Having that power available for an emergency situation, such as a nearby wildfire, is nice, but for everyday use you would probably want to run the machine on lower speeds and in a smaller room—350 square feet or so. With a CADR of 350 cubic feet per minute on high for smoke, pollen, and dust, it handily outdraws most purifiers in its price range and many competitors that cost far more.
On its quiet/medium setting, it delivers performance at a CADR of 231 for smoke, pollen, and dust—roughly what the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Mighty offers on high. In a 500-square-foot space with 8-foot ceilings, that means it makes 5.3 ACH on high, well above our 4 ACH threshold. And on medium, it reaches a rate of 3.5 ACH, more than enough to keep the air clean under normal conditions.
For particulate removal, all the filters are rated at the European HEPA standards H12 to H14. H13 corresponds to the US HEPA standard, but all are highly effective; the differences between H12 (99.6% removal of fine particles in a single pass) and H14 (99.995%) are so minor that in home usage they make virtually no difference. The higher-rated filters do restrict the airflow somewhat, however, which is why the Mila’s maker recommends them for bedrooms or small living rooms rather than large open spaces. Up front, it’s usually a bit more expensive than the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Mighty and the Winix models we recommend, and its greater power draw on its highest “quiet” setting may add a bit to running costs over time.
It’s not particularly power-hungry, unlike the Air Pro, but on its medium setting it still draws more electricity than the far more capable Coway Mighty, our top pick among purifiers and a machine capable of keeping the air clean in a far larger space. Using ACH to categorize air purifiers overcomes a common problem in the way manufacturers rate their air purifiers
in their advertising. Most offer instead a square-footage rating, presumably because it’s easy for a prospective customer to take their room’s dimensions and then pick a purifier accordingly. But square-footage claims are essentially meaningless—if you’re comparing two rooms with very different ceiling heights and thus different volumes, for example.
The 200M and the AP-1512HH are virtually identical in performance, but the 200M has an appearance that you may prefer, and it’s a great alternative if you find it at a lower price. You can also use the air purifier for aromatherapy purposes by adding four to five drops of essential oil. “I’ve only had this for about a week and I’ve already noticed a difference. I’m not as stuffy as I used to be when I wake up in the morning, and I sneeze a lot less,” one reviewer noted. It affects our lungs, blood circulation, heart, and overall physical health. But it’s possible that the air inside your home is dirtier than you think.
You would use that setting in an extreme and ongoing pollution situation, such as when you’re dealing with smoke from a nearby fire. But on their highest setting, most air purifiers are too loud—above 50 decibels, where we draw the line—to be tolerable as a background for conversation, sleep, or TV watching. So we always confirm whether our picks can keep the air clean on their medium or quiet setting in a room of the recommended size. There’s also a timer and pollution sensor,” experts wrote earlier this year. This Levoit air purifier has a three-stage filtration system with a pre-filter, a True HEPA filter and a high-efficiency activated carbon filter.
Based on its specs, we determined that it’s appropriate for rooms of just 287 square feet (where its CADR numbers result in our recommended 4 air changes per hour). The Winix A230, a small-space purifier suited for bedrooms or offices, performed well in our tests—seemingly too well for such a small machine. Afterward, we realized that we had inadvertently tested it with its ionizer function on, and we recommend against ionizers because of their (admittedly small) production of ozone.