Air Purifier for Home: Best Buys and Professional Buying Advice

Air purifiers can transform your home into a more comfortable place to breathe. It can remove air pollutants, such as dust, virus, pet fur, smoke and other allergens, that are suspending in your home air.

If you have health problems such as asthma or allergies, it can relieve you from allergies by filtering out airborne pollutants in your home to improve the air quality.

Be your home is large or small, stand-alone house or apartment, you can find the best air purifier for your home in this buying guide, as well as top tips for choosing and using air purifiers in your home.

Overall mastering:

1. Top Air Purifier Picks for Home

#1. Purivortex 201B: Best & Most Portable Air Purifier for Small Homes

#2. Purivortex AC400: Best Quiet Air Purifier for Midsize Homes

#3. Purivortex V3: Smart & Premium Air Purifier for Large Homes

2. Tips for Selecting Air Purifiers for Home

3. How to Place Air Purifiers at Home

4. FAQs on Air Purifiers for Home Use

1. The Best Air Purifier Picks for Home Reviewed by Professional Engineers (with Videos & Tables)

We conducted the review not just by their performance in purifying air, but also by how easily you can live with them.

We consider factors including noise level, energy consumption and maintenance cost. We also consider users' subjective feelings, including volume (whether it is convenient to carry), appearance, ease of operation, etc.

We test the air purifiers respectively in the laboratory and in the real rooms. 

In the lab, we inject smoke and dust to a closed space to simulate a real household environment, and use a professional equipment to measure the change of air particle concentration in it.

Besides, in order to test their performance of purification in different size homes, we put 3 air purifiers in 200 ft², 400 ft², 600 ft² homes separately.

The testing result is as follows:

#1. Purivortex 201B: Best & Most Portable Air Purifier for Small Homes

If you want to get a budget-friendly and portable home air purifier, 201B is your best choice among the devices we tested.

201B is the most portable air cleaner with a handle. After months of testing, it is my favorite one because I'm able to take this air purifier with me anywhere - bedroom, study room or kitchen.

It works well in a 215 ft² room, making it the best air purifier for small rooms.

It only produces 20 dB at the lowest speed, which won't disturb you whether you are sleeping or reading.

Based on our testing, the weekly cost of electricity is only $0.1, which is energy-saving.

Check out below video for more info about this portable air purifier.

#2. Purivortex AC400: Best Silent Air Purifier for Midsize Homes

This air purifier looks compact and runs quietly and works powerfully, one of the perfect choices for your home.

It is equipped with a H13 HEPA filter that catches 99.97 percent of particles down to 0.3 microns in your home. It is an excellent option that removes most allergens and pollutants present in the air, being powerful but energy-efficient with $0.3 electricity fee one week.

This portable air purifier is easy to be moved from room to room, kitchen, bedrooms or study rooms or anywhere in your house if needed.

It is designed for rent apartments up to 880 ft². If you have a midsize apartment, AC400 is one of the best air purifiers you may like.

What if your home is more than 880 ft²? Does it still work?

Never mind. You can put one air purifier in every room to make sure every space in your home is filled with clean air.

Watch the video below to learn more about this quiet & powerful air purifier.

#3. Purivortex V3: Smart & Premium Air Purifier for Large Homes

The V3 air purifier has a washable and reusable fabric filter, which can capture large particles and prolong the service life of the HEPA filter.

If you want an air purifier with washable filter, V3 is the one you are looking for.

V3's filtration system includes both an activated carbon filter and an cold catalyst filter, making it more efficient to absorb household odors from smoking, cooking, toilet, pets, chemicals, etc.

In particular, a sensor monitors particles at home and reports the air quality degree by changing the LED light color.

It offers an auto mode and 3 fan speeds. When auto mode is selected, the air purifier will automatically adjust fan speed based on the real-time air quality in your home.

The air purifier has a cleaning capacity for homes up to 430 ft², refreshing the air twice in a 430 ft² house. Don't worry about it will drain too much power. Even if it keeps running at the highest speed, it costs $0.4 per week in electricity. 

2. How to Choose the Perfect Air Purifier for Your Home

Type of Filters

Household air pollutants basically come from mold, pets, cooking, dust, pollen, and volatile gases. So when selecting an ideal home air purifier, you may opt to air cleaners that can both filter polluted particles and absorb odors. An air purifier with HEPA filter and activated carbon filter is your first choice.

The HEPA filters clean household particles such as pollen, animal skin and dander and dust mites. The higher degree of the HEPA filter, the more particles it can remove.

Activated carbon filters use activated carbon that consists of a well-developed void structure and abundant microporous organization, and these microporous organizations have a strong adsorption capacity.

This type of filter helps you get rid of household odors and smells. It will make your home smell fresh and clean.

Home Size

Choosing air purifiers also depends on the square footage of the house you want to purify.

Small air purifier: for homes up to 200 ft²

Medium air purifier: for homes between 200-400 ft²

Large air purifier: for homes between 400-1500 ft²

You can buy an air purifier that meets or exceeds the square footage of your house. But a larger air purifier will cost you more and consume more electricity.

So be sure to measure the size of your home before investing in an air purifier. You'll get the perfect device for your home in that way.

CADR

The Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) means how quickly an air purifier is able to remove contaminants, dust, pollen, and smoke in your home. 

Its unit is cubic feet per minute (cfm). The higher the CADR value, the faster the speed of the air purification.

Choose the right air purifier CADR rating based on your house areas.

Here is the formula: [(ACH X Room Area X Ceiling Height)/60 cfm

Notes: ACH: Your preferred air changes per hour (at least 2 AHC for regular air cleaning)

For example, if your home area is 400 ft² and 10 ft in height and 2 AHC, a right air purifier CADR is 134 cfm.

Noise Level

The noise rating is also an important factor in choosing an ideal air purifier. It is expected to be quiet when it is running, so that you can read or sleep quietly.
A quiet home air purifier allows you to live peacefully without annoying noise.

How “quiet” is quiet?

There is a Noise Measurement made by Québec. It indicates that noise below 40 dB makes you live in a peaceful area. When the noise exceeds 50 dB, it can make you feel disturbed and uncomfortable.

In that way, you may be able to find an air purifier with a noise rating of around 50 dB at high-speed setting. Take Purivortex 201B as an example. Its noise level is 20 dB at lowest-speed and 40 dB at highest-speed settings.

Filter-Replacement Cost

Don't assume that you don't need to pay for the air purifier once you have put it in your home. Any electrical appliance needs maintenance, and the air device is no exception.

How often should you replace filters in an air purifier? Here is a suggested replacement period for different kinds of filters:

Pre-filter: 3 months (some are washable for reusable or even permanent use)

Activated carbon filter: 6 months

HEPA filter: one year

The replacement cost of various filters is different, and the price ranges from $10 to more than $300.

Therefore, filter-replacement cost should also be included in the budget for air purifier investment. Please calculate the annual filter maintenance cost before purchasing an air purifier.

3. How to Place an Air Purifier in Home

An air purifier can't run efficiently or lose more than 50% of the purification capacity if put in the wrong place. Here we help you get the most out of air purifiers at home by choosing the best location for it.

Don't put it in a corner or behind other electric appliances. Why? Two reasons: low airflow and a clog in the air inlet.

These kinds of positions would prevent the air purifier from effectively purifying the air in your home. It may clog the air intake, reducing the speed at which the device inhales polluted air and exhales clean air.

On the contrary, you should put it in open areas, such as the center of your home, near a window, doorway or other places with high airflow.

Besides, place an air purifier next to the source of the air pollution. When someone in your home smokes, place the air purifier with an activated carbon filter near the smoking area for better absorption results. If you use the home air purifier against kitchen odors, move it to the kitchen to eliminate unpleasant odors like oil smoke and cooking odors.

Check more details on air purifier placement here.

4. FAQs on Air Purifier for Home Use

Q1. Is a home air purifier worth it?

Yes, air purifiers are worth it because they can clean the household air, removing allergens and other polluted triggering particles in indoor air.

It creates a healthy environment and improves the air quality in your home. Using air purifiers at home can bring you numerous health benefits, especially for people with allergies and asthma.

Q2. Can an air purifier work for a whole house?

Yes! Large air purifiers will purify the whole house as long as the CADR of the air purifiers meets the area of your home.

Additionally, there is another option you can consider. You can opt to install a whole house air purifier attached to the HVAC system.

Q3. Should I turn off my air purifiers when I'm not at home?

Keeping it running can make sure you breathe clean air when you return from work. You don't need to wait while the air purifier cleans the household air.

The only disadvantage of keeping your air purifier on is that it consumes a bit of electricity, but in fact, it doesn't need much power to run the air purifier (Purivortex 201B only consumes 4.32 W every month when keeps running at the highest speed).

Therefore, I suggest it's best to keep your air purifier running all the time to maintain good home air quality.

Q4. Should I buy an air purifier for Covid-19 in my home?

Actually, an air purifier is not enough to protect you and your family from COVID-19. It can only help protect you against household germs and viruses.