8 min readSafeWise experts have years of firsthand experience testing the products we recommend. Learn how we test and review. We may earn money when you buy through our links.
The CleanForce Mega1000 is our runaway winner for best home air purifier no matter what you’re up against. Smoke, pollen, dust, mold, pet dander, bacteria, and some viruses all end up trapped in one of the Mega1000’s eight filters.
Our other HEPA air purifier recommendations offer a few perks that you can’t get with the CleanForce Mega1000, like ultra-quiet operation, extra air quality sensors, and smart home integrations. We’ve also added budget-friendly alternatives for our top choices.
You’ll see “CADR” a lot in this article. It stands for “clean air delivery rate.” Developed by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), it measures how fast an air purifier can clear pollutants from a 323 square-foot test chamber.
Product | Best for | Price | Noise level | Control options | Air cleaned in 1 hour | Learn more |
| Best HEPA air purifier | $599.00 | 35 dB | Remote | 4,650 sq. ft. | View on Amazon | |
| Best for budgets | $145.49 | 28 dB | None | 360 sq. ft. | View on Home Depot | |
| Best air purifier for pets | $630.43 | 22 dB | App, Amazon Alexa, Google Home | 1,560 sq. ft. | View on Amazon | |
| Best for bedrooms | $219.99 | 24 dB | App, Amazon Alexa, Google Home | 1,005 sq. ft. | View on Amazon | |
| Best air purifier for allergies | $608.69 | 28 dB | App | 1,100 sq. ft. | View on Amazon |
*Amazon.com price as of post date. Read full disclaimer.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and learn how to protect your home, loved ones, and belongings.
The CleanForce Mega1000 is the best home air purifier thanks to chart-topping clean air delivery rates (CADRs) for smoke, pollen, and dust. It uses a whopping eight filters to get the job done, but its massive size might be a deal-breaker for cramped rooms.
8 filters total
Best smoke-free CADR
Best pollen-free CADR
Excellent dust-free CADR
Air quality sensor + auto mode 
No smart hub connectivity or app
Large size
Relatively loud The CleanForce Mega1000 pulls air from two directions at once, and each side of the unit has its own set of four filters:
There’s no smart connectivity, so you won’t be able to control the CleanForce Mega1000 with your voice or a smartphone app. But it does come with a remote, and the unit’s display screen gives status updates about the filters and air quality.
This powerful air purifier is advertised for spaces up to 4,650 square feet, but don’t let that discourage you from buying it for home use. In smaller spaces, big air purifiers like the CleanForce Mega1000 just clean the air faster and more often. Keep it on a lower fan setting to draw less energy.
The main downside of the CleanForce Mega1000 is its large size. It sits on over 1 square foot of floor space and stands over 2 feet tall. And because it pulls air from both sides of the unit, it needs to stay out in the open. If you’re already in a cramped space, this may not be the air purifier for you.
Of the nearly 370 air purifiers we considered, the Winix 5300-2 offers the best balance of price and performance. It cleans the air in a 360 square-foot room (think large living room or primary suite) at AHAM's recommended rate of five times in one hour and costs less than $200.
4 filters
Average smoke-free CADR
Average pollen-free CADR
Average dust-free CADR
Air quality sensor + auto mode
No smart hub connectivity or app This Winix air purifier offers four stages of filtration:
Similar to ion-generating air purifiers, Winix’s PlasmaWave technology neutralizes tiny airborne molecules, offering a deep-clean that HEPA filters alone can’t achieve. But unlike ion generators, PlasmaWave doesn’t produce ozone—a molecule that causes allergy-like symptoms in some people, according to the EPA.
The Winix 5300-2 lacks a remote, mobile app, and smart hub connectivity. But you don’t really need to be hands-on with it. The 5300-2 automatically adjusts to one of its five fan speeds whenever it detects a change in indoor air quality.
If you do want a remote, try the Winix 5500-2 for about $250.
The Coway AirMega 400S smart air purifier features a washable pre-filter that’s perfect for trapping pet fur. A light on the unit even tells you when the pre-filter needs to be washed so you can keep it running at peak efficiency. A separate light tells you when to change the HEPA filter.
Learn more about how to clean air purifier filters.
3 filters
Best pollen-free CADR
Good dust-free CADR
Air quality sensor + auto mode
Smartphone app
Works with Amazon Alexa and Google Home
Very quiet
Average smoke-free CADR Other pet-home-friendly features include an activated carbon filter for pet odor control and an auto-sensor that adjusts the fan speed when air quality diminishes—like when your dog runs around the house after rolling in dirt or when your cat kicks up a cloud of litter dust.
This Coway air purifier traps pollen from the air at the same chart-topping rate as our top two picks, but it’s not a good air purifier for smoke particles. Its dust-cleaning performance is above average. And, although it’s advertised for rooms up to 1,560 square feet, it only cleans the air twice in one hour in such a large space. We recommend using it in a smaller room for best results.
At 22 decibels, the Coway AirMega 400S is the quietest air purifier on our list and one of the quietest you’ll find on the market, period. It also integrates with Amazon Alexa and Google Home for voice activation and smart home automation.
These Coway air purifiers match the 400S in most features but handle smaller rooms and cost less:
The Levoit 400S is one of the quietest air purifiers on the market, making it perfect for a bedroom or nursery. It cleans up to 400 square feet five times per hour. The Levoit 400S has a much smaller footprint than other air purifiers, allowing you to put it on a dresser if you’re short on space. Plus, its LED display can be turned off entirely for restful blackout conditions.
3 filters
Air quality sensor + auto mode
Smartphone app
Works with Amazon Alexa and Google Home
Very quiet
Average CADRs in all categories The Levoit 400S includes a pre-filter, activated carbon filter, and an H13 HEPA air filter. It integrates with Alexa or Google Assistant for voice control, and its smartphone app shows useful data like remaining filter life and indoor air quality trends.
To save a bit of money, check out this Hunter air purifier: HP600. It costs about $60 less than the Levoit 400S but features a slim design and quiet operation. It’s suitable for rooms up to about 200 square feet.
While the Stadler Form Roger Big air purifier doesn’t clean smoke as well as the CleanForce Mega1000, it boasts the same CADRs for allergens like wildfire smoke and pollen. It has a particulate sensor and a rare gas sensor, allowing it to detect tiny changes in air quality and ramp up its fan speed accordingly.
4 filters
Excellent smoke-free CADR
Best pollen-free CADR
Excellent dust-free CADR
Air quality sensor + auto mode
Smartphone app
No smart hub connectivity The Stadler Form Roger Big uses four filters:
This air purifier can be controlled through a smartphone app. It also takes up less space than the CleanForce Mega1000 and—to be perfectly honest—looks nicer than our top pick.
If you don’t need to purify a 1,100 square-foot space, you can save a bit of money by choosing the smaller Roger model (rated for 710 square feet). Downgrading to the even smaller Roger Little (355 square feet) means you’ll lose the gas sensor and smartphone app.
Check out the LivePure Bali air purifier for allergy relief on a budget. It doesn’t have an auto air quality sensor, remote control, or mobile app, but the LivePure Bali traps dust and pollen with almost the same efficacy as the Roger Big.
You’ll save over $200 compared to the Roger Big and still snag one of the best air purifiers for allergies on the market.
Germ Guardian sells a lot of different air purifiers. We steered clear of this brand’s ozone-producing models, which narrowed the selection quite a bit. We didn’t find any stand-out specifications that set Germ Guardian apart from our other picks, but that doesn’t mean this is a bad brand if it meets your expectations.
As with Germ Guardian, some Blueair models generate ozone, and we don’t recommend that kind of air purifier. The Blueair Classic 505 is a HEPA air purifier that performs as well as some of our top picks, but it’s only available in refurbished units. Other Blueair HEPA options had low CADRs, so they couldn’t rattle our list of the best air purifiers.
Some Dyson air purifiers also heat and cool the room, giving you a three-in-one device. We also like all of the control options: a traditional remote, smartphone app, or voice control via Amazon Alexa. But Dyson’s purifiers are louder than other options, aren’t rated for large rooms, and use more energy per year than more powerful models.
The Alen Breathesmart uses a medical-grade H13 HEPA filter and cleans the air about as well as the mid-size Stadler Form Roger. But it’s on the loud side and lacks user-friendly features like an air quality indicator, washable pre-filter, and remote control or smartphone app.
We do have to give the Alen Breathesmart props for looking good, though. With custom paneling, it’s easy to make this purifier blend in with your décor.
There’s no denying that the CleanForce Mega1000 is the best air purifier on the market today. It’s the fastest and most effective unit designed for home use and is worth every penny. But if it’s out of your price range, our other top picks have their own strengths:
No, Winix’s PlasmaWave technology isn’t harmful. It temporarily turns moisture from the air into a positively charged hydrogen molecule and a negatively charged oxygen molecule.
Airborne pollutants bond to these ions according to their own positive or negative charges. Any leftover hydrogen or oxygen molecules that didn’t bond to pollutants reunite and form harmless water molecules.
No ozone is produced during this process.
All of the air purifiers on our list are ozone-free, so we think the CleanForce Mega1000 is the best air purifier without ozone.
Air purifiers improve indoor air quality. They use a fan to pull air through a set of filters. Irritating airborne particles like dust, pollen, or dander are trapped in the filters. Air pollution and odor molecules get trapped too. The fresh air is then returned to the room.
We started with Energy Star's list of energy-efficient air purifiers because it collects important information in one place: cleaning rates for smoke, dust, and pollen, plus ozone emissions and filter types.
We only considered fan-and-filter air purifiers for our lineup because ion generators produce ozone, which can cause health problems—negating the purpose of an air purifier. We also left out products designed for garages or workshops, and eliminated contenders you can't buy online.
Efficacy was our main concern, so we looked at the nearly 370 air purifiers that remained to find those with the highest Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADR) for smoke, dust, and pollen. We preferred air purifiers that could clean a larger space at least five times per hour—the standard set by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.
Due to the abundance of data available from Energy Star, we didn't conduct any hands-on testing for this review. We supplemented this data with additional research into customer reviews and manufacturer resources.
*Product prices and availability are accurate as of post date and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product. Safewise.com utilizes paid Amazon links.
Certain content that appears on this site comes from Amazon. This content is provided “as is” and is subject to change or removal at any time.
Subscribe to SafeWise for updates on safety news, product releases, and deals!
