Best air purifiers to help free your home of dust and allergens

Coway’s a pretty big name in the US but it’s only just started to make an impact here in the UK. This is the brand’s most affordable air purifier yet, and we’re massive fans of the tiny machine.

While the airmega mighty was a big square-shaped behemoth that looked nice but took up some room in our house, the all-new airmega 100 is a small cylindrical machine that we tucked into a corner and took up no room without anyone really noticing. In fact, it looks a lot like the Leviot core 400S.

It comes pretty much fully assembled, so, there’s hardly any setup, and we love the calming mood light up top. It features a pre-filter, deodorisation filter and a HEPA filter that Coway says removes 99.999 per cent particles down to 0.01 microns in size, including pollen, dust and other allergens, as well as 99 per cent of volatile organic compounds and odour.

This is one of the quietest air purifiers we’ve tested and did a really good job of cleaning the air. There are three fan speeds, as well as an auto mode – the lowest fan speed is so quiet, we forgot it was running in the background. Something else that’s quite nice is the device’s filters last up to a year, rather than six to nine months, as some other models’ do.

While it doesn’t show the exact pollutant count, the lighting system is a clever touch. Blue means good, green is OK, orange isn’t good and purple is really bad. It’s super simple to use.

If you’re looking for something affordable that can be easily tucked away, you can’t go wrong with Blueair’s tiny mini max air purifier, which has been designed specifically for small spaces.

While it’s pretty limited in terms of features – it won’t increase the fan speed when it detects an increase in particles or allergens, for example – the three fan speeds are decent enough. It promises to remove at least 99.97 per cent of airborne particles down to 0.1 microns, including dust, pet dander, pollen and smoke.

It’s easy to operate – the only thing we were disappointed in was that it didn’t have any air quality indicator, so we couldn’t analyse how dirty the air in our room was. It just passed the sniff and smell test, rather than anything scientific. Although Blueair doesn’t use a true HEPA filter, it uses a combination of mechanical and electrostatic filtration, which it calls HEPASilent technology, meaning it was whisper-quiet when on the lowest fan speed, and only a little bit louder on medium and high. Cheap and cheerful, the mini max will do the job if you want air purification in a small room.

Call us shallow but we were immediately smitten by this air purifier’s contemporary grey good looks, which made us less inclined to tuck it out of sight, compared with some other air purifiers. We also liked the two fabric handles, which meant we could carry it easily to different rooms, rather than installing one purifier in the kitchen and a second in the bedroom (although, this is recommended, for maximum efficiency).

This model is extremely easy to set up and operate, too. PureSense responsive technology measures air quality continually and adjusts the air purification, so you don’t need to do a thing. There’s also an auto-sleep feature, a light and odour sensor and a filter indicator, which means you can see if it needs changing. Cleverly, the filter can also be configured to suit your personal and seasonal needs – for instance, if pollen levels are high in spring. Each filter’s smart tag will then keep track of its usage for hands-on control over exactly how the air purifier works. It’s easy to adjust preferences and check air quality on the excellent app, too. A thumbs up all-around, if you have the cash.

If you want an air purifier that ticks almost every box, look no further than the Levoit Core 400S. It was quick at purifying the air in our home, and unbelievably quiet and smart, thanks to the handy VeSync app and Alexa and Apple Home integration.

The perfect gadget for medium to large rooms, the 400S is a sleek-looking 350-degree air purifier with moulded handles and a modern LED display that told us how dirty the air was, by using different colours. The neat little automatic mode let us leave the purifier on, cleaning the air without intervention. It speeds up when it detects particulate and slows down when the air is clean. Even on the highest speed setting, it was still extremely quiet, and when we had it on sleep mode, we could barely hear it at all.

While the Levoit Core 400S initially featured an H13 HEPA filter when it first launched, it now uses a three-stage filtration system, which includes a pre-filter for larger particles, a primary filter for dust and mould, and activated carbon filter for odour reduction. That does mean it’s now slipped out of the top position. Still decent, it even notches up when our dog walks into the room.

We also loved the smart functionality – it was great being able to set up scenes in the VeSync app, turn on the air purifier before we even entered our home, and use Alexa to turn it on when we were too lazy to get to the unit. Best of all? It’s very affordable for the sheer value it delivers, although, the replacement filters can get pricey.

If you like the idea of an air purifier powered by plants, take a look at this nifty little option from Vitesy. Doubling up as a plant pot, it can be potted with a plant of your choosing, and you never need to replace the filters, just wash the ceramic photocatalytic filter under water every so often.

It looks like a futuristic plant pot and whirs away in the background so silently we often forget it’s purifying the air. Through their leaves and roots, plants naturally have the ability to absorb volatile organic compounds and other pollutants from the air, so, this device draws air through the purifier and into the plant’s roots, helping to clean the air around you.

The sensors inside also monitor temperature, humidity, VOCs, PM 2.5 and CO2, giving you real-time readings inside the app, in which you can set it to purify automatically when it detects poor indoor quality. You can also set it to run on normal power, silent mode, minimal power or maximum power, to destroy pollutants. It’s really neat and doesn’t look like an ugly chunk of an appliance, either.

There are some things to consider, however. It doesn’t come with a plant, let alone one that’s already potted, so, you have to buy one separately and repot it yourself (tricky for someone missing green fingers). Vitesy has a complete list of air-purifying plants it recommends, and we went with a low-maintenance snake plant from M&S, which looks really good in the plant pot.

The setup also takes quite a bit longer than simply plugging in an air purifier and letting it go, so, make sure you have an hour spare. After putting together each component of the air purifier, we had to fill the basket with clay (included), soil, a plant, more clay and then more soil, as well as ensuring the string dangles into the water tank. It takes a while but, once it’s all set up, you don’t have to touch it except to refill the self-watering tank, which lasts a month or so.

We’re in love with this Dyson air-purifying fan. The name might be ridiculously long, but it looks modern and sleek, does a heck of a lot of stuff, and is incredibly smart.

The Dyson Purifier humidify + cool... oh, forget it; Dyson’s latest air purifier is a three-in-one machine. It’s an air purifier, humidifier and fan, all in one. Because it has a solid-state formaldehyde sensor, it can also remove the odourless gas from your room – which the app kept telling us was the biggest pollutant in our home. It’s super quiet, too, and has a night mode, which sees the LED screen dim when you’re trying to get to sleep.

It also features a full HEPA filtration system, with Dyson saying that it traps H1N1 viruses and 99.95 per cent of particles as small as 0.1 microns, such as allergens, bacteria, pollen and mould spores. We felt less congested on particularly hay fever-prone days with this machine whirring in the background, and we liked that we could use it as a humidifier, too. It’s easy to control with either the remote or the app, which provided a lot of detail on our indoor air quality. The only negatives? The price (it’s a horrifyingly expensive machine) and the heft – it weighs more than 8kg.

If you don’t want a huge machine in your house but still need an appliance with considerable purifying muscle, this MeacoClean model is an excellent option. The curved, white appliance sits unobtrusively in the corner and is so quiet when in use it could easily be used in a child’s room while they’re sleeping. The night mode even switches off all lighting on the machine, and there’s an ingenious child lock, so you’ll have no worries when leaving it to do its thing.

Air cleaning capabilities are top-notch, too. It has a handy display that indicates the air quality from afar, using different coloured lights, an automatic setting for easy operation and an H11 HEPA filter to remove more than 95 per cent of damaging particles from the air. There’s also the option of upgrading to an H13 HEPA filter, to increase cleaning to a whopping 99.97 per cent of particles, if preferred. If you want a little more control, the accompanying app is straightforward and oddly fascinating, enabling you to check the air quality, set timers and even see the pollen level in your home, compared with outside. A great buy.

This isn’t our favourite-looking air purifier but it worked wonders in our kitchen. It was one of the most effective models we tested for zapping odours, and left our kitchen smelling surprisingly fresh, even after cooking a chicken curry and chopping onions.

That’s because the neverchange 5 features some sweet-smelling anti-odour cartridges that can be installed at the top. You can choose between different strength settings, and the cartridges last a couple of months. It’s a great touch, and it’s not particularly overpowering.

As for the purifier itself, it removes allergens, mould and bacteria, cleaning the air and circulating it through the room after multi-stage HEPA filtration, including a carbon layer, together capturing 99.97 per cent of pollutants and allergens down to 0.1 microns. The display even shows the size of each particulate matter that it’s sucking up.

Auto mode adjusts the fan speed automatically to suit the air quality and turns off when the air quality is perfect, and the built-in sensors track changes in the air in real time. The digital display reports the percentage of clean air, the time left to clean and the particle amount, so you can be confident the air is as clean as it can be.

The biggest perk about the neverchange 5 is that it features a filter that Shark says will last a whopping five years before it needs replacing. That’s fantastic and blows the competition out of the water. Accurate? We’ll have to take Shark’s word for now. The only real downside is that it doesn’t have an app – everything has to be controlled using the buttons at the top of the machine.

This small, sleek purifier is so whisper-quiet on its lowest setting, we had to check it was definitely switched on. Suitable for rooms up to 7m³, it has a USB connection rather than a plug, so, it would be handy next to a computer or even in a car. It’s extremely simple to set up, and enters automatic mode as soon as it’s plugged in, adjusting fan speed automatically to suit the air quality. This can also be adjusted manually.

The filtering process includes four-stage air disinfection, with a silver ion coating to destroy micro-organisms and activated carbon to tackle smells and gases. Depending on usage, it’s recommended the filter is changed about every three to six months. We loved how portable and light it was, at just 400g, though, we remain sceptical of its claim the filter “inactivates 99 per cent of Covid-19 viruses”. If you want to improve the air even when you’re driving, we still think it’s a good bet.