set on high—no doubt for marketing purposes, but also because CADR ratings are usually based on this setting. Purifiers rated for spaces larger than the one you plan to use them in can operate on lower, quieter speeds.
On Silent, it performed worse yet, reducing 0.3-micron particulates by 6.5% and 7.2% . And on Dark plus Auto, with its primary PECO purification system shut off and its fan on the equivalent of a medium setting, it reduced them by 21.3% and 18.0% . Interestingly, those numbers closely mirror our results on the Auto setting with the PECO system turned on, suggesting the possibility that the Molekule Air mostly relies on its physical prefilter, not its proprietary PECO mechanism, to eliminate particulates.
They are built to last a lifetime with expanded support, an air foil diffusing front grill to maximize air flow, and anti-microbial woven polypropylene self charging electrostatic fibres. By choosing smart filters, you are saving millions of paper filters from going into the landfill, and helping to save the planet. Tim Heffernan is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter and a former writer-editor for The Atlantic, Esquire, and others. He has anchored our unequaled coverage of air purifiers and water filters since 2015. In 2018, he established Wirecutter’s ongoing collaboration with The New York Times’s Smarter Living. Finally, the Air Mini’s cost-to-performance ratio on particulates put it badly behind our small-space pick, the Levoit Core 300.
Filtrete uses MPR, or microparticle performance rating, to rate how well the filter captures microparticles. Filtrete’s smart filters capture particles between 0.3 and 1 micron in size, which include bacteria and viruses. Most air purifiers arrive with the filters installed—but also sealed in plastic wrappers. 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 purifier useless. So open up your machine and, if the filters are indeed wrapped, unwrap and reinstall them.
Finally, it’s compact, standing just 18 inches tall, 10 inches deep, and 17 inches wide, about the size and shape of a large beach tote. That puts it below sight level, and because it also tapers significantly from front to back, it appears smaller than its dimensions suggest. Compared with tower-style purifiers we’ve tested, which have smaller footprints but are much taller, and compared with our large-space and VOC picks, which are monolithic, the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Mighty—especially the white version—takes up less visual space. We do not dismiss purifiers that have ionizers in addition to HEPA filters, but we don’t look for that feature. Ionizers impart an electrical charge to air molecules that pass through the machine.
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