7 of the best air purifiers to deal with wildfire smoke
Overview
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Table of Contents
Most of us spend a lot of time and effort on staying healthy. We’re drinking water, wearing fitness trackers, trying to get good sleep, and taking our vitamins. We all know we’re supposed to limit sugar, alcohol, tobacco, bad fats, and salt, and those are all things we can personally decide to ingest. But when it comes to air, we don’t really have a choice. We must continue to inhale and exhale nearly constantly in order to continue living.
And that’s usually all good, but now that wildfire smoke is becoming more prevalent across the U.S., breathing in clean air is getting harder. If you live in an area that’s prone to wildfire smoke, it might be seeping into your home and compromising indoor air quality.
Without slathering on the doom and apocalypse vibes, inhaling wildfire smoke for extended periods of time is not good. It can cause headaches, dizziness, and eye irritation. But it can also cause serious problems like permanent lung damage, and that’s true even in healthy people, according to Yale Medicine.
If you’re not interested in that, adding an air purifier to your house is the way to go. These relatively small (and often super quiet) machines can literally suck the smoke particles out the air, leaving you to enjoy clean air while you work, make dinner, and sleep in the safety of your home.
Just how bad is wildfire smoke for our health?
Plenty of stuff in the air can cause us physical discomfort. Consider when the pollen counts skyrocket every spring or when we walk into a smoke-filled casino. According to the Centers for Disease Control, wildfire smoke can cause breathing issues, headaches, lethargy, coughing, and wheezing, to name a few ill effects. Those who have asthma, heart disease, or diabetes are at an increased risk of getting sick. Kids and pregnant people are also considered high-risk when it comes to getting sick from wildfire smoke.
Even if you feel fine, smoke particles are small enough to get into our bloodstream, according to Yale Medicine, and that means they have access to other organs like the heart and the liver. Over time, exposure to PM 2.5 might lead to an increased risk of cancers, heart attack, and cognitive issues.
It’s not just us humans who can struggle with smoke, but our pets, too. The American Veterinary Medical Association says that if we can see or feel the effects from smoke, our pets can as well. That's especially true for pets with cardiovascular or respiratory issues.
Airmega AP-1512HH Mighty
Our top pick
The Good & The Bad
- Optional intense smoke filter
- Lightweight and compact design
- Black and white colorway options
- Spendy
- Only three colors to indicate air quality
Why we picked this
For years, Coway has been an industry leader when it comes to air purifiers and that’s with good reason. The Coway Airmega Mighty can cover a massive 1,748 square foot space with a four-stage filtration system. It ticks the boxes for using a true HEPA filter, a carbon filter to help with smells, and a pre-filter which helps lessen the task put on the HEPA filter.
Where the Coway Airmega Mighty really shines is the upgraded Intense Smoke Filter. These aren’t part of the standard package, so you’ll need to buy them separately but they’re specifically designed to filter out harmful pollutants from wildfire smoke, and they carry third party testing to back up these claims. With the Coway, you’ll be getting filtration from a HEPA filter and an additional wildfire smoke filter. This combination could be well worth the upgrade for people with asthma or other respiratory concerns who live in an area that deals with wildfire smoke.
Details
Shark NeverChange Air Purifier Max
Best for large rooms
The Good & The Bad
- Covers up to 1,400 square feet
- Real-time air quality percentage reading
- Long-lasting HEPA filter
- Remote control is sold separately
- No smart features
Why we like it
If you have an open floor plan with a larger square footage, the Shark NeverChange Air Purifier Max is up for cleaning the air. This model is good to go in areas that reach up to 1,400 square feet, and it comes with Shark’s NeverChange HEPA filter which the brand says can last for up to five years before needing replacement. There are also two pre-filters which help keep larger debris from clogging up the ever-important HEPA filter, and you can easily remove and vacuum these screens clean.
The Shark NeverChange Max has the Shark Clean Sense IQ displayed on the front which gives you a real-time analysis of air quality in a percentage, as well as a color-coded circle. When on auto mode, the Shark air purifier will adjust the filter’s speed to keep indoor air as clean as possible. Seeing this percentage readout has been helpful in my home to understand that the kitchen has terrible air flow if we cook bacon or the air fryer cooks for a bit too long.
Details
Shark NeverChange Air Purifier Compact Pro
Best for a small bedroom
The Good & The Bad
- Whisper quiet
- Great colorway options
- Long-lasting HEPA filter
- No handle
Why we like it
For a small bedroom or an office, the Shark NeverChange Air Purifier Compact Pro is perfect. For starters, it looks like a cute little robot that’s focused on keeping your lungs healthy but it also comes in fun colorway options. It’s designed to filter air in rooms of up to 250 square feet. Like the Shark NeverChange Max, this purifier comes with a HEPA filter that can last for up to five years. In the long run, that might save you serious money on replacement filters. It also uses Shark’s CleanSense IQ display which gives an air quality reading as a percentage, which I much prefer over a color-coded system.
When I tested the Shark Compact Pro, I left it on my nightstand for weeks and occasionally, I had to check if it was even on because it’s just that quiet.
The lack of a way to carry the purifier is a bummer, and left me cradling it a bit like a delicate pineapple when I moved it from my bedroom to my desk.
Details
LG PuriCare AeroTower Air Purifier
Best for design
The Good & The Bad
- The good and the bad
- Modern look with small footprint
- Certified to be Asthma and Allergy Friendly
- Filters on fan and heat mode
- Convenient remote control
- LG app compatibility
- Expensive
- Replacement filters are pricey
Why we like it
Most of us are not shopping for an air purifier to add decor to our homes. We’re looking for something that cleans the air, but if it happens to have a nice design, that’s a bonus. LG paid attention to design with the PuriCare AeroTower Air Purifier with its modern and attractive aesthetic. Because it’s a tower shape, it also takes up less space on the floor.
In terms of purifying the air, LG has some major wins with this model. Like many air purifiers, it has a pre-filter that helps capture larger particles like dust and hair, and behind this is a NanoFiber True HEPA Filter which LG says captures 99.97% of particulate matter, including smoke. A deodorizer filter with activated carbon is meant to help with removing unwanted scents like cooking smells.
Another major benefit is carrying an allergy and asthma friendly certification issued by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. This certification is rare and indicates LG isn’t messing around with filtration. In a room of about 185 square feet, the LG PuriCare AeroTower takes just 15 minutes which works out to four total air changes per hour, and those are reassuring numbers when it comes to wildfire smoke.
The purifier’s LCD display is useful, and so is the included remote. Linking up to LG’s ThinQ App gives you even more control of the purifier and allows you easy access to stats like air quality, temperature, and humidity.
Plus, this model can also heat the room with 140 degree oscillation, so you’ll be able to find a use for this model year-round.
Details
Blueair ComfortPure 3-in-1 (T10i)
Best for year-round use
The Good & The Bad
- Filtration when heating or cooling
- 350 degree oscillation
- Thoughtful design touches
- Slick Blueair app
- Portable
- Expensive
Why we like it
If you’re investing in an air purifier to protect your lungs during wildfire season, you might as well go with a model you’ll find useful year-round. Since it serves as an air purifier, fan, and heater, the Blueair ComfortPure 3-in-1 is worth considering. In all modes, the Blueair pushes out filtered air that has 99.97% of particles removed, including smoke. When testing this model, I continuously noticed attractive design details, like the convenient handle for carrying the purifier from room to room and the magnetic closure system when accessing the filter.
The Blueair app is also a joy. It’s packed with features, control options, and even has a function that’ll turn the purifier on when you’re 15 minutes away from home. The app also tracks outdoor air quality, which can be super helpful when determining if and when you should be using the purifier inside. The Blueair ComfortPure also gets top marks in the overall look category since it’s modern and simple.
Details
Levoit Sprout Air Purifier
Best for kids
The Good & The Bad
- Includes a night light and speaker to play white noise
- Comprehensive air-quality metrics including temperature, humidity, and CO2 level
- Fantastic app for parents
- Expensive
Why we like it
Kids get all the cool stuff and now we’re forced to add the Leviot Sprout Air Purifier to that list, although who’s to say this can’t be used in an adult’s bedroom? The Levoit Sprout has some of the coolest features I’ve ever seen in an air purifier which includes a built-in nightlight and a speaker that plays white noise. For babies and kids, all of these features wrapped into one machine is a parent’s dream come true. Kids are especially at risk when there’s wildfire smoke outside and both the CDC and the EPA recommend using portable air cleaners to keep kids safe while inside. The Sprout uses a four-filter system to rid air of harmful particles and that includes a three-stage pre filter and a HEPA filter.
Major bonus points go to the Levoit Sprout for its superior air-quality metrics and incredible app. Most air purifiers give air quality metrics but those often come with a simple color-coded system or a percentage, if you’re lucky. The Levoit Sprout blows all of those out of the water by showing real-time reading on CO2 levels, TVOCs (total volatile organic compounds), PM 1.0, PM 2.5, and PM10. You also get information (and charts in the app) about room temperature and humidity.
From the app, you can control the night light's brightness and color warmth, choose from one of the five pre-set white noise options, and set a timer or a schedule.
The Sprout has plenty of great functions that are suited to a nursery but if we’re being honest, what adult would be mad about a nightlight during a 3 a.m. bathroom trip or some calming ocean sounds?
Details
Topics Health
The benefits of an air purifier
If your neighborhood gets socked in with wildfire smoke, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends you keep windows and doors closed. Even still, it’s possible smoke can seep in under doors, through cracks, or from vents in the kitchen and bathroom. Running a portable air purifier can help cut down on harmful particles that might enter your home.
Air purifiers work by sucking in the room’s air and sending it through a filtration system.
Most high-quality air purifiers do so with a HEPA filter (High Efficiency Particulate Air) in addition to a few other filters. A pre-filter is a great addition, and it looks similar to a screen with a fine weave. These help capture dust and hair, which leaves the more-important HEPA filter cleaner and less clogged up from larger debris that can float around in the air. A HEPA filter is capable of removing 99.97% of tiny particulate matter in the air that we can’t see, but can cause us discomfort, according to the EPA. That includes wildfire smoke, cigarette smoke, pollution from nearby traffic, pollen, and dust.
A briefing on particulate matter
When shopping for an air purifier, you’ll see many models explain that they capture particulate matter, or PM. For the most part, that’s stuff in the air that you don’t really want to inhale. We measure PM by its diameter. Either with an on-unit display or in the app, most air purifiers will track the level of PM 10 and PM 2.5 in the air. To help get a baseline of understanding, a single strand of human hair measures between 50 and 70 microns in diameter, according to measurements from the EPA.
PM 10: Particulate matter that measures 10 microns in diameter includes dust, pollen, mold, and some wildfire smoke particles.
PM 2.5: These tiny particles measure 2.5 microns in diameter, which is true of the majority of particles emitted from wildfire smoke.
Since PM is so small, it can enter our bloodstream and nestle itself deep in the lungs, according to Yale Medicine.
Do air purifiers help with allergies and viruses?
Since HEPA filters are designed to scrub the air of potentially harmful particles, they can also help cut down on pollen, dust, and even viruses. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America says using a HEPA filter can reduce airborne allergens that wind up indoors. That can be from an open window, your clothes you wore to the park, or even when the dog comes home from a walk.
An air purifier with a HEPA filter can also be helpful during cold and flu season. Not all virus particles are large enough to get captured by HEPA filters. However, many are launched into the air via a cough or sneeze so those virus particles are traveling within a larger particle (what the CDC calls a respiratory droplet) which can get filtered out by a HEPA. By no means does using an air purifier mean you won’t get ill if you hang out in a room with a sick person all day, but it might reduce the likelihood.
Since wildfire smoke is becoming more prevalent throughout the U.S., we wanted to investigate how to keep our indoor air cleaner thanks to an air purifier. We’ve hands-on tested all of the air purifiers in this review, and we chose to only include models that use a HEPA filter. You can find less expensive purifiers on the market, but their claims of filtration can often be questionable. Since breathing in wildfire smoke can be a hazard, we don’t think messing around with filtration assurance is desirable. Of the air purifiers we chose to test, we analyzed each on the following criteria:
Nothing lasts forever and you’ll need to replace the HEPA filter eventually. Some brands, like Shark, have developed filters that are designed to last longer than the standard. We also only selected air purifiers that include a pre-filter to catch larger stuff like dust and hair. That keeps the HEPA filter cleaner and will extend the time before you’ll need a replacement.
We aimed to include a range of purifiers to cover every room size. You’ll want to match your room size to the size the purifier can efficiently cover. Since larger models tend to come with a higher price point, you can save yourself some money by getting one that’s designed for a similarly sized space.
Cleaning the air shouldn’t have to be a loud event, so we went with air purifiers that rank lower on the decibel scale.
Lauren Allain is a freelance journalist covering deals at Mashable. She graduated from Western Washington University with a B.A. in journalism and holds an M.B.A from Webster Leiden. You can find more of her work online from publications including Reader’s Digest, U.S. News & World Report, Seattle Refined, and more. When she’s not writing, Lauren prefers to be outside hiking, bouldering, swimming, or searching for the perfect location for all three.
