Air Purifier Brands

Honeywell

Honeywell is one of the few air purifier brands that makes air purifiers equipped with permanent filters. We do not recommend such units for reasons we outline in our guide on the topic here. They also manufacture units equipped with HEPA filters. Such units do have certain strong points - they’re highly portable and have control panel lights that can be completely turned off for operation in dark rooms - but there’s simply better options out there on the market compared to these units. Honeywell air purifiers are very popular but this is mostly because they’re easy to find in local big box stores. When comparing them to all other air purifiers on the market, Honeywell units mostly rate below average.

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Austin

Austin air purifiers do two things very well – they’re highly durable and they filter gases very well. If you’re especially concerned about filtering gases like VOCs and odors, an Austin air purifier is the best option currently on the market. However, this performance does come at a fairly high price. Expect to pay at least around $500 for a well-equipped model.

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BlueAir

BlueAir has several lines of air purifiers, the most popular of which are the Blue Pure models. These models do have several strong points (good processing power, good energy efficiency, low noise output, etc.); however, they’re held back by one big shortcoming – all of them are equipped with a proprietary particle filter. And while this filter isn’t necessarily a bad filter it doesn’t provide the same level of filtration as the gold standard for particle filtration – a HEPA filter. The lack of a HEPA filter is the primary reason why we do not recommend Blue Pure models. BlueAir’s other lines of air purifiers also feature proprietary particle filters instead of HEPA filters.

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Rabbit Air

Rabbit Air makes only two different air purifiers – the BioGS 2.0 and the MinusA2. Both units are quite a bit more expensive than most other air purifiers on the market. Their high price is mostly due to their high quality parts. For example, both models are equipped with a brushless motor that powers their fans. Certain variations of the MinusA2 also feature smart functionality (i.e. it can be controlled wirelessly via an app). All MinusA2 units also feature extra filters that you don’t find on most other air purifiers on the market – a medium filter that’s essentially an additionally pre-filter and a customizable filter that filters out different types of particles depending on the exact customizable filter you choose when ordering the air purifier.

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Winix

Winix air purifiers are uniquely made in Korea. Most other air purifiers on the market are made in China. It’s not surprising then that most of their units are very well made with high quality parts and materials. On the negative side of things Winix units do come with very short warranties – only 1 year compared to most other units on the market that come with 3 to 5 year warranties, at a minimum.

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Coway

Coway is another Korean company, similar to Winix. However, they’re air purifiers are made in China. Regardless, Coway units are also very well made. Coway makes very good all around performers. The Coway Mighty and AirMega series are both very good air purifiers.

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GermGuardian

GermGuardian specializes in making inexpensive tower air purifiers. If you’re looking for a reasonably good air purifier under $100, we would recommend a GermGuardian unit – something like the AC4825, for example. These units don’t offer the best quality parts but they’re reasonably durable and they’re cheap.

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Levoit

Levoit is similar to GermGuardian in that they primarily make air purifiers for the budget minded consumer. The problem? They do things a little bit worse. Comparing GermGuardian and Levoit units during testing, build quality and quality of parts were very similar. However, the output on GermGuardian units were often quite a bit higher at the same price. For example, the Levoit LV-H132 and previously mentioned GermGuardian AC4825 are very similarly priced. Both have HEPA filters and carbon filters, but the AC4825 has close to twice the output, meaning it can be used in a room almost twice as large. 

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IQAir

This company makes very high quality but very expensive air purifiers. Their least expensive full size residential air purifier retails for about $800. The problem here is that there are simply better options out there that offer similar or sometimes even better performance, often at a much lower price. If you’re looking for an air purifier primarily for particle filtration (pollen, dust, etc.) you can get away with a much cheaper unit ($150 to $200) that’s going to be able to filter particles just as well as an IQAir air purifier currently on the market. If you’re looking for an air purifier primarily for gas filtration (VOCs, odors, etc.) you can purchase a much cheaper unit ($400 to $600) that’s going to be able to filter gases even better than an IQAir unit costing twice as much.

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Dyson

Dyson air purifiers offer a great smart home experience and they’re also terrific multipurpose appliances – they can cool and heat on top of being able to clean air – but they’re not very good dedicated air purifiers. The problem? They have very low purified airflow. Even the largest Dyson air purifiers only offer about 100 CFM (cubic feet per minute) of purified airflow, and so they cannot be used in rooms much larger than 150 sq. ft. They’re also very expensive. The cheapest models retail for around $300.

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