The Best Home Air Purifier: a house log

You know I enjoy writing a spare-no-details product review (like this one and this one), so when sufficient people pointed out that when they search the journal for info about our beloved air purifier, nothing truly comes up, I thought… I shall remedy that today.

I know. I am a hero.

I feel like I should also point out that we picked up these ourselves with our own money and nobody at their company knows us from Adam.

Sherry has consistently suffered from bad seasonal allergies, so we were thrilled to find a home air purifier that at last gave her the allergy relief that so many companies promise. The allergy difference that it makes for Sherry is night and day. We even think it helped get rid of her cat allergy! So much so that when they were packed in the pod while we were moving she was like “WHY ARE MY ALLERGIES KILLING ME?!?!” and then we were like…. “oh, we packed the air purifiers in the pod… this is what life is like without them.”

She even notices an uptick in allergy symptoms whenever we travel and stay at an Airbnb or a hotel, because… you guessed it… the air purifier is not there to relieve her. So yeah, it makes a real difference in her life and her sleep and her stuffiness (or lack thereof). So she travels with allergy medicine but does not in fact have to take any when we are at home.

And since this particular purifier is straightforward on the eyes as well as extremely effective, we recommended them to fairly much anyone who will listen – hence this post.

How Do You Choose The Best Air Purifier?

After buying a more pricey “designer purifier” (the trendy and pricier Molekule – which Sherry picked up, noticed zero difference in her allergies, and subsequently returned) – we now swear by the Blueair Blue series of home air purifiers. Because after you buy something pricey and notice zero difference and then google it only to see tons of complaints about that company/product, Sherry was feeling fairly sheepish (see this article, and this article for example).

So she did tons of research and looped me in on it too (you know I enjoy research). We hoped something that would WORK HARD and assist her sleep easier and wake up a lot less congested. And when you do the research the choice in fact gets fairly straightforward. Our beloved Blueair Blue Pure 211+ purifier is consistently included on lists of “the Best Air Purifiers” including these from Good Housekeeping, Wirecutter, CNet, and the holy grail that is Consumer Reports. And this article is especially stunning when you look at the graphic that shows how much it beat out the other purifiers – including the $800 Dyson!

Simply like many of these articles point out, we find these Blueair purifiers to be:

• Effective
• Straightforward to use
• Attractive
• Affordable

We will get into each of these in more detail in a moment. They are also Energy-Star rated and identified as one of the quietest air purifiers out there, which is certainly a plus. We leave ours on low 24/7 and it is as low of a hum as when our house’s heat runs – even softer than that. If you are not standing right next to it, it is hard to tell it is on (except for how you feel).

What Blueair Models Do We Own?

Within Blueair’s Blue series, there are four sizes designed for small rooms (100-250 square feet), medium rooms (250-400), large rooms (400-600), and extra-large rooms (600+). About four years ago we picked up two of the large-room-sized Blue Pure 211+ purifiers, which have worked strong for us ever since. We use one of them to cover our whole upstairs living room, and another one downstairs in our bedroom, which also covers the nearby hangout spot by our front door as well as our kitchen.

More lately – around 2 years ago – we also picked up one of the small Blue Pure 411 purifiers for each of our kids’ rooms, which have also been strong. Zero issues with any of them.

Does It Truly Work?

Along with our anecdotal evidence about how much of a difference it makes for Sherry’s allergies, she has also heard from other people who got the same one and said it helped with everything from keeping their homes smoke free during the California and Oregon wildfires to helping someone with severe asthma to avoid hospitalization and steroids (which used to occur 2-3 times a year for her before she got the purifier).

Someone else wrote to say that she had chronic hives from an unknown allergen which resolved within a week of getting the air purifier. A mom of an 8-year-old with asthma that does not respond well to steroids picked up one and said he not only did not need a rescue inhaler anymore, he does not even need his daily maintenance inhaler since getting the purifier. Plenty of others also said their snoring (or their partner’s) fully resolved after getting one. And there were many stories about how someone thought they had a cold with a drippy nose and then discovered their purifier was unplugged, so they plugged it back in and that was the end of their sniffling. Note: You can read more about what other people said after getting one by clicking the archived circle that is called “Air Purifier” on our Instagram profile page (you might have to scroll to the right to find it).

We also get some definite visual evidence that tells us our Blueair purifiers are working. Before I show it, I should explain how the Blueair Blue purifiers are designed. They are in short made with 3 layers of filtration to capture a smorgasbord of nasties:

1. An outer fabric “prefilter” cover to trap large particles like dust bunnies, hair, and pet fur
2. A standard particle filter (similar to what you have in your HVAC unit) to catch pollen, dust, dander, and mold
3. An inner activated carbon lining to absorb odors, gases and VOCs

And while I cannot inspect the charcoal lining for VOCs, it is straightforward to see the other two layers hard at work. Take the side-by-side below, which shows an old filter (left) that we have taken out to replace it with a new filter (right). See how black the old one is? Yuck!

The outer “prefilter” layer also gradually becomes a dust bunny convention, as you can see below. Not only does that fabric layer grab dust and hair, it also stops it from entering the device, which helps extend the life of the filter inside.

And if you see all that dust and worry that this puppy is a lot to maintain, it is not, so let us dive into that.

How Do You Operate & Maintain It?

Another thing we enjoy about these air purifiers is that they are especially user-friendly and totally uncomplicated. Both models (again, we own two of these large sizes, and two of these small sizes) have a single button that reacts to the touch (not push) of a finger.

Adjusting The Fan Speed

With each tap it cycles through four speeds: off, low, medium, and high. A soft white light indicates which speed you are on (although you can also tell by how loud the fan is).

Filter Replacement Light

This same light even turns colors (orange) when it is time to order a new filter and (red) when it is time to replace it. That way you do not have to mark anything in your calendar or set a reminder on your phone. Once the new filter is installed, simply hold your finger on the button until the light resets to white again.

Replacing The Filter

The filters come flat packed in a box and fold out to fit the shape of the purifer. Simply lift off the fan motor (the top portion of the unit) and slide the new filter into place.

Cleaning the Prefilter

The fabric prefilter can get fairly dusty, like I showed you earlier. It is literally simply a big spandex-like sock that stretches over the bottom portion of the air purifier.

So while you can vacuum the dust off in place for a swift touch-up, but they are in fact machine washable! So when it gets truly dusty we like to remove the outer covers entirely, shake them off outside, and throw them in the washing machine for a swift wash cycle. That is all four of our prefilter covers in my hand below, so they are truly small when they are not stretched out.

The other cool thing about the prefilter covers is that they come in distinct colors! The bright blue and medium gray covers that came with ours were a little bolder than we liked, so we purchased new ones in their lighter “Lunar Rock” color to assist them blend in better. But they also come in more colorful options as well as some with more of a heathered texture.

I know, I know. It sounds silly and pricey to be buying new fabric covers simply because we did not enjoy the color, but they were around $9 and make Sherry weirdly glad. Let her have her $9 fabric air purifier covers, ok?

Now let us talk about how much this whole operation costs.

Affordability: How Much Do They Cost?

Obviously, affordability is relative, and buying no air purifier is clearly cheaper than buying one. But after shelling out over $1000 for two pricier brand air purifiers (do not worry, we got our money back) we were pleased to spend simply $280 for each of our large 211 models and $119 for each of the smaller 411 versions. In the end, we got TWICE the number of air purifiers for more than $200 less than we had originally spent.

Of course, there are ongoing filter costs to consider as well, but thankfully ours last us a good long time – especially since we wash the outer covers to extend the life of the inner filter and run everything on low 24/7 (the frequency of replacement depends on your home and what speed you run your purifier). Based on my order history, it looks like a 211 filter typically lasts us around 9 months and a 411 filter goes a full year before it needs to be replaced for us.

One thing to note is that the air purifier will show you an orange light when the filter is winding down and will need replacement soon. This orange light does not mean to change it then – that is typically simply when we order a replacement filter. We wait for the purifier to change that orange light to red – and that is when we in fact replace the filter to get the maximum life out of it.

It helps to know that we are getting every last bit of use from each filter, and we like that each purifier tells us (first with an orange warning, and then a true red light for when to in fact change it) so we do not need to remember when it is time to replace them (the larger 211 filters with carbon are $70 and the smaller 411 filters with carbon are $22 to replace).

What Do They Look Like Around The House?

As mentioned, we have four – two big ones and two smaller ones in the kids rooms. Our main objective was that we hoped air purifiers that performed well, so it is truly a bonus that they are straightforward on the eyes. I mean, we have a home with six rooms and we own four air purifiers. We like them with our eyeballs and our sinuses. They truly do seem to fit right in.

So many others on the market look like compact HVAC units or a futuristic fan on steroids, and if that is what it took to get a good working purifier we’d do it – but dang it is pleasant that they do not scream “I AM AN AIR PURIFIER.”

The smaller 411 models are compact sufficient (17″ high, 8″ diameter) that they tuck nicely into corners of our kids’ rooms. Our son’s even fits under his desk and he appreciates the soft white light on the button as a nightlight of sorts. The larger 211 models are bit bulkier (21″ high, 13×13″ square) but they are still low sufficient to not draw too much attention to themselves (you can see that in the photo above).

They also do not draw much attention to themselves in the noise category. Again, we operate ours on low fairly much 24/7 and the fan volume is virtually indetectable. Like a barely-there white noise that is only heard when you are truly listening for it or standing right next to it. If you crank it up to medium or high speeds, you will likely notice it more. To me, the medium speed is like having a tabletop oscillating fan running on low and the high speed is like running the exhaust fan in your bathroom. So nothing too crazy or annoying, but certainly more detectable than the low speed.

Ok, I think that is literally everything you could ever want to know about our air purifiers. I mean what else could you be wondering? Are they lively to cuddle? Negative. Quite bad at being either the little or the big spoon. But they are quite entertaining to kids if you place a balloon above them. Thank me for that pointer later…

More Product Reviews

If you want to read a few other product reviews by yours truly, here you go:

• The Smart Tech We have Brought in, Ditched, And Still Enjoy Most
• Our Smart Blinds: Your Questions Answered
• Seven Smart Storage Pieces We Rely On Everyday
• 45 Tools You Should* Own

More House Cleaning Advice

If you are interested in more ways to keep your home clean, check out these posts below:

• Our Go-To Household Cleaners
• How To Clean A Stainless Steel Sink
• 2-Ingredient Homemade Window Cleaner
• Are Robot Vacuums Worth It?
• How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies
• A Beginner’s Guide to Pressure Washing

*This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.