Best Air Purifiers in 2019

Best
Air Purifiers
TechnoBuffalo
2019

Best Overall: Levoit LV-H132 Air Purifier

Levoit’s LV-H132 delivers a reliable three-stage filtration system that comprises of an excellent preliminary filtration, True HEPA filtration, and then activated carbon filters to claim to reduce 99.97% of dust, pollen, smoke, food odours, mould spores, and pet dander.

The unit is controlled via a simple touchscreen panel from which you can select from three fan speed settings, activate night mode with a built-in nightlight that can be adjusted to two levels of brightness. You can also see when the filters need replacing, which should be around every six to eight months.

This affordable option is designed for smaller spaces and offers tidy dimensions and a lightweight 550-gram design to suit. USB-powered, you’ll need to supply a wall charger should you want to power this from the mains. It has a HEPA air filter to eliminate up to 99.97% of dust, pollen, smoke, odours, mould spores, and pet dander.

It’s simple to use; you just touch the on switch to activate it or press it twice to power off after eight hours automatically. When operational, it emits a warm blue LED light that can be used as a nightlight.

A genuinely next-generation air purifier, Philips’ AC2889/60 is smart home connected, so can be controlled remotely via a companion app and even voice-controlled via an Amazon Alexa smart speaker. It still boasts removal of 99.97% of ultrafine particles and offers “intelligent” purification in allergen mode where it automatically monitors, reacts and purifiers the air in your room.

You can set a schedule and control the three auto modes and five manual settings from the Air Matters app, which will also provide you with real-time information on how clean your home’s air is, as will the numeric 1-12 indicator on the unit itself.

A serious bit of filtration kit, the Winix U450 isn’t small, weighing in at 8kg and measuring 65cm tall. However, it can handle filtering the air in an ample space. The fine mesh, washable pre-filter catches larger dust particles, which helps prolong the True HEPA filter’s life. As well as those two filtrations stages there’s also CleanCel technology, an activated odour control washable carbon filter, and Winix PlasmaWave technology to get you to the 99.97% efficiency level.

With an LED indicator for air quality display, you can set this to auto mode to activate when pollutants are detected. You can also manually select from four fan speeds, and/or operate it via the bundled remote control. You can also put the purifier into “Sleep Mode” complete with a nightlight, in which sound levels are very low.

As with rival products, HoMedics’ air purifier promises to remove 99.97% of dust, pollen, smoke, food odours, mould spores, and pet dander from the air in your home. This product’s HEPA filter is removable and cleanable by merely vacuuming it with a hose-style attachment. This means a HoMedics filter can last as much as five times longer than similar products.

Elsewhere, the controls are very straightforward, simply turn the unit on then select low, medium or high speed.

The Silentnight 38060 gives you a three-stage filtration process that starts with a fine gauge sponge layer that removes larger particles such as dust, a second HEPA filter that eliminates 99% of the air smaller particles and a final carbon for very fine particles and odour.

This purifier shines in sleep mode when it clicks into a quieter operation mode. The timer function allows you to run the purifier at timed intervals with four settings, including one, two, four and eight hours.

Get air

Air purifiers come in all shapes and sizes. Some of the options we’ve highlighted are portable and compact, so can be used in different rooms, or only at times when you need them, such as hayfever season. Others are larger and designed to stay put as a permanent solution in one area.

Our overall best pick, the Levoit LV-H132, is a good compromise between the two camps. It’s small and lightweight enough to be used around the home, but capable enough to work as an always-ready filtration solution in a particular space, like a kitchen or bedroom.

Looking to the future, if you want to go next-gen (and can afford the price tag) tomorrow’s air purifier is already here in the form of the Philips’ connected version that you can control via the companion app or Alexa.

Credits — The team that worked on this guide

Amy-Mae Turner We wouldn’t call Amy-Mae’s dusting skills lacking exactly, but if anyone on the TechnoBuffalo team could do with a hand on the particle filtration front, she was an obvious candidate.

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