It’s small enough to fit on the coffee table as you play with Fido or by your bedside while you snooze. Because it’s so small and lightweight, you can bring it with you to every part of your home, which is ideal if you don’t want to cash out for multiple pricey appliances. An air purifier with a HEPA filter will capture particulate matter down to the size of airborne viruses, including COVID-19. That’s why you often see manufacturers claiming their products remove 99% of particles in the air.
One drawback is that the Core P350 costs $20 more than the Core 300. Since they’re so similar, if the pet-proof lock and upgraded filter aren’t needed for your home, stick with the Core 300. This device also doesn’t have a child lock, so parents will need to keep it away from a baby or toddler’s reach.
Using a high-grade MERV filter can be more effective than using a high-powered HEPA machine at a fraction of the initial capital expenditure. Unfortunately, most furnace filters are slid in place without an airtight seal, which allows air to pass around the filters. This problem is worse for the higher-efficiency MERV filters because of the increase in air resistance. Higher-efficiency MERV filters are usually denser and increase air resistance in the central system, requiring a greater air pressure drop and consequently increasing energy costs. High-efficiency particulate arrestance filters remove at least 99.97% of 0.3-micrometer particles and are usually more effective at removing larger and smaller particles.
This means that if the room where the air purifier is located is exposed to certain air pollutants, the air will start to deteriorate as soon as you switch off the air purifier. Therefore, I recommend using the air purifier 24/7 or turning it off periodically if you think the air is clean enough. HEPA technology is used in portable air purifiers as it removes common airborne allergens. The US Department of Energy has requirements manufacturers must pass to meet HEPA requirements. The HEPA specification requires removal of at least 99.97% of 0.3 micrometers airborne pollutants.
The style of the controls is still very similar, being a touchscreen design with LED backlighting and blue accents. All Levoit purifiers in this review have a filter indicator button icon on the control panel that shows when it’s time to replace the filter by glowing red LED light. Larger air purifiers are able to move more air and also typically have larger on-board filters for better air purification. Since we run all of the Levoit air purifiers through the same test and through the same room, the difference in area coverage didn’t really seem to have a noticeable impact on performance during our tests. Since they’re meant for indoor use, most air purifiers are better looking than, say, that wall AC unit you had in your dorm room at college.
This measures particles smaller than 2.5 microns at any given moment while the appliance is on, so it’s useful for getting a visual of how clean your air is, without logging into the app. It uses 3-stage filtration with a washable pre-filter and HEPA filter for airborne particles, along with an Activated Carbon layer to tackle VOCs. You can adjust the fan to your preferred speeds and switch off the display lights, unlike other purifiers that may only dim their lights when set to the lowest fan speeds. 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.
Another filter option is the toxin absorber replacement filter, designed for homes in areas of high smoke or smog. We tested the Levoit air purifier with a pet owner who experiences seasonal allergies and levoit filter who has experience using air purifiers in their home. Granted, it’s not a perfect device — you can only use it for smaller rooms, and I’ve dented the metal construction by accidentally knocking it over.
Levoit is an American-based company with its headquarters located in California. They conduct all the research and development in their HQ, designing units to the highest specification to meet US standards. Once the purifier has been designed, it is then manufactured in levoit air filter China. Use these items to clean your home’s air, reduce the sources of respiratory problems, and limit the infiltration of new particulates. Install your purifier at least 18 inches from a wall and any furniture, ideally near the midpoint of the room you’re using it in.
Other filtration technologies are harder to evaluate, including those that incorporate activated carbon and ultraviolet light. We don’t test these technologies specifically, so we can’t attest to their efficacy. Ease of use refers to just how user-friendly and intuitive each machine is to operate. The first thing we did was get out a stopwatch and time how long it took to go from the unopened box to have the machine up and running.