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Air purifiers
Two numbers decide this purchase and neither is on the front of the box: the CADR your room actually needs, and what the machine costs to run for the years you own it. Both are published, both are verifiable, and almost nobody puts them side by side.
What actually matters here
Picksights methodology
- CADR is the one performance number worth trusting here, because AHAM verifies it. The EPA guideline is a CADR of at least two-thirds of the room's floor area — that alone rules out much of what people buy.
- Running cost varies enormously. Consumer Reports measures a spread from around $65 to $259 a year between machines once filters and electricity are counted.
- Count the consumables, not just the filter. Carbon pre-filters need replacing every three months and can cost up to $50 each, on top of an annual HEPA.
- Be sceptical of HEPA-like wording: it does not meet the True HEPA standard of 99.97% of particles at 0.3 microns.
- Consumer Reports does not recommend ozone-generating purifiers at all — if a machine has an ionizer, you want to be able to switch it off.
Rankings in this category
Best Air Purifier
Four machines ranked on verified CADR, running cost, noise and price.
Read the ranking →