It's kind of hard to tell for sure since you get used to the smell of your own house.
I will say people have told me they are surprised they don't notice animal smells in my house, except when they are right next to the animals themselves though. So I think I am doing something right.
Both brands I mentioned come with charcoal prefilters which absorb odors. The Winex especially comes with like 4 charcoal prefilters per each paper filter, and I find I don't even go through all 4.
Another good option for odors is Purifan, which is a ceiling fan airfilter. They work REALLY well for smoke and odors, but not at all for pet hair really.
I have a 4000 square foot home with three Winex, two Coways, one Purifan and one Shark air filter. I used to have a couple of GermGuardians too, but they are kinda loud relative to how little air they actually move.
Nothing though is going to beat regularly bathing your pets and regularly vacuuming areas.
Germguardian, not sure about for life. But they warrantied one free of charge, paid for return shipping and all. Filters aren’t crazy, and you can see the work they do. I have no measurements for it, but I like em. They all are essentially just motors and fins.
I have 2 winix and 1 Germ guardian they both work well. Slightly favor the winix. I change the filters every 6 months.
Couple tips-
1. Buy cheap bags an amazon and swap it out daily
2. Buy charcoal granules and put them in the waste bin - if you do this you can swap the bag eod. They absorb smell
https://a.co/d/0a1CxSgw
3. Keep a window on each side of your home slightly open. This does wonders for keeping air flowing and getting rid of smell.
I currently have 2 Winix and 1 germ guardian. They are both good but if I had to choose I would go with the Winix. The pre-filter does a great job collecting debris and dust which I think helps the HEPA last longer. I changed my filters twice a year and I use the genuine filter.
https://a.co/d/4e6aipw
With that in mind a germ guardian tower is probably the most affordable good option. Whatever you buy should have UVC light built in to degrade mycotoxins, “plasmawave” or “bipolar ionizer” is also an acceptable alternative just make sure it’s California CARB certified. Stay away from classic ionizer/ozone
I do. I have 3 school aged kids aka plague carriers. We have Germ Guardian UV-C plus HEPA filters in each room. It greatly cuts down on kids reinfecting each other and us parents. They also collect cat hair pretty well.
The Germ Guardians were $98 each and 4pack of replacement filters is $30. Saving one doctor visit for the 3 kids covers buying a unit.
6 years in use without any problems.
Germ guardian HEPA from Costco. There is a newer model for under $200. It is for up to 1900 square feet. We live in an area that is affected by wildfires every few years - this is what we bought it for. I now only run it when needed: smoke in environment, smoke from cooking, smells from cooking, if one family member is sick I put it in their room to prevent spread. Used it when my son got COVID - just left it running in his room. Nobody else got sick.
It clears all odors and smoke very quickly, it has a PPM reading and you can watch it as it clears the air. It is very helpful in open plan kitchen/dining/living. It is nice to have odors cleared quickly.
We have no pets and only one carpet, the filter still clears the air quickly, we have not change it. This may not be the case in homes with more dust production.
Top Air Purifiers on Reddit
1
Coway
Airmega AP-1512HH Mighty
87% positive of 126 users
Durable, effective for allergens/odors, but loud on high.
gigashadowwolf
