Multiple Brands (SmarterHEPA, Smart Air) - Smart Air Blast - MKII

I forgot to mention these two specifically in my comment. Easily the best big machines for low noise.

You’re going to want two kinds of air purifiers: one for particulate matter (HEPA) and another for VOCs and gases (carbon). Most consumer air purifiers either don’t have any carbon or have just a little as a marketing ploy. Hence the need to buy a real, dedicated carbon purifier. You’ll likely want an air purifier for each frequently-occupied room of the house (one for bedroom, one for living room). I’ve studied this subreddit for months and also done a bit of my own research and have hopped on the phone with a few different air purifier companies to ask about their products. All I can tell you is what purchases I’ve decided to make for my home: a Levoit EverestAir for the living room, a Levoit EverestAir for the bedroom, an AllerAir Smoke Eater for the living room, and a SmarterHEPA Smart Air Blast MKII (with the add-on carbon filter) for upstairs.

There isn’t a purifier that exists in that price range that can provide 5 air changes an hour for 1,500 square feet. The Smart Air Blast - MKII is your best bet. It’s rated for 1,600 square feet. You could buy 3 AirFanta 3 Pros

Smart Air Blast MKII. It's a budget blaster on the front end. https://www.smarterhepa.com/products/smart-air-blast It might be cheaper to buy two purifiers that can provide 5 air changes an hour 600-700 square foot space. You could run them at lower speeds and still achieve good air cleaning

If this is just for dust, why not just dust more often? https://housefresh.com/how-to-reduce-dust-in-your-apartment/ For 3,000 square feet you're going to need multiple purifiers. If you're resolute in not buying multiple, the Smart Air BLAST - MKII is the best bet. It's not cheap though. https://www.smarterhepa.com/products/smart-air-blast

r/AirPurifiers The first step is to tell us your room size. This is length x width x ceiling height. Room size helps us determine Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADRs). People with allergies generally need greater CADRs than the bare minimum suggested by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. The second: what are your allergies? Are they particulates based (soot, pet dander, dust, smoke particles, pollen, etc.), gases/vapors based, or both? Lastly, we need a budget. Powerful *and* quiet air purifiers aren't cheap. Consumer-grade air purifiers won't be BIFL. Commercial-grade and industrial-grade units claim a high number of operating hours (e.g., 50,000-100,000) because they're being run 24/7. Unfortunately heavier duty machines are really expensive ($2,000 and up) and generally very loud. The quietest high performing air purifier is the **Smart Air Blast MKII Air Purifier**. Top specified Sound Level is 43 dB. Top Composite CADR is 559 CFM. Separate particulate CADRs are not measured. It has a metal body and wheels. Price is $929 from Smarter HEPA. Another great choice is the **Coway Airmega ProX**. Top specified Sound Level is 46 dB(A). CADRs are in the mid-500s CFM. Also has wheels and many other features. Price: currently $899. The **ProX** has been on sale for $619 several times in the past few months. If you can hold out, you may want to track the price for a better deal.

You didn't list your country of residence per **Rule 4**, so I'm guessing you're American. I'll also assume you're primarily interested in particulates filtration. Even a high-end freestanding purifier cannot overcome walls and doors. You need a purifier for each room or area. The "absolute best" units are generally intended for commercial or industrial use. The **Omni CleanAir OCA1500 Portable Air Purifier** claims its CADR is about 1,499 CFM and 66 dBA at top speed which is very loud. It's intended to be operated continuously so you can expect a very long service life. [But the OCA1500 costs a whopping $4,995.00 USD](https://shop.omnicleanair.com/products/oca1500-commercial-air-purifier-1500-cfm). Do the air purifier(s) need to be quiet as well? Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADRs) are often taken at top speed. Many purifiers at top speed are loud. Medify Air's higher end units and commercial/industrial purifiers (as shown above) suffer from this problem. The quietest performing high-end unit is the **Smart Air Blast MKII**. I don't know if your Mom will like its aesthetic or not. * Particulates Filtration: H13 HEPA filter (150 sq. ft. in surface area) * Top Sound Level: 43 dBA * Composite CADR: 559 CFM * Separate particulate CADRs not measured * Features: Steel housing and locking casters * Link: [https://www.smarterhepa.com/products/smart-air-blast](https://www.smarterhepa.com/products/smart-air-blast) The runner-up in terms of high performance and quiet operation is the **Coway Airmega ProX**. * Particulates Filtration: H13 HEPA Filters * Top Sound Level: 46 dbA * Dust CADR: 580 CFM * Pollen CADR: 450 CFM * Smoke CADR: 568 CFM. * Features: Locking wheels. * Colors: White or Mocha Beige. * Link: [https://cowaymega.com/products/airmega-prox](https://cowaymega.com/products/airmega-prox) Certain **Blueair** units have won design awards, such as the **Protect 7470i** and the **DustMagnet 5440i**. However, these units are *not* high performing in terms of CADR. You would need to purchase multiple units per room to match the CADRs of the **Smart Air Blast MKII** and the **Coway Airmega ProX**. The best performing Blueair is the **Classic 605**. Don't know if your Mom will be keen on this look either. * Particulates Filtration: "HEPASilent" technology (ionizer plus mechanical filters) * Top Sound Level: 62 dB * Dust CADR: 500 CFM * Pollen CADR: 640 CFM * Smoke CADR: 500 CFM * Features: Wheels and galvanized steel housing. [Conforms to Intertek's "Zero Ozone" program](https://sustainabilitydirectory.intertek.com/product/e87bd306-a065-4960-e428-08dc4a9887b4) (ozone emitted is ≤ 0.005 ppm). * Link: [https://www.blueair.com/us/air-purifiers/classic-605/2929.html](https://www.blueair.com/us/air-purifiers/classic-605/2929.html) Keep in mind Blueair uses an ionizer as part of their "HEPASilent" technology (a trademarked name); the mechanical filters do not conform to a HEPA standard. # Edit - there are issues with the Classic 605's unit disassembly and potential hair entanglement in the fan. See the reply to this comment.

Unfortunately many air purifiers are not quiet unless they're on lower speeds, which means their Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADRs) are also lower. So you must buy one large oversized air purifier or multiple smaller ones and run them on lower settings to increase CADRs. It would help, per **Rule 4: Information For Air Purifier Requests** and the AutoMod comment, to list your room's square footage to get a sense of which purifiers would be best footprint-wise. The quietest high performing unit is the **Smart Air Blast MKII Air Purifier**. We've had very good feedback on the decibel specifications being very close to or matching real world performance. * Air Changes per Hour (ACH): 4.8 ACH at 1,875 sq. ft. * Particulates Filtration: H13 HEPA Filter (150 sq. ft. of filter surface area) * Composite CADR: 559 CFM * Separate particulate CADRs not measured * Sound Levels: 29 – 37 – 43 dB * Features: Locking casters and metal housing * Price: $929 at [Smarter HEPA](https://www.smarterhepa.com/products/smart-air-blast) Another great option with higher performance (but a little louder in the specs) is the **Coway Airmega ProX**. It's on sale right now. Regarding quietness, I haven't found ample feedback, but it should still be acceptable to run on high or on a lower setting for very good CADRs. It has dual air intakes, so it will require room around it. * Room Size: 4.8 ACH at 886 sq. ft. * Particulates Filtration: "Max2" HEPA H13 Filters (Quantity: 2) * Sound Levels: 23 - 46 db(A) * Dust CADR: 580 CFM * Pollen CADR: 450 CFM * Smoke CADR: 568 CFM * Features: Locking wheels and many other features. * Price: Currently $619.00 in White at [Coway](https://cowaymega.com/products/airmega-prox?variant=45657065718014)

r/AirPurifiers $1,000 won't buy you an industrial-grade or commercial-grade unit. Those are $3,000-$5,500, heavy, and very loud. Smoke is comprised of particulates (particles) and gases/vapors (including odors). Ideally, you need *two* different types of air purifiers to handle each pollutant category. This is because particulates-focused air purifiers—using mechanical filtration such as HEPA—can operate at higher air flows for faster air cleaning. However, gases and vapors are often removed using sorbent media (such as activated carbon, activated alumina, and synthetic zeolites). You need high weights of activated carbon for long-term and/or higher gaseous concentration treatment. Additionally, sorbent media purifiers operate at lower post-motor airflow and lower Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADRs) due to the need for "dwell time" or "residence time" for higher removal efficiencies. Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADRs) are the most important performance metric of a particulates-focused air purifier. This is a measure of cleaning effectiveness. Keep in mind most CADRs are given for the purifier's top speed setting only. For particulates (airborne mold spores, smaller dust particles, pollen, smoke particles, pet dander, etc.), I would recommend either the **Smart Air Blast MKII Air Purifier** or the **Coway Airmega ProX**. The **Smart Air Blast MKII** is the quietest high performing air purifier, which can be critical for sleeping, working, or studying. Uses H13 HEPA. Top Composite CADR is 559 CFM; separate particulate CADRs are not measured. Top Sound Level is 43 dB. Features a metal body and locking casters. Price: $929.00 at SmarterHEPA.com. The **Coway Airmega ProX** is an excellent high performance unit and it's currently on sale. Uses H13 HEPA. Dust CADR: 580 CFM, Pollen CADR: 450 CFM, and Smoke CADR: 568 CFM. Sound Levels are 23 - 46 db(A). Has locking wheels and many other features. Price: $619.00 (full price $999) in White at CowayMega.com. A second sorbent media-heavy air purifier would be at least $760 and likely closer to $1,140. To tackle cigarette gases/vapors/odors, you need specially modified media for improved removal efficiencies of certain "species" such as CO, CO₂, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, etc. This includes offerings from brands such as **Airpura** (tobacco smoke models) and **AllerAir** (smoke models). If you want a cheaper alternative, I can give you a separate write-up if you post at r/AirPurifiers. Good luck!

I don't think the absolute best purifiers for a large room are on this list. In order to calculate minimum Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADRs), we would need your room's length x width x height. [CADRs should be at least 2/3 of your room's area (assuming an 8 ft. high ceiling)](https://ahamverifide.org/ahams-air-filtration-standards/). For wildfire smoke treatment, Smoke CADR should *equal* your room's area which again assumes an 8 ft. ceiling. The best for large rooms in my opinion would be the [Coway Airmega ProX](https://cowaymega.com/products/airmega-prox) and the [Smart Air Blast MKII](https://www.smarterhepa.com/products/smart-air-blast) as both are quiet and powerful. From the list OP has shared, the best is clearly the [Medify Air MA-112](https://medifyair.com/products/ma-112?variant=31240021180483). However, it is very loud at 70 dBA. Keep in mind that CADRs are usually listed for the top speed setting only. The top seed is the loudest. Lower speeds have lower CADRs.