The Best Air Purifier?
Picking a best air purifier is a bit like picking the best diet...it really depends. For who? Under what circumstances? In what place? With what budget.
However, I have, based on my own bootstrap research, picked the best air purifier for most needs...
The Blueair 501 or 601 with smokestop filters.
A winning combination of better-than-HEPA-filtration plus moving the most air quieter than anyone else with a fantastic design and an unheard of 10 year warranty at a reasonable price for a high quality air purifier makes this simply the best air purifier for most people.
***Read my five-star review of the Blueair air purifier
But...
You could most defintely make a case for the IQAir air purifier, (and many others do), based on the the profound abilities of filtering out the tiniest particles.
If you bought the IQAir, you'll still be gettting one of the best, perhaps the best air purifier.
It filters out more particles of the tiniest nature than even the Blueair.
Exception: If you have certain special needs, such as removing strong senstitivies to chemicals and gasses, you do need to take into consideration your needs for including a heavily carbon based air purifier such as IQAir Multigas or choosing the Allerair VOCARB...
Honorable Mention: (My Personal Favorite...)
In it's own way, the airfree air sterilzier stands out as the most unique air cleaner. Filterless, simple, elegant, with stunning results in truly cleaning the air from living contaminants by incinerating them rather than fitlering them. I truly believe that the most dangerous and irksome contaminants are the biological (living) ones such as mold, pollen, dust mites, etc. I recommend that everyone get an airfree air sterilzier to pair with one of the above picks for a truly winning combination.
Still...there are other good choices...work through my best picks and top ten lists.
But if you're an independent, look-at-all-the-options type, here's a guide for choosing the best air purifier for your needs...
BELOW: A PROCESS FOR CHOOSING THE BEST AIR PURIFIER FOR YOU...
Choosing the best air purifier for you can be confidently done when you follow these steps...
First: What do you want your air purifier to do for you?
Your air purifier is your servant and should do it exactly what you've hired it to do. What's important?:
- Overall ability to filter out particles
- Any special needs/uses
- Quality of build, materials, warranty
- Sound
- Looks
- Control
- Cost
Determine the top qualities that are important to you in air purification...
Filtering Ability:
This is a combination of what kind of things are filtered, what size of things are filtered, how many of them are filtered out, and and and how quickly the air moves through the purifier. This will also determine the size of area your air cleaner can purify.Confused by this? Heres the best way to think about it:
A standard HEPA air purifier removes 99.7 percent of all particles .3 microns and larger
A Blueair air purifier removes 99.7 percent of all particles .1 microns and larger. It's catching particles three times smaller that a standard HEPA is missing.
An IQAIR air purifier removes 99.5 percent of all particles .003 microns and larger.
If one million particles enter a HEPA air purifier, 30,000 emerge. If one million enter an IQAir air cleaner, 300 emerge! An IQAir is 100 times better than a standard HEPA. The Blueair is still better than HEPA
Special needs or applications:
Am I trying to address any special needs such as Multiple Chemical Sensitivities? Mold? Odors? ...you'll need for example, an additional carbon-based filter in your air purifier to handle gasses, such as the in the IQAir HealthPro Plus, or Allerair VOCARB.The airfree air sterilizer will incinerate molds. I like one of these paired with a IQAir, Blueair, Allerair, or Austin Air to produce a "combo" best air purifier.
Quality of build, materials, and warranty:
Plastic or metal? How long will it last? How long will the maker back your choice for best air purifier? Blueairs are the best with metal design and amazing 10 year warranty. 5 years is very respectable.
Sound:
Is a really quiet purifier important (such as for a bedroom?) There's a wide variety of volume in air purifiers. Blueairs are the quietest. IQAirs have improved quietness. Austin Airs won't be as quiet as these two but are good air cleaners.
Looks:
This air purfier will be displayed prominently. Are looks and design important, or could you care less?
Control:
Do you need multiple fan speeds? A remote? A filter change indicator? Automatic on/off? Or do you just want the thing to run and change the filter every six months? Look at individual reviews to pick out factors you may like or dislike to get the custom best air purifier for you.
Cost
Can you affort $1000 or more?
$500? $300? $200?
Generally, the higher you are willing to go the better and more flexible features you can expect. Obviously, you are not going to get one of the best total system efficiencies and a top notch design for under $200.
As a rule, expect to spend at least $300 on a good air purifier (with the exception of the airfree air sterilizer).
Spend $500-700 and get the best all purpose air purifer, the Blueair 501 or 601.
Spend $700-900 and get hospital grade air cleaning with an IQAIr HealthPro Plus.
Spend $1100-2100 for a very specialized air purifier such as the IQAir MultiGas.
Spend $2500-3000 on a whole house air purifier that plugs into your furnace's ductwork.
Second: Place your priorities in order
Of the qualities you picked, which are most important? What one issue can you not compromise on? Then, what is of secondary importance? Finally, what is nice, but negotiable? Ask yourself these kinds of questions...
- Do you want an all-around package or are you targeting only a special need?
- Are you willing to spend more to get a higher quality?
- Would you rather have more control or better looks?
- Or will you sacrifice everything else in order to get the best filtration?
Third: Read my reviews to match up with your preferences.
Need a place to start?
How about our pound-for-pound ranking of top 10 air purifiers?
How about the IQAir?
Or take a look at why I think the Blueair air purifier is the best air purifier for most people...
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