Which Air Purifier Brand Wins?
In our test 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 quick take
The short version of why each pick lands where it does, built straight from the measured results.
“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.”
Best in 1 of 6 measurements, including 3-minute smoke removal test.
Placed top three in 1 of 6 measurements.
Best in 1 of 6 measurements, including Airflow.
The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Products are listed in the order they finished.
Country of manufacture
- 1Winix
Thailand
- 2Coway
Vietnam
- 3Dyson
Malaysia
- 4Levoit 200 200
Vietnam
- 5Levoit 300 300
Vietnam
- 6GermGuardian
Vietnam
- 7Blueair
China
- 8Mooka
China
- 9Shark
Vietnam
- 10PuroAir
China
- 11Levoit Mini Mini
Vietnam
- 12AroEve
China
- 13Fulminare
China
Weight
- 1Winixjust over13 lb
- 2Cowayjust over13 lb
- 3Dyson25.34 lb
by far the heaviest of all 13 units
- 4Levoit 200 20013.85 lb
- 5Levoit 300 3007.87 lb
- 6GermGuardian8.38 lb
by far the heaviest at that point in the video
- 7Blueair4.95 lb
- 8Mooka6.5 lb
- 9Shark7.17 lb
- 10PuroAir7.2 lb
- 11Levoit Mini Mini2.39 lb
- 12AroEve2.43 lb
- 13Fulminare1.87 lb
Power draw
- 1Winix7.42 W
low, 58.31 W high
- 2Coway4.09 W
low, 75.7 W high
- 3Dyson4.45 W
low, 36.21 W high
- 4Levoit 200 2005.5 W
low, 49.39 W high
- 5Levoit 300 30021.28 W
low, 58.95 W high
- 6GermGuardianover44 W
low, around 52.7 W high, the most energy use of any unit tested at that point
- 7Blueair2.28 W
low, 14.68 W high
- 8Mooka2.77 W
low, 26.08 W high
- 9Shark4.17 W
low, 16 W high
- 10PuroAir22.17 W
low, 49.77 W high
- 11Levoit Mini Mini1.36 W
low, 7.62 W high
- 12AroEve1.29 W
low, 5.27 W high
- 13Fulminareunder1 W
low, 2.32 W high, the lowest power draw of any unit tested on high speed
Noise
- 1Winix
quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 63.1 dB on high (its only real downside per the narrator)
- 2Coway
quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 64.4 dB on high
- 3Dyson
quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 48.7 dB on high, the second quietest unit on high speed
- 4Levoit 200 200
quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 57.9 dB on high
- 5Levoit 300 300
quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 64.8 dB on high, the loudest unit yet at that point in the video
- 6GermGuardian44.7 dB
low (relatively noisy), 60.9 dB high (loudest yet at that point)
- 7Blueair
quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 59.3 dB on high
- 8Mooka
quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 62.1 dB on high
- 9Shark41.8 dB
low, 54.2 dB high
- 10PuroAir41.8 dB
low, 62 dB high
- 11Levoit Mini Mini
quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 52.9 dB on high, the loudest of the compact units on high speed
- 12AroEve
quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 49.9 dB on high
- 13Fulminare
quieter than the shop's ambient baseline on low, 45.4 dB on high, the quietest unit of any tested on high speed
Airflow (CFM)
- 1Winix24 CFM
low, 270 CFM high
- 2Coway17 CFM
low, 293 CFM high, the highest CFM of any unit tested on high speed
- 3Dyson83 CFM
low (the most of any unit on low speed), 221 CFM high
- 4Levoit 200 20059 CFM2nd
low (best of any unit at that point), 291 CFM high, a very close second overall behind the Coway
- 5Levoit 300 30039 CFM
low, 155 CFM high (best yet at that point in the video)
- 6GermGuardian
two outlets each producing about 15 CFM (30 CFM total) on low, 68 CFM per outlet (136 CFM total) on high
- 7Blueair8 CFM
low, 125 CFM high
- 8Mooka16 CFM
low, 117 CFM high
- 9Shark16 CFM
low, 101 CFM high, the lowest CFM of any of the larger/premium units
- 10PuroAir22 CFM
low, 142 CFM high
- 11Levoit Mini Mini12 CFM
low, 31 CFM high, best of the compact units at that point in the video
- 12AroEve16 CFM
low, 23 CFM high
- 13Fulminare5 CFM
low, 13 CFM high, the lowest of any unit tested
2-minute carpet dust removal test
- 1Winix
no detectable dust particles remaining
- 2Coway
straight zeros, described as a terrific job
- 3Dyson
straight zeros, described as a terrific job
- 4Levoit 200 200
all zeros
- 5Levoit 300 300
all zeros, perfectly clean like the GermGuardian
- 6GermGuardian
all zeros, all dust removed
- 7Blueair166
and 25 particles, total 191, trailed the Mooka but still very clean air
- 8Mooka
straight zeros, performed very well
- 9Shark
captured all dust particles (zero), the narrator jokes that 'the name Shark seems to fit'
- 10PuroAir158
51, and 1 particles, total 210
- 11Levoit Mini Mini
total of 5,604 particles, the best of the compact units
- 12AroEve
total of 7,239 particles, moved into the lead among compact units at that point before being overtaken by the Levoit Mini
- 13Fulminarejust under51,000
particles remaining, still very dirty
3-minute smoke removal test (lower is better)
- 1Winix95
particles at 0.3 microns plus 20 at 0.5 microns, total 115, the best (lowest) of all 13 units
- 2Coway
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
- 3Dyson1182nd
particles at 0.3 microns plus 17 at 0.5 microns, total 135, second place
- 4Levoit 200 200
total of 366 particles, described as not performing quite as well as the Winix despite moving a lot of air
- 5Levoit 300 300293
particles at 0.3 microns plus 17 at 0.5 microns, total 310, moved into the lead at that point
- 6GermGuardian388
particles at 0.3 microns, 66 at 0.5, 4 at 1 micron, total 458, described as an amazing job
- 7Blueair856
107, and 2 particles, total 965, did not perform quite as well as some other brands
- 9Shark261
48, and 4 particles, total 313, performed well
- 10PuroAir546
79, and 7 particles, total 632, performed well but not as well as the top five brands
- 11Levoit Mini Mini
total of about 354,000 particles, the best result of the first three units tested (though still described as very dirty air)
- 12AroEve
total of about 537,343 particles, about 3.5 million fewer than the Fulminare but still far behind the larger units
- 13Fulminare
still over 4 million particles remaining after 3 minutes, described as really struggling, the worst result of the video
- 8Mookanot tested
30-minute toast-smoke room test (particles removed, higher is better)
- 1Winix
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
- 2Coway
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
- 3Dyson
removed 3.18 million particles starting from about 4.45 million
- 4Levoit 200 200
removed 3.7 million particles starting from about 4.37 million, second place overall, about 200,000 less than the Winix
- 5Levoit 300 300
removed 2.7 million particles, moving into the lead at that point, about 860,000 more than the GermGuardian
- 6GermGuardian
removed 1.84 million particles, moving into the lead at that point in the sequence
- 7Blueair
removed 3.1 million particles, moving into the lead at that point in the sequence
- 8Mooka
removed just under 2 million particles, moving into second place behind the Levoit 300 at that point
- 9Shark
removed 1.86 million particles, described as performing well for a medium-size air purifier
- 10PuroAir
removed only 1.9 million particles starting from about 4.46 million, described as really struggling on this test
- 13Fulminare
reduced the particle count by just over 1 million, the weakest reduction in the final test
- 11Levoit Mini Mininot tested
- 12AroEvenot tested
All measurements (2 more)+
30-minute toast-smoke room test
- 11Levoit Mini Mini
performed a little better than the Fulminare and AroEve but no exact particle-removal figure was stated
- 12AroEve
really struggled, still over 3 million particles remaining in the room after 30 minutes
- 1Winixnot tested
- 2Cowaynot tested
- 3Dysonnot tested
- 4Levoit 200 200not tested
- 5Levoit 300 300not tested
- 6GermGuardiannot tested
- 7Blueairnot tested
- 8Mookanot tested
- 9Sharknot tested
- 10PuroAirnot tested
- 13Fulminarenot tested
3-minute smoke removal test
- 8Mooka
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
- 1Winixnot tested
- 2Cowaynot tested
- 3Dysonnot tested
- 4Levoit 200 200not tested
- 5Levoit 300 300not tested
- 6GermGuardiannot tested
- 7Blueairnot tested
- 9Sharknot tested
- 10PuroAirnot tested
- 11Levoit Mini Mininot tested
- 12AroEvenot tested
- 13Fulminarenot 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.
