Which Air Purifier Brand Wins?
We compared 13 air purifier options head to head. Winix came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Winix
Price shown in test: $180
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Coway and Dyson (explicitly tied for second place, average finish of 2.3 each)
Price shown in test: $229
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Levoit 300
Price shown in test: $100
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Country of manufacture | Weight | Power draw | Noise | Airflow (CFM) | 3-minute smoke removal test (lower is better) | 2-minute carpet dust removal test | 30-minute toast-smoke room test (particles removed, higher is better) | 3-minute smoke removal test | 30-minute toast-smoke room test |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Winix$180 | Thailand | just over 13 lb | 7.42 W low, 58.31 W high | quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 63.1 dB on high (its only real downside per the narrator) | 24 CFM low, 270 CFM high | 95 particles at 0.3 microns plus 20 at 0.5 microns, total 115, the best (lowest) of all 13 units | no detectable dust particles remaining | removed 3.9 million particles starting from about 4.44 million, the best of all 13 units, about 700,000 more removed than the Blueair | not tested | not tested |
| 2Coway$229 | Vietnam | just over 13 lb | 4.09 W low, 75.7 W high | quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 64.4 dB on high | 17 CFM low, 293 CFM high, the highest CFM of any unit tested on high speed | an early mention gives 325, 46, and 1 particles (total 372, second place behind the Levoit 300 at that point), but a later mention in the same test section gives 190, 38, and 4 particles (total 232); the closing recap confirms 232 as the official final figure (third place behind Winix and Dyson), so the earlier 372 figure appears to be from an initial pass that was superseded, not a build error | straight zeros, described as a terrific job | removed 3.5 million particles starting from the dirtiest air of any unit at about 4.71 million; the closing recap restates this as 3.52 million for third place | not tested | not tested |
| 3Dysonaround $1,200 | Malaysia | 25.34 lb, by far the heaviest of all 13 units | 4.45 W low, 36.21 W high | quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 48.7 dB on high, the second quietest unit on high speed | 83 CFM low (the most of any unit on low speed), 221 CFM high | 118 particles at 0.3 microns plus 17 at 0.5 microns, total 135, second place | straight zeros, described as a terrific job | removed 3.18 million particles starting from about 4.45 million | not tested | not tested |
| 4Levoit 200 200$190 | Vietnam | 13.85 lb | 5.5 W low, 49.39 W high | quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 57.9 dB on high | 59 CFM low (best of any unit at that point), 291 CFM high, a very close second overall behind the Coway | total of 366 particles, described as not performing quite as well as the Winix despite moving a lot of air | all zeros | removed 3.7 million particles starting from about 4.37 million, second place overall, about 200,000 less than the Winix | not tested | not tested |
| 5Levoit 300 300$100 | Vietnam | 7.87 lb | 21.28 W low, 58.95 W high | quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 64.8 dB on high, the loudest unit yet at that point in the video | 39 CFM low, 155 CFM high (best yet at that point in the video) | 293 particles at 0.3 microns plus 17 at 0.5 microns, total 310, moved into the lead at that point | all zeros, perfectly clean like the GermGuardian | removed 2.7 million particles, moving into the lead at that point, about 860,000 more than the GermGuardian | not tested | not tested |
| 6GermGuardian$100 | Vietnam | 8.38 lb, by far the heaviest at that point in the video | over 44 W low, around 52.7 W high, the most energy use of any unit tested at that point | 44.7 dB low (relatively noisy), 60.9 dB high (loudest yet at that point) | two outlets each producing about 15 CFM (30 CFM total) on low, 68 CFM per outlet (136 CFM total) on high | 388 particles at 0.3 microns, 66 at 0.5, 4 at 1 micron, total 458, described as an amazing job | all zeros, all dust removed | removed 1.84 million particles, moving into the lead at that point in the sequence | not tested | not tested |
| 7Blueair$140 | China | 4.95 lb | 2.28 W low, 14.68 W high | quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 59.3 dB on high | 8 CFM low, 125 CFM high | 856, 107, and 2 particles, total 965, did not perform quite as well as some other brands | 166 and 25 particles, total 191, trailed the Mooka but still very clean air | removed 3.1 million particles, moving into the lead at that point in the sequence | not tested | not tested |
| 8Mooka$103 | China | 6.5 lb | 2.77 W low, 26.08 W high | quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 62.1 dB on high | 16 CFM low, 117 CFM high | not tested | straight zeros, performed very well | removed just under 2 million particles, moving into second place behind the Levoit 300 at that point | not individually detailed in the transcript for this brand; general dust/smoke testing narration moves from Blueair to Winix without a distinct Mooka smoke-test figure | not tested |
| 9Shark$250 | Vietnam | 7.17 lb | 4.17 W low, 16 W high | 41.8 dB low, 54.2 dB high | 16 CFM low, 101 CFM high, the lowest CFM of any of the larger/premium units | 261, 48, and 4 particles, total 313, performed well | captured all dust particles (zero), the narrator jokes that 'the name Shark seems to fit' | removed 1.86 million particles, described as performing well for a medium-size air purifier | not tested | not tested |
| 10PuroAir$199 | China | 7.2 lb | 22.17 W low, 49.77 W high | 41.8 dB low, 62 dB high | 22 CFM low, 142 CFM high | 546, 79, and 7 particles, total 632, performed well but not as well as the top five brands | 158, 51, and 1 particles, total 210 | removed only 1.9 million particles starting from about 4.46 million, described as really struggling on this test | not tested | not tested |
| 11Levoit Mini Mini$50 | Vietnam | 2.39 lb | 1.36 W low, 7.62 W high | quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 52.9 dB on high, the loudest of the compact units on high speed | 12 CFM low, 31 CFM high, best of the compact units at that point in the video | total of about 354,000 particles, the best result of the first three units tested (though still described as very dirty air) | total of 5,604 particles, the best of the compact units | not tested | not tested | performed a little better than the Fulminare and AroEve but no exact particle-removal figure was stated |
| 12AroEve$45 | China | 2.43 lb | 1.29 W low, 5.27 W high | quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 49.9 dB on high | 16 CFM low, 23 CFM high | total of about 537,343 particles, about 3.5 million fewer than the Fulminare but still far behind the larger units | total of 7,239 particles, moved into the lead among compact units at that point before being overtaken by the Levoit Mini | not tested | not tested | really struggled, still over 3 million particles remaining in the room after 30 minutes |
| 13Fulminare$32 | China | 1.87 lb | under 1 W low, 2.32 W high, the lowest power draw of any unit tested on high speed | quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 45.4 dB on high, the quietest unit of any tested on high speed | 5 CFM low, 13 CFM high, the lowest of any unit tested | still over 4 million particles remaining after 3 minutes, described as really struggling, the worst result of the video | just under 51,000 particles remaining, still very dirty | reduced the particle count by just over 1 million, the weakest reduction in the final test | not tested | not tested |
How it was tested
- airflow (CFM) measured with a Pitot-tube air speed meter on low and high fan speed
- power draw (watts) on low and high fan speed
- noise level (decibels) on low and high fan speed, referenced against a fixed shop ambient noise floor of 37.7 dB
- clearing visible smoke from a sealed test box and reducing particle count over 3 minutes
- removing carpet dust from a test box over 2 minutes
- reducing airborne particle count (burnt toast smoke) in a 240 sq ft room over 30 minutes
“The Winix came out on top with the best average finish at first place. The only downside with the Winix is that it is a little bit noisy on the highest fan speed at around 63.1 decibels. However, it does a terrific job at purifying the air and it would definitely be my choice for a price of around $180.”
Data notes and caveats
This is a 13-unit showdown across four separate graded tests (airflow, 3-minute smoke removal, 2-minute dust removal, 30-minute toast-smoke room reduction), with an overall narrator-declared average-finish ranking: Winix first, Coway and Dyson tied for second (2.3), and separate best-in-class calls for medium-size (Levoit 300) and compact (Levoit Mini) categories. A significant, video-wide caption resolution: the recurring phrase 'quieter than the Sharp on low fan speed,' used for most brands from the Mooka onward (and even nonsensically in the Shark's own paragraph, 'the Sharp is less noisy than the Sharp'), is treated here as a caption mangle of 'quieter than the shop,' referring to the fixed workshop ambient noise floor (37.7 dB) established at the very start of the video, not an actual head-to-head noise comparison against the Shark/Sharp product; treating it as a real Shark comparison would have fabricated a noise ranking that is not actually in the data. Separately, this video's brand named 'Shark' is introduced in its own intro paragraph under the caption error 'Sharp' before later sections correctly use 'Shark.' In the final 30-minute test, the first unit tested is named 'Rabbit Air,' a name absent from the description's Products Tested list entirely; resolved to Fulminare by testing-order position since Fulminare is consistently the first unit tested in every other round and otherwise has no result in this final round. Coway's 3-minute smoke test has two different total figures in the transcript (372 from an earlier mention, 232 confirmed by the closing recap and used as canonical here); this is flagged rather than silently resolved in one direction, consistent with the rule to record apparent retest discrepancies rather than pick one number unexplained. No individual 3-minute smoke-test figure could be found in the transcript for the Mooka specifically, despite every other test being present for that brand; not escalated to re-pull since it is an isolated single-test gap rather than broad incompleteness.