These Air Purifier Brands Earned Consumer Reports' Top-Ranked Spots

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Air purifiers can provide tremendous help in improving your respiratory experience in your home. Whether you suffer from allergies, sinus problems, or some other breathing issue, an air purifier can often capture the majority of these allergens or particles to open up your nasal passageways. Even if your symptoms are quite mild or you have none at all, it doesn't hurt to improve your home's air quality in general either. Of course, not all air purifiers are created equal; picking up a random purifier from your local big box store may not give you what you need.

The first reason for this inequality has to do with the size of your room. Some purifiers are designed to handle really large rooms, while others can only handle the square footage of a small bedroom. There are also countless models in between those two extremes. Then there are the brands. While some purifiers are generally regarded as the best on the market, that doesn't necessarily mean that brand produces the best purifier for the room size you need. 

That is where a resource like Consumer Reports comes in handy. The publication has tested dozens upon dozens of air purifiers across a range of kinds and capacities, separating its findings into rankings for four different room sizes. Turns out there's no single brand that earns the top spot in any of these four categories. Here, we are going to look at what Consumer Reports determines to be the best air purifier brand for these room sizes and what models from those brands are the crème de la crème in CR's opinion.

For most of the room sizes, Consumer Reports has a few air purifier models that have overall ratings very close together, where the top spot on the list is somewhat of a toss up. That is not the case for air purifiers for extra-large rooms. These are spaces that CR deems to be 650 sq. ft. or more. For these sized rooms, the publication recommends you need look no further than the brand Coway.

On the whole, the company's purifiers actually doesn't earn very high ratings from CR. They typically perform quite averagely, no matter what size room they are made for. There is one glaring exception to that pattern though: the Coway Airmega ProX. This model utterly smashes Consumer Reports' second place finisher for extra-large rooms, the AirDoctor AD5500. Not only that, but it's tied for the best rating of any air purifier on the market.

The Airmega ProX earns top marks for its ability to remove dust, pollen, and smoke, whether there be low or high amounts of it in the room. CR also rates it well for its noise level when operating at low speeds and for how easy it is to use. The only area where its testing was average was its noise level at high speeds. It's the sole purifier for extra-large rooms where none of these test areas wasn't below average.

It does retail for $999, which is quite an exorbitant fee. For comparison, the second place AirDoctor AD5500 goes for closer to $650. This may be a lot of money, but buying a cheap air purifier is quite tricky. Consumer Reports believes in the Coway Airmega ProX, so perhaps that price is very much worth it.

While the Conway brand is great for one specific room size, the best overall brand according to Consumer Reports is Blueair. Every single one of the air purifiers tested by the publication perform above average at a minimum, and some of them have excellent ratings. Blueair has a consistency of quality, but the only room size where it actually has a model at the very top of the list is with large rooms, designated as spaces ranging from 350 to 650 sq. ft. In fact, two Blueair models share that top spot with the same overall score by CR.

Those two are the Blueair Blue Pure 311i+ Max and the Blue Pure 211+. Even though they have the same overall score, the Blue Pure 311i+ does have slightly better performance when you look into the specifics. They do rate exactly the same for dust, pollen, and smoke removal, and they both have the same below average grade for noise at high speeds. At low speeds though, the noise is better for the 311i+ Max, and it also gets a perfect score for ease of use, whereas the 211+ is merely average.

The Blueair Blue Pure 311i+ Max is actually the more affordable option as well, retailing as it does for $239.99. Meanwhile, you can get a 211+ for $370.95. Importantly, Blueair no longer produces the 211+ and has moved onto models like the 211i Max, which CR ranks second for large rooms. You can still buy the older 211+, but you have to go to a retailer like Amazon to find it rather than getting it direct from Blueair.

The majority of the brands on this list primarily produce air purifiers, along with related products like humidifiers. Honeywell, on the other hand, has its hands in so many different areas. It makes everything from medical equipment and military cybersecurity to face-recognition security systems for your home. Air purifiers may be a small part of what Honeywell does, but for those needing one for a medium sized room, Consumer Reports thinks there's no other brand better.

For room sizes ranging from 150 to 35o sq. ft., Honeywell air purifiers make up three of the top four ranked spots by CR. At the very pinnacle of that list is the Honeywell AirGenius 5 HFD-320 air purifier. For most of its testing areas, it performs at least above average. As far as removal of high amounts of pollen, smoke, and and dust, it actually earned a perfect score, as did the other two Honeywell purifiers in the top four. The only place where the AirGenius 5 HFD-320 got an average rating was noise at high speeds, but its low speed noise production was above average.

The Honeywell AirGenius 5 HFD-320 does come with a decent price tag, retailing for $299.95. That is at least what Honeywell sells it for, but it can be bought at Lowe's for $221.93. When at that price, it is actually a better deal than the fourth-place rated AirGenius 4 HFD-310, which Honeywell lists at $249.95. The non-Honeywell purifier in that top four is the Clorox 11011, and while that did earn second place, it's now a discontinued product. Honeywell is really the only way to go.

For the final brand, we look at what Consumer Reports deems to be the best for small rooms (spaces under 150 sq. ft.). This size is particularly important if you are putting an air purifier in your average bedroom. While CR does highly rate models produced by Honeywell and Blueair in this category, the one at the very top is one made by GermGuardian.

The GermGuardian CDAP4500BCA has excellent ratings and is tied with the aforementioned Coway Airmega ProX for the highest overall score from CR of any air purifier. It gets perfect marks in every testing category with the exception of noise at high speeds, where it gets an average score. Another great thing is that it only costs $99.99, easily making it the most affordable option on this list. There is one issue with the GermGuardian CDAP4500BCA though: It's sold out, and it's unclear if it's coming back in stock anytime soon.

If it does, great; if that doesn't happen, the next best options according to Consumer Reports are the Honeywell HPA120W and the Vissani VK-6105, both of which tie for second for small room purifiers. While they are a tick behind the GermGuardian in performance, both are better deals than it. The Honeywell retails for just $74.95, and the Vissani is even cheaper at $44.94. The only area where these models don't measure up to the GermGuardian is with their noise production, and the Vissani is the only one where the high speed noise is below average. Thus, CR plants its flag firmly on the GermGuardian CDAP4500BCA. If you happen to find one for sale, go for it, but thankfully you have other highly-rated options as backup.