These 5 Air Purifiers Could Help Reduce Particles From Smoke or Smog By Up to 85 Percent
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Whether you live in close proximity to someone who routinely smokes, or you live in an area affected by wildfires, regular exposure to the microscopic particles found in smoke can have a devastating effect on your lungs and overall health. So what do you do when the thing you’re trying to protect yourself against is not only invisible to the naked eye, but is hiding in the air you’re breathing? Investing in an air purifier might be a good first step.
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Your answer might vary depending on the smoke you’re dealing with in your home. If you’re trying to protect yourself from the smoke and smog produced by wildfires, you may think that shutting your windows and doors or wearing a face mask is enough to keep you safe. But actually, there is evidence that suggests that some of these damaging particles can penetrate entryways even when they’re closed.
If you’re trying to combat the smell of smoke from everyday cooking or cigarettes, consider investing in an air purifier to try to repel the smell. These days, the best air purifiers for smoke and smog and not only handle strong odors, but help improve the quality of the air you breathe indoors. Air purifiers equipped with HEPA filters specifically can help reduce particle concentrations by up to 85%, according to the EPA. If you’re ready to get one for yourself, we’ve rounded up our top picks below.
In This Article
What Are the Best Air Purifiers for Smoke and Smog?
How Does An Air Purifier Work for Smoke?
How We Chose Air Purifiers for Smoke and Smog
What Are the Best Air Purifiers for Smoke and Smog?
There are a number of brands making air purifiers for smoke and smog, but these are our top choices, based on customer reviews, filtration efficacy, odor reduction, and air turnover rate.
BEST OVERALL: Levoit EverestAir Purifier
BEST DESIGNED: Molekule Air Pro
BEST FEATURES: Blueair Blue Pure 311i Max
BEST BUDGET-FRIENDLY: Levoit Core 300 Air Purifier
MOST EFFICIENT: Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Air Purifier
1. Levoit EverestAir Purifier
We love this purifier’s very impressive three-stage filtration system, which can rid the air of heavy smoke and nasty odors in rooms up to a whopping 2,790 square feet in just an hour. If you really want to make sure that the air in your room is clean, the laser dust sensor detects PM1.0, PM2.5, and PM10 particulate matter sizes, which will not only allow the purifier to evaluate the air quality of the room, but change its fan speed to fit the situation. The device’s nifty sleep mode helps create a peaceful, soothing environment while keeping the air free of harmful particles.
In terms of filter replacement, there’s a washable pre-filter, but you should only need to change the other two every 6-8 months. However, you can monitor the filter’s life on the handy VeSync app, so you’ll never have to be left guessing as to when it’s time to replace it.
$499.99
Promising Customer Feedback: “Bought this air purifier while vacationing in Thailand at my in-laws house — big problem with smog in this region sometimes. The purifier is efficient, quiet, user friendly with the app and cleans the air removing 99.97% of PM2.5 particles. The air is so clean with this machine I purchased another one for my house in Canada because of the wildfire smoke problem. I cannot recommend this product highly enough — just all around top notch.” —Key Y.
2. Molekule Air Pro
This air purifier from Molekule boasts a smooth and portable design and is easy to use, either by the touch-screen display or from your smartphone via the iPhone and Android app. By using a process known as PECO (Photo Electrochemical Oxidation), this purifier traps and breaks down all volatile organic compounds (VOCs); in other words, it literally replaces the air in the rooms up to 1,000 square feet, helping keep you safe from wildfire smoke and dust.
The brand says that smoke particles are trapped by the HEPA filter, and toxic gasses are quickly removed with activated carbon, while PECO provides another layer of protection by destroying the organic substances that are common in wildfire smoke. When set to Auto-Protect mode, the Air Pro will also automatically increase power when pollution levels rise. Because it can detect six pollutant types, you’ll also know in real-time how wildfire smoke might be impacting your indoor air quality.
$1,014.99
Promising Customer Feedback: We have three of these in different large rooms. It’s great to be able to monitor from the app or the front panel. When we need the extra circulation and cleaning power (deep cleaning a room, or working on a remodeling project) cranking them up really gets the crud out of the air. We’re frequently in the path of wildfire smoke from fires in the Western U.S. and Canada and we have some 140-year-old windows that aren’t well sealed. We can tell how much these make a difference in our indoor air quality.” —M.D.
3. Blueair Blue Pure 311i Max
Once you start looking at all of the capabilities and features, it’s easy to see why the Blueair Blue Pure 311i Max was selected as Amazon’s choice air purifier. For starters, it promises to completely filter the air in large rooms every 12.5 minutes, targeting up to 99.97% of tiny airborne particles down to 0.1 microns from wildfire smoke as well as pollen, dust and pet dander. The dedicated carbon filter also traps household odors from smoking and cooking, too.
With a plethora of smart features you can also put the air purifier on a schedule, monitor air quality and more on the app, as well as turn it on with your voice through Alexa. While it’s powerful it doesn’t utilize a lot of energy — in fact, all three speed settings use less energy than the average light bulb; the filter itself is ENERGY Star certified, so you can sustainably purify your air.
$229.99
Promising Customer Review: “Easy to use and detects air particles in the next room. Great job cleaning the air during the days with smoke from wild fires in Canada drifting our way in Minnesota.” —MartiR
4. Levoit Core 300 HEPA Air Purifier
If you’re looking for a more inexpensive option, we recommend this best-selling model from Levoit. It’s powerful enough to refresh the air five times per hour, though it’s smaller size lends itself to working in rooms up to 219 square feet.
Our favorite quality of this purifier is its capability to support different filters; you also have the ability to choose the filter that best suits your situation. Whether you’re looking to combat wildfire smoke or rid the space of pesky allergens, you can ensure your needs will always be met. But don’t just take our word for it, head on over to Amazon and read any one of the over 35,000 five-star reviews.
$84.98 $104.99 19% off
Promising Customer Feedback: “This is still the least-expensive, but most effective, out of now five air purifiers I’ve bought over the years. I like to do the “flashlight test,” with every air purifier I buy, because combating dust in my older Bay Area home is the main reason I bother with these machines. With the Levoit 300s, I can always see a lot of dust being drawn in. This purifier is also great value — at $90, the 141 CFM is impressive. You can easily spend twice this and get the same CFM or even lower.” —James
5. Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Air Purifier
Sleek and stylish, this top-rated Coway purifier looks as good as it cleans, and boy does it deliver some stellar purifying performance.
You’ll get the four-stage filtration process that Airmega line is known for, and this model’s filter can capture up to 99.97% of particles 0.3 microns in the air, including smoke, pollutants and other allergens. But the fourth filter is the key here, a vital ionizer which reduces ultra-fine particles in the air like viruses and bacteria. That’s a huge upgrade from your basic HEPA filter, but what’s an even bigger upgrade is it’s efficient operation.
Not only is the Airmega able to filter the air in a room up to a whopping 4.8 times per hour, it handles well even in larger rooms up to 874 square feet, refreshing the air twice per hour. By quickly removing the smoke particles that cause respiratory symptoms and odor, this makes it great for a main living room or a small apartment. An energy-saving air quality monitor also adjusts the fan speed to match the air quality in your room.
$184.00 $239.99 23% off
Promising Customer Review: “We had already had two of the Airmega AP-1512HH in our home during a period when we needed something to filter the smoke from regional wildfires, and we recently chose to get a third unit to use in our second bedroom/office that is prone to mildew (damp coastal environment and an old house!). The filters on these units really help keep the air in our home clean from dust and microorganisms. They are simple to operate, it’s easy to change the filters, it’s easy to clean the sensor if needed. Highly recommended!” —Seaside
How Does An Air Purifier Work for Smoke?
The best air purifiers for smoke remove contaminants from the air through a circulating fan and one or more filters. The fan sucks up the air in the room the device is placed in, and pushes it through the filters, where all of the contaminants are removed and trapped. The purified air is then pushed back out into the room.
As we mentioned before, air purifiers with HEPA filters can help reduce particle concentrations by up to 85%, according to the EPA. This is because smoke particles (like from cigarettes) tend to be between 0.1 and 1.0 microns in size, but a True HEPA filter can remove 99.97% of particles up to 0.3 microns in size. One thing to consider, though, is that cigarette smoke can contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that a HEPA filter won’t work well for, which is where an activated carbon filter comes in. The more carbon in the filter, the more effective it will be against VOCs.
By investing in a solid air purifier, you can have peace of mind that the air you’re breathing while in your living space is clean. That said, these devices aren’t a be-all end-all solution to removing smoke and smog. Still, a good air purifier can definitely help keep you safe when implemented along with other safety precautions, such as sealing any openings, wearing face coverings (in cases of extreme smoke) and evacuating the premises if the smoke gets too close or dangerous.
How We Chose the Best Air Purifiers for Smoke and Smog
When we were evaluating potential air purifiers for smoke and smog, we considered the following criteria (and you should too).
Filter: The average air purifier isn’t equipped to handle the contaminants found in smog or cigarette smoke. We chose purifiers outfitted with a HEPA filter to effectively safeguard your space against these particles, as well as a carbon filter to ward off those pungent odors.
You’ll also want to take a look at how often your filter(s) need to be replaced (more smoke means a dirtier filter, quicker). This could be an important factor when assessing your decision if replacement filters are particularly costly.
Size: Bigger rooms and living spaces need a larger air purifier to work effectively, so we made sure these air purifiers could either handle big rooms (above 500 square feet) or had a high enough air turnover rate that they would remain effective no matter the space.
Noise: To make sure you’re getting the most out of your air purifier, you should be running it all day, every day. Because of this, you’re not going to want one that makes a lot of noise, especially if you’re someone who is still working from home or who is a light sleeper. We picked air purifiers with relatively silent operation (around 24dB, or “near silent), or at the very least have a “quiet” mode.
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1. Levoit PUR131 Air Purifier
We love this purifier's very impressive three-stage filtration system, which can rid the air of heavy smoke and nasty odors in rooms up to 900 square feet in just an hour. If you really want to make sure that the air in your room is clean, turn on the “Smart Auto” feature, which will not only allow the purifier to evaluate the air quality of the room, but change its fan speed to fit the situation. The device's nifty sleep mode helps create a peaceful, soothing environment while keeping the air free of harmful particles.
In terms of filter replacement, you should only need to change it every 6-8 months. However, you can monitor the filter's life on the handy VeSync app, so you'll never have to be left guessing as to when it's time to replace it.
Levoit PUR131 Air Purifier
2. Molekule Large Room Air Purifier
This air purifier boasts a smooth and portable design and is easy to use, either by the touch-screen display or from your smartphone via the iPhone and Android app. By using a process known as Photo Electrochemical Oxidation, this purifier traps and breaks down all volatile organic compounds (VOCs); in other words, it literally replaces the air in the room, keeping you safe from wildfire smoke and dust. Designed to purify rooms up to 600 square feet, we recommend placing this in a bedroom or living room.
Molekule Large Room Air Purifier
3. Blueair Blue Pure 211+
Once you start looking at all of the capabilities and features, it's easy to see why the Blueair Blue Pure 211+ was selected as one of our top air filters. For starters, it promises to completely filter the air in large rooms every 12.5 minutes, targeting up to 99 percent of fine particles from wildfires as well as pollen, dust and pet dander. And while it's powerful it doesn't utilize a lot of energy. In fact, all three speed settings use less energy than the average light bulb; the filter itself is ENERGY Star-certified, so you can sustainably purify your air.
Blueair Blue Pure 211+
4. Levoit Air Purifier for Dust and Smoke
If you're looking for a great beginner option, we recommend this popular model from Levoit. It's powerful enough to refresh the air five times per hour, though it's smaller size lends itself to working in rooms up to 219 square feet.
Our favorite quality of this purifier is its capability to support different filters; you also have the ability to choose the filter that best suits your situation. Whether you're looking to combat wildfire smoke or rid the space of pesky allergens, you can ensure your needs will always be met.
