Laboratory Technical Project Manager Gianmarco Chumbe has been part of the CNET Home team since 2018. He is in charge of developing and carrying out testing procedures for a wide variety of home appliances and smart devices including robot vacuums, smoke/CO detectors and air conditioning units. He takes a data-driven and creative approach to every project he is involved in, honoring his background in Science and Engineering.
ExpertiseSOP development and laboratory testing of home appliances and smart devices
Pamela is a freelance food and travel writer based in Astoria, Queens. While she writes about most things edible and potable (and accessories dedicated to those topics,) her real areas of expertise are cheese, chocolate, cooking and wine. She’s a culinary school grad, certified sommelier, former bartender and fine dining captain with 10 years in the industry. When not sitting at the keys, she leads in-home cheese classes, wine tastings and cocktail demonstrations.
Ajay has worked in tech journalism for over a decade as a reporter, analyst, product reviewer, and editor. He got his start in consumer tech, breaking Android news at Newsweek before going to PCMag, where he reviewed hundreds of smartphones, battery packs, and chargers as a Mobile Analyst. He also worked at Lifewire, a Dotdash Meredith brand, as a Tech Commerce Editor, putting together tested best-of lists and assigning product reviews across categories including smart home, uninterruptible power supplies, generators, and automotive tech. Most recently, he was Section Editor, Mobile at Digital Trends, spearheading his team’s coverage of breaking news, features, reviews, roundups, deals, and more across a variety of mobile products, including phones, wearables, VR headsets, batteries, and chargers. If you want Ajay’s advice about anything tech, especially solar panels, UPS, batteries, EVs, and charging technology, you can reach him at ajkumar@cnet.com.
Expertise13+ years of experience in consumer product reviews, buying guides, best lists, and tech news across a variety of tech categories. As a homeowner, Ajay is also familiar with the unique electrical issues that can crop up in a prewar apartment building.
A high-quality air purifier can be lifesaving if you suffer from seasonal allergies or if your home’s air quality isn’t up to par, but the best ones usually aren’t cheap. Fortunately, we expect deals for many of our top recommended air purifiers for Amazon’s October Prime Day, taking place from Oct. 7 to 8. Dr. Mark Hyman, chief medical officer at Function Health, explains that “we’re constantly breathing in particles, allergens and toxins that can impact our health.” Small adjustments — like improving air flow or keeping gentle sounds nearby — can help make indoor spaces more comfortable. But picking the right air purifier isn’t easy. Models are designed to tackle different challenges, ranging from dust and pet dander to mold. That’s why CNET’s expert team put dozens of air purifier models to the test, so you can confidently pick the one that meets your specific needs.
Best overall air purifier, and best for smoke, allergies and dust
To help inform our air purifier picks, we gathered 14 of the most popular models at the CNET Labs product testing facility in Louisville, Kentucky, where we put them through a rigorous set of tests. Our goal was to determine which air purifiers offered the best performance in terms of particle removal efficiency, energy consumption and quietness, while also evaluating their respective feature sets and value.
The particle-removal test
The air we breathe isn’t just air. In truth, it’s a combination of human-generated and naturally occurring particles. The former is composed mostly of urban, industrial and automotive emissions of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and combustion byproducts, and the latter is mostly represented by smoke from forest fires, sulfates, soot and matter from volcanic activity around the globe.
According to the EPA, some of these microscopic solids and liquid droplets, which can be made up of hundreds of different chemicals, are so tiny that it’s almost inevitable to inhale them. PM10 and PM2.5, which are particles of less than 10 and 2.5 micrometers in diameter, respectively, pose the greatest risk to human health since once inhaled. They allocate deep into the lungs and even into the bloodstream, impairing the proper functionality of the lungs and heart.
“That’s the size that can go into our body, into our lungs and go into our bloodstream,” said Zhao. “That is the number one environmental risk factor globally. It kills about 6 to 7 million people a year,” he said, due to cardiovascular or respiratory problems brought on by particulate pollutants.
Our custom air purifier test chamber uses a clear-view front panel made of plexiglass and gloved hand access, which allows us to manipulate the air purifiers, a particle counter holder for our control device, two fans that ensure proper mixing of the air and smoke inside the chamber, vent ports that ensure there is a small amount of fresh air at all times, an ignition port to light up the smoke bombs from outside the rig, and an exhaust port that removes the remaining smoke safely from the chamber and the building after each test.
The chamber is not hermetically sealed, but it’s tight enough to ensure that no hazardous amount of smoke escapes to the surroundings. Our mission was to create an environment in which we exposed each air purifier unit to particle-saturated air of roughly the same concentration to assess how quickly and efficiently they get the air back to breathable conditions.
We made custom smoke bombs, which are made of 50% potassium nitrate (KNO3), 40% sucrose (sugar) and 10% sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and included a safety fuse for igniting it at a distance. The sugar acts as our fuel source, while the potassium nitrate acts as an oxidizing agent and the baking soda ensures that our dry mixture sustains a slow and even burn.
Using the Temtop PMD331 Particle Counter, we were able to verify that 5 grams of our smoke bomb dry mixture produces roughly between 590 million and 610 million particles per meter cubed. The device is able to count particles of different sizes, including PM2.5 and PM10, and it logs this data once every 15 seconds. Although we’re able to count particles of different sizes individually, it’s the total number of particles we care about, which is the sum of all particles of different sizes.
We prepared a 5-gram smoke bomb, which is ignited via the ignition port after installing the air purifier and ensuring proper sealing. Once the air in the chamber becomes particle-saturated (greater than 580 million particles/m3) we turn on the air purifier in question. The data extracted from the Temtop allows us to accurately track the impact that the air purifier has on the particle count in real time.
Noise level
Using a decibel meter, we measured how loud the air purifiers are at their low, medium and high fan settings. This is particularly important if you plan on having your air purifier on in your bedroom overnight and you don’t want it to disrupt your sleep. We performed this test in our sound-enhancing studio to make sure that the decibel meter picked up only soundwave stimuli from the air purifiers, excluding other possible sources.
Energy consumption
To answer this question, we used a device called Kill-a-Watt and measured how much power each air purifier consumed at different fan settings. Knowing the energy draw for your air purifier could make a difference to your energy bill.
Dyson’s air purifiers are a bit different from the products on this best list in the sense that most of them are bladeless, while most air purifiers we tested have a conventional fan system. Dyson’s TP04 air purifier, for example, includes an oscillating fan to help circulate clean air around larger rooms, an app with home air quality data and a small but nifty display.
Dyson uses a HEPA filter, but provides no CADR in its specifications. “CADR as measured by some current methods is not an accurate representation of a real home,” a Dyson spokesperson told us, and thus the company has developed its own testing procedures “to replicate a more realistic setting.” That includes a testing room that has over double the footprint of AHAM’s testing rooms, along with nine sensors placed around the space, versus AHAM’s single sensor. The Dyson TP04, perhaps unsurprisingly, performs well according to Dyson’s own metrics.
We are in the process of reaching out to Dyson to test its latest air purifier models and we aim to see how it stands up against the others we’ve tested. If there’s one thing we know for sure, Dyson products are usually on the pricier end, so if its air purifiers score well on our testing, the question will be: Is it worth the cost? More to come on that.
Persistent allergy symptoms, visible smoke or pet hair, and lingering odors can indicate that you may benefit from an air purifier. Air purifiers are helpful even for minor pollutants such as cooking smoke, car exhaust, occasional dust and burning candles.
“Families with young children, older adults, and individuals with chronic inflammation or immune sensitivities can also benefit from cleaner air,” says Hyman.
The cleaner air and increased airflow that air purifiers provide can potentially make a big difference in the quality of life (and breath) for anyone.
People who should invest in an air purifier:
Folks with existing respiratory issues: An air purifier can ease your symptoms if you have seasonal allergies, asthma or respiratory problems.
People who have pets: According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, 6 out of 10 people are exposed to cat or dog dander. No matter how clean our pet is, the microscopic skin flakes your pet sheds can trigger allergy symptoms, including but not limited to itchy or watery eyes, runny nose, itchy throat, headaches, coughing or respiratory issues. The best air purifiers can help minimize the amount of particles floating around in the air.
Those who often deal with smoke: Air purifiers can make a huge difference for those who live in areas often impacted by wildfire. The fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke is significantly more dangerous than air pollution from things like traffic or factor emissions. It’s essential to have one in this situation. Hyman explains that long-term exposure can lead to wide-ranging health consequences like cardiovascular risks, cognitive decline, and metabolic issues, among others.
Remember that while the best air purifiers can filter out particles in the air, they’re only so effective in eliminating allergens and pollutants from your home. Once the particles have settled on surfaces, they must be reintroduced to their air for the air filter to clean them. Regular sweeping, vacuuming and dusting will ensure nothing that can hurt your health settles in your home.
While this list consists only of air purifiers that include a HEPA air filter, which are the most available and highest-functioning models on the market, several of them use more than one type of filtration technology. To better understand those aspects of your air purifier, or if you want to consider buying another type of air purifier, here’s a breakdown of all of the different methods of air purification technology:
HEPA air purifiers: Standing for “high-efficiency particulate air,” air purifiers with HEPA filters — defined by the US Department of Energy as High Efficiency Particulate Air filters — use a fiberglass filter that traps particles of a certain size out of the air. To be HEPA compliant, air filters must remove 99.97% of particles that are 0.3 microns in size and larger.
Air purifiers are small, household appliances that use one or more of a variety of technologies to filter particulate matter out of the air, including dust, allergen and viruses and recirculates cleaner air back into your living space. Air purifiers that have HEPA filters are the most popular type available, with many models employing other types of filters in addition to a HEPA filter.
Activated carbon air purifiers: Where HEPA filters manage solid particles in the air, most of the air purifiers on this list also include activated carbon or activated charcoal technology, whose porous nature helps filter gasses or volatile organic compounds out of the air. Gasses in your home air typically present themselves as odors from pets, cigarettes or cooking.
Negative ion air purifiers: Ionic or negative ion air purifiers work by using high voltage to give an electrical charge to particles or molecules in the air, which causes them to clump together and seek out positively charged molecules with which to bond. Certain models that use this type of technology also include a positively charged collector plate that the ionized particles will stick to, taking them out of the air. (Without a collector plate, these particles are no longer circulating in the air, but may hang on surfaces to be cleaned or vacuumed out of your home.) Most models employing this technology don’t use fans, which requires more time to filter the air in a room but also makes for extremely quiet conditions. Many experts caution against this type of air purifier, however.
“Those kinds of filters essentially are not necessarily removing contaminants from the environment, but converting them to dust and surface contamination,” says Masri. “And one of the issues with those is you can generate a byproduct, which is ozone. So you exchange one pollutant for another.”
UVGI air purifiers: “Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation” air purifiers are similar in mechanical function to HEPA air purifiers, in that they use fans to recirculate the air to purify it quickly. Inside the device, UVGI air purifiers rely on shielded ultraviolet light to neutralize dust and allergens. This type of technology isn’t available in air purifiers for home use and is typically employed in larger systems available for public settings such as office buildings.
What is CADR?
CADR stands for Clean Air Delivery Rate, which is a measure of an air purifier’s ability to clean the air, measured in cubic feet per minute. According to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, “the CADR of your air cleaner should be equal to at least two-thirds of the room’s area.” So, for example, a 10-foot by 12-foot room with an area of 120 cubic feet would require an air purifier with a CADR of 80.
What is an air scrubber?
An air scrubber is “a very, very powerful, industry-level air purifier,” said Zhao, which is the kind of large device that is used in “factories, hospitals, warehouses, or military settings.” Air scrubbers use technologies similar to those of home air purifiers, but on an industrial scale and are often built into ventilation systems. UV-C light is often used for germicidal purposes in an air scrubber.
How often do I need to change air purifier filters?
How often you change your air purifier filter will depend on a few things, including how much you use your machine. It’s recommended that you change your air purifier filter at least every 6 to 12 months.
However, you may end up needing to change your filter more if you notice signs of clogging, an excessive amount of dirt buildup, reduced airflow or poor performance. Some air purifiers have a light indicator that’ll let you know when you need a new filter. Others may send a notification directly to your phone via its companion app.
Can air purifiers help with allergies?
Studies have shown that air purifiers can significantly improve allergy and asthma symptoms. That said, they can only be so effective. Keeping your environment clean is also essential because once the allergens settle on surfaces, your air purifier cannot filter them out. They need to be reintroduced to the air through activities like sweeping, dusting or vacuuming for the air purifier to help.
For maximum air purifier efficiency, it’s important to isolate the air purifier within a defined space, which can be more difficult to do in open floor plans. For the best efficiency both in terms of clean air and energy uses, also keep windows closed when using an air purifier.
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