With another spike in pollen this week that shows no signs of abating over the long weekend, we are again looking for some tech solutions to the Spring Problem (what we call allergy season). The last pollen count explosion sent us scrambling for an air filter for our home office and bedroom which we are happy to report has really helped our symptoms. Since both of those are small spaces, we decided to share our air purifier research in the form of a roundup of well reviewed air purifiers that are just perfect for home offices.
- Kenmore PlasmaWave Small Room Air Cleaner: This slim 3- Stage True HEPA air filter features a blue LED control panel and is great for rooms up to 150 square feet. This air filter also has smart sensors to detect pollutants and automatically adjust the fan speed. With its good looks, nice price point, and supposedly "ultra-quiet" operation we wish we had spotted this one first! $99
- Tiger HEPA Air Purifier: This sleek and small air purifier would look great on a desk and has HEPA chops taking care of spaces up to 110 sq. ft. Bonus, it is also currently on sale for $100 off. $180
- Crane Penguin Purifier: For those with a decidedly more fun bent to their home office decor, consider this 5-stage air purifier built for a child's room. $70
- Honeywell 16200 Desktop Purifier: This units compact shape, 4-stage cleaning system, HEPA filter and price won us over when we began our frantic search for a small air purifier (for rooms up to 110 sq. ft.). We've been using this unit in our bedroom for a few weeks now and are happy to report that after the second day of using it we resumed sleeping through the night as if allergy season never happened. $46
- Hamilton Beach True Air 04383: This tiny tower has a permanent HEPA-type air purifier and is suitable for rooms up to 160 sq. ft. $60
- Westinghouse 6-Stage HEPA Air Purifier: Although rated as "small room," this air purifier claims it can clean rooms up to 300 square feet (which makes us realize that living in NYC messes with our room perspective). $70
- Honeywell HFD-010 QuietClean Compact Tower Air Purifier: This compact tower is touted as being "whisper quiet" which is great for concentrating on work in your home office or sleep in your bedroom. $70
- Oransi OVHP44: This interestingly shaped air purifier can cover up to 240 sq. ft. and features a True HEPA filter with sealed design. $389
- Holmes HAP706-U Allergen Remover Mini Tower: Built for rooms up to 80 sq. ft. this air purifier has True HEPA filtration and a washable pre-filter. $70
- Homedics Ar-10 Hepa Air Cleaner (75 Cadr model): The permanent HEPA filter in this slim profile unit will clean the air in a room up to 120 sq. ft. $70
What is the best air purifier you've found for a small home office or bedroom?
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In my opinion, the best small air purifier is the Sharp Plasmacluster. It uses some kind of negative ion technology to actively "destroy" viruses and bacteria in the air, or so they claim. It makes the air in my stuffy bedroom/theatre room (that has no windows and only 1 door) very fresh. Also, the ions make the dust settle to the ground so it's easier to vacuum.
The only issue, which can probably be said for all or most of these purifiers, is that the replacement cartridges cost more than the cost of buying a new unit (what is up with that?). But if you get the mid-range model, it comes with a filter that you can vacuum and a washable carbon prefilter.
I get compliments all the time on how fresh my room smells, and being a home theatre as well (long story short: I live in the basement lol), I often eat in there (popcorn, etc.). You can turn off the lights so they don't mess with sleeping and you can also set it to automatically detect odors and turn itself on until the air is clean!
Awesome! Most of these would be the perfect whole home air purifier for me! I didn't think I could afford such a thing. I love living in a small space!
I bought the Honeywell 16200 for a bedroom but returned it - way too noisy for me.
I got one of the Sharp Plasmacluster ones when it went on sale at my local electronics stores. Does it work? I think so. It definitely detects odours anyway.
Rabbit Air.
The crane air purifiers get absolutely horrible CADR scores
You need to bump up to the $400 on the Sharp units to get mid range Clean Air Delivery Rate Scores (CADR) - http://www.airpurifierguide.org/brand/sharp
Unfortunately with air purifiers, you really need to spend several hundred dollars to get one that effectively cleans the air. They need very powerful fans, a tightly sealed design, and HEPA or HEPA type filters to effectively reduce particle pollution in the home. For odor removal, the air purifier needs to have a significant amount of activated carbon in one of its filter stages.
Since using a neti pot twice a day I no longer suffer from hay fever. Comes without an electricity bill.
Hi anthropos! I completely agree with you. My wife and Idecided to buy one for us a few weeks back and it's really awesome. My wife and kids all have asthma so it was a good decision to buy one. I could testify that it is indeed one of the top airpurifiers in the market.