Blueair - Pure 411

I have a 411 and it died (wouldn’t run, connect to anything, blinking red light). Their customer support was very bad, multiple times just stopped responding to me until it was out of warranty. Because I had old case numbers they eventually admitted it was broken and reported within warranty and replaced it, but I wished I’d’ve got it from Costco so I could just return it there instead. 

Honestly, a cheap 150$ air purifier from blue air will do the trick. I got one for smoke and it did very little for that, but it gets rid of the kitty litter smell in 15 mins or less. Unless you want to spend the extra grand for better air filtration overall. Up to you.

I love my BlueAir too. I have the 411 model, it works very well in my bedroom.

Another vote for Blueair. I’ve had a 411 and two smaller ones running continuously for a few years now and they help with dust, dander, and lessening mildew. The app is pretty cool. The soft white noise is perfect for sleeping. Plus I run HVAC filtration every hour.

I got a Blueair 411 last spring and it worked well enough for my 700sqft apartment. I ordered the “SmokeBlock” filter for this summer. We’ll see how it goes.

BlueAir 411/311/511 and the Coway. Pick one that fits the size of the area you need purified and budget. I would recommend one big one for the main area and a smaller one for your sleeping area.

I have two 411s and one 211. The amount of dust and cat hair the pre filters collect is incredible, especially in the rooms without carpet. I love the blue airs because they're not too unsightly for an air purifier, and the prefilter color options are nice.

We have a bunch of Levoits in our home: two Core 300, two Core 400s, and now a new Vital 200s. We also have a Coway Airmega AP 1512HH and a BlueAir 411. Levoit has great customer service and a two year warranty that they actually honor if you can prove via video that your unit went bad. That being said, I’ve actually had to use that warranty 3 times! The fan of one 300s started making a whirring sound about a month into owning it so they sent a replacement. That replacement started making a far worse sound in about another two years (the warranty is only from the first date of purchase). Less than two years in, the fan of the air quality sensor on one of our 400s started making a grinding sound and gave off a burning smell. They sent a replacement right away. I still like Levoit because of their customer service and I wanted try the Vital 200s because of the pellet carbon to deal with morning-to-night hotboxing neighbors. The Airmega has been a workhorse but I wish it had more than the cutesy carbon mat for VOC removal (much of this sub will tell you that unless you have a lot of activated carbon pellets, like lbs of them, then you don’t have much hope with VOCs). This is true, all of these purifiers running all of the time and the weed odor is still pretty bad. I’m thinking of getting the Oransi TrueCarbon to deal with that.

Their CADR is in cubic meters per hour, where most purifiers specify CADR in CFM (cubic feet per minute). Multiple this by about .59 to change to CFM, so it's claiming \~250 cfm. (It's actually 264.) Most air purifiers at this price point (the blueair 411/511, the levoit core 200s) have a CADR of 100-150 CFM. 100 is actually sufficient for the room size (160 square feet) you're mentioning. If it's too good to be true and there's no information about them anywhere, then it usually is :)

I mean.... I mentioned the part about them having no reviews and being at a sketchily low price point of 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of everyone else. There are really only a handful of air purifier brands that have demonstrated reliability, affordability, and effectiveness over several years, and don't dabble in post-apocalyptic/steampunk decor -- coway, levoit, blue air, winix. If you want to pay more, there's iq air, alen air, and a few others. For $110, you could have bought a blue air 511 and almost a 411, a levoit 300, almost a Levoit Vital 100s, or a Winix a231. The winix 5500, the coway 1512, levoit vital 200, and the blueair 311 are all at this CADR, but for closer to $200.

I have a BlueAir 411 in my bedroom and an Ikea one for my home office. We replaced an older Honeywell in the bedroom and noticed the BlueAir does a better job and cost much less overall for the filters. The Ikea one is admittedly pretty bad but it was really cheap (although the cost of the filters has gone up now and it's barely cheaper than the BlueAir).

I keep mine on 24/7, I have an older 'dumb' model and they recommend changing it every 6 months. The newer smart models say they can monitor the unit (via an app) and get the filter to last up to a year.

So cigar smoke has multiple components. Particulates, which any competent HEPA purifier can handle; VOC/odor, which will need carbon to mitigate but which you are less concerned about it sounds like; and the actual smoke - which again, a particulate filter with a decent carbon pre-filter will do the trick. Lots of manufacturers sell a "smoke reduction" filter, and in your case an electrostatic purifier would probably be best for particle adherence. It's unpopular in here due to marketing practices, and due to people freaking out about "ions", but I would tend to recommend a BlueAir unit sized appropriately. For 160 square feet, a 411 would suffice but a 311 could run on a lower speed (or a 211 could run on low) and do the same thing. BlueAir sells specific smoke-reduction filters called "smokeblock" filters which specifically address the concerns you've expressed. (Or if you wanted to be more "serious", BlueAir sells a classic/pro line of purifiers which come with "SmokeStop" filters, but the #11 units are more common and newer...)

Coway 250 in the master bedroom. Winix 5500-2 in the guest bedroom. The kids chose their own, and two of them chose Blueair 411's. The other is using an old 3m Filtrete HEPA model because he likes the sound. But all of them have 12x12 rooms, give or take.

Define “environmental allergies”. Everyone in my house has allergies and I’m a sensitive flower. I use an IQair on the main floor and sleep with a Coway Airmega 250. My kids sleep with blueair 411’s and the other rooms have winix 5500’a. They’re all fine choices. Get what works for you. Don’t be afraid to return units that aren’t making the grade.

Ok so a couple thoughts: 1. Buy an air quality monitor separately from the purifier. They go for everywhere from $50-$100 (IKEA, TemTop) to $250-$300 (Purple Air, AirThings). But the purifiers with sensors are useless - the sensors are inaccurate, without exception. 2. Be aware that purifiers aren't magic - a unit in your living room does a lot less than you'd think for air quality in your bedroom. You'd be better served with multiple smaller units. 3. You need to do the air volume calculation (square feet multiplied by ceiling height) and compare that to the CFM to see how much purifier you need. All of the units you're considering will clean the air in your living room without question. However, if you intend to try to move air around in and out of bedrooms, the larger ones on the list (BlueAir211, Coway 230/240/250) will do a better job than the smaller ones (BlueAir 311, Coway 200/1512). My PERSONAL recommendation would be to get smaller units for the bedrooms (BlueAir 411 for example) then one medium volume unit for the living area (BlueAir 311 for example). It's what we do - we have 1100 square feet per floor, and I use an IQAir and Austin Air on the first floor's open-ish area (in opposite corners of the floor) and smaller units (BlueAir 411's) for the kids' bedrooms as well as one good-sized unit (Coway 250) for the master suite. This has been a workable model for me for quite some time now, since last wildfire season actually.

This. I have a winix 5500, two blue air 411s and two coway airmegas and the coway is my favorite by far.

I use two different ones: Winx C545 (Costco) and Blueair 411 (Amazon). The latter one served as the forced-air exhaust on my old DIY litter box.

I have a blue air 411a that i got for a steal. I've seen on here they can have issues later on but after a year, it's doing ok. It's pretty solid but you have to make sure to keep your home clean and dust free. I ended up switching back to a bagged vacuum and dust twice a week. An air purifier won't help if you aren't preventing dander build up too. Edit to add: i only paid $70 for it new. You'll probably want to invest in a better model that circulates air more often.

Blue Air is great. The nice thing is most of their residential models offer a washable outer layer and the box includes a second so you can wash one while using the other. This helps catch a lot of big stuff and I change the inner filter only annually. OP - no purifier removes all dust. Cleaning the source of dust is always the most effective. Still, an air purifier, especially oversized for the room and run at a good speed (I do max overnight and just a tad slower in the day) helps get the remainder.

We have the 211 Max and we also have the classic 405. I have a tiny 411 in my office.

I like BlueAir because they’re quiet and I can buy after market filters in bulk for cheap. Been running a 211 (kitchen/family room) and 411 (bedroom) continuously without turning them off since 2020 and both still operate as new. The air filter taped to the back of a box fan works really well too but is very loud even on the lowest setting. I’ve used this method before I got the BlueAirs when we were dealing with real bad wildfire smoke here in California.

I have a Blue Air 411. I was waking up with a sore throat for over a year. Had the idea to run the purifier in our room at night and my sore throat is gone!

BluAir (Swedish) is what we used in the middle east.