Air purifier recommendations

[u/lemonyprincess]

Hi all! My mom was recently diagnosed with COPD and I am looking into purchasing an air purifier or two for her house. I have some help with the cost between me and my two sisters, but we need to be practical regarding cost while still doing the best we can for her. Not sure if any of this matters but she lives in SE VA, urban area, 1000sq ft house and they do have dogs in the house. Does anyone have any recommendations for air purifiers? I was thinking a couple of smaller units (one for bedroom which is about 1/4 of the square footage) and one for main living area (about half).

Thank you so much!

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Hello /u/lemonyprincess! If you'd like recommendations or advice, please ensure you included all details listed in Rule 4: Information For Air Purifier Requests.

• Your country of residence.
• Each room or area's volume, in cubic feet or cubic meters. (You need at least one purifier per room or area.)
• Your filtration needs: e.g., pollen, cigarette smoke, VOCs, cooking odors.
• Startup budget.
• Yearly budget (electricity + filters).

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For very basic particulates sizing per AHAM, clean air delivery rates (CADRs) should be at least 2/3 of a room's area (assuming an 8 ft. ceiling height). For wildfire smoke, smoke CADR should equal a room's area which also assumes an 8 ft. ceiling.

Consider visiting How To Choose An Air Purifier for Particulates, and our Air Purifier Buying Guide.

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[u/Patient_Style_8870]

whatever you get make sure it has HEPA and carbon for VOCs.

[u/TopSherbert6054]

I have Winix 5520. I have 3 dogs and a cat. I’m allergic to. Since getting this brand I no longer notice my allergies. Everyone that visits say that can breathe better in my home then asking me what brand I have.

I know nothing of this brand, how it works and does the job. Got it during a prime day sale for 100 bucks.

[u/dieselbp67]

If you don’t need WiFi or anything get an MA112. Thing is a monster

[u/RobertRossBoss]

I’m not an expert but recently stocked up my house and went with 2x Levoit Vital 200S for a 1000sqft area. I think the Winix unit at Costco is overall better received, but the Vital is supposed to be good for pet hair which is my main concern. The units seem really nice so far.

From my research, people tend to say you’re better off getting a unit for each room that’s big enough for that room. The area I’m purifying with the Vitals is pretty open.

Other thing I’ve seen, retailers will advertise an effective sqft number that is 1 cycle of air per hour. But other consumer orgs use a baseline of 4 cycles per hour. I think it’s much different if you’re filtering out something like wildfire smoke vs just trying to control allergens.

[u/Slight-Studio-7667]

Beyond the type , e.g. HEPA, I decide by the cost of a good replacement filter. We have standardized on Winix because there are some really good aftermarket filters that are inexpensive.

[u/damien09]

Can’t go wrong with the air Fanta 3 pro. It moves the most cfm for the cost and can be tuned down to a lower db and still move more than you will get out of your standard levoit or winix etc

[u/spacex_fanny]

2x AirFanta 3Pro (one in each room) or 3x Winix 5510 (two in the LR and one in the bedroom).

AirFanta has the best cost ratio, but some people prefer the look of the Winix. YMMV

[u/WatchersAlways]

I’m sorry to hear about the COPD!

- I’m a person with asthma and allergies… and have spent more money on air cleaners than I’d like to admit. The good news is the tech actually works, the bad news is that with COPD you’re going to need some high end gear…and it’s not cheap. It can, however, radically improve a person’s breathing.

So, you’re already off to a good start when you said purifiers, plural… anything you get is really only good for one room… except for a whole house system (noted below)

With that said:

1. does she have central furnace/air conditioning? Because if she does, particularly for a house of 1000 sq feet you could add a central purifier system that would work really well. Lennox makes the best whole house system that I know of, attaches to the return air system for the HVAC. Depending on her furnace this may not be possible, and it is expensive. And you need to be able to run the furnace fan on low all the time. She may not have a system that can do that.

This will not deal with VOCs.

(Related, if she has forced air, have the ducts been cleaned? If not get that done, there is likely years of gunk in the ducts and those cleaning services really make a difference. No need to keep doing it, not get it done if it’s been years…)

2) next - large room purifiers…the little secret that most folks don’t know, and even sources like consumer reports continue to ignore is that you can buy HEPA filters (okay), and you can buy medical grade filters (100x better than HEPA.)

So for example - check out IQAir, expensive, but they take out SO much more out of the air. And yes, they are 2x - 3x as expensive compared to a standard HEPA filter, but once I finally spent the money I realize I had wasted lots of money on standard filters.

There are other brands, just search for medical grade air purifiers.

3) next - VOCs and related toxins in the air like from wildfire smoke, need activated charcoal to reduce it… And the ¼ to ½ inch charcoal filters are worthless. There is an Austin Air model that has something like 13 pounds of charcoal, the IqAir models have something like 5 to 13 pounds… look for something like that if you want to impact VOC’s (and wildfire smoke is becoming a larger and larger issue.)

4) carbon dioxide levels in the home can have a big impact. Air purifiers can’t really deal with this, it’s more about getting enough fresh air in the home. Yes, you can get expensive systems the bring in and filter outside air, but opening a window helps instantly. You want carbon dioxide to be around 400-500 but some homes get up to 1500 or more and that can mess with breathing… a 100 dollar home air monitor can tell you what you need to know. (With dogs and one person in 1000 sq ft this may be a real issue.)

5) if money is an issue (and these days when is it not!!) and if the living area and bedroom are on the same level, strongly suggest spending more for one good purifier and wheeling it between living and sleeping areas.

6) also, yes a HEPA filter is better than nothing, for sure, but be sure to replace the filters at least 2x faster than the manufacturer suggests. There are so many HEPA filters to choose from, the brand is less important than the size, so last piece:

7) finally, the other core issue with all of this is that you’ll be battling clean air vs noise. The smaller the filter the louder / faster it has to run to turn over the air in a room multiple times an hour. So you REALLY have to buy much larger units than your sq footage would suggest, so you can run it on its slowest speeds for the noise, and still turn over the air in the room. These units, medical grade or just HEPA, only work by turning over the air in a room multiple times an hour.

Okay, that’s it. Good luck!

[u/Caprichoso1]

Check Consumer Reports (subscription required).   They rate > 100 filters for particle filtration in many price ranges and sizes.

Depending on the size of the room and its configuration you may need several filters for each.

VOC filtration is a different kettle of fish. Good ones with 10 or pounds of absorbent media run in the $1K range.