The Best Portable Air Purifiers For Your Home
Last Updated: Feb 13, 2025At Rise, we know you value your family’s health and are working to make sure your home reflects that value by paying attention to home furnishings. Many household products, from low-VOC furniture to zero-VOC paints, are becoming increasingly available on the market. Even so, it's still close to impossible to completely rid your home of VOCs, harmful gases, pollutants, and allergens that can compromise your health. Air purification technologies are relatively inexpensive ways to improve indoor air quality even if your home does not have an HRV or ERV system.
Table of Contents
- Why Is Indoor Air Quality Important?
- Can Air Purifiers Remove All VOCs?
- Best Air Purifiers on the Market Today
- Bottom line
Why Is Indoor Air Quality Important?
Americans spend, on average, 90 percent of their time indoors between school, the office, and their homes. Asthma, to name just one common respiratory problem, affects upwards of 25 million Americans, and exposure to VOCs, is known to aggravate asthmatic conditions. VOCs are also suspected of causing other health problems. Acute or short term exposure can lead to eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, dizziness, and even feelings of nausea. Long term or chronic exposure can cause cancer, liver and kidney damage, and potentially damage to the central nervous system.
Can Air Purifiers Remove All VOCs?
Almost every product that goes into making a home has the potential to release some sort of chemical that could off gas. From paints, aerosol sprays, air fresheners, cleaning agents, office equipment, building materials, to the furniture that adorns your home, VOCs are everywhere. Choosing zero-VOC paint is certainly a wise decision. But what about the glue your daughter needs for a science project at school or the carbonless copy paper you have in your home office?
VOCs are only one type of indoor air pollutant affecting our homes. According to the EPA, sources of indoor air pollution that can cause severe health problems include:
· Asbestos
· Biological Pollutants
· Carbon Monoxide
· Formaldehyde/Pressed Wood Products
· Lead
· Nitrogen Dioxide
· Pesticides
· Radon
· Indoor Particulate Matter
· Secondhand Smoke/ Environmental Tobacco Smoke
· Stoves, Heaters, Fireplaces, and Chimneys
Best Air Purifiers on the Market Today
Improving the indoor air quality of your home doesn’t mean that you need to spend or fortune or have to live with the windows open during the cold months.
Unlike air fresheners, which only add VOCs to our homes, air purifiers actively improve indoor air quality by eliminating VOCs, gasses, and other unwanted (and sometimes undetectable) odors floating around your home. Several different types of technologies are effective—such as filters made from carbon, magnesium dioxide, and copper oxide—in trapping harmful gaseous chemicals in your home. Below, we offer a complete review of the top five air purifiers on the market today.
Coway AP-1512GHH
Coway is a South Korean based purification company that makes water and air purifiers. The Coway AP-1512GHH uses four filtering stages to clean air, which is double the cleaning power of two standard air purifiers. It has a carbon filter, HEPA filter, and two extra stages that most air purifiers on the market do not. The carbon layer has a micro-mesh, and the HEPA filter has an ionizer. The micro-mesh catches large particles, pet hair, and dust while the carbon layer catches pollen, larger dust particles, and rids the air of bad odors. The filter does a great job of trapping cigarette and cigar smoke. It's designed to clear air in spaces up to 528 square feet or 23 feet by 23 feet. The sleek design comes in both white and black variants and resembles a large original iPod Shuffle. Coway AP-1512GHH currently costs $221.99 and is available at most major retailers.
AirPura
The aptly-named AirPura c600 is another high-quality indoor air purifier that can remove thousands of airborne chemicals and VOCs affecting your home. The AirPura c600 contains a powerful 26-pound carbon filter and 360° air distribution that can purify a 2,000 square-foot home. The product has virtually zero maintenance, meaning that you simply strategically place the filter, turn it on, and allow the machine to purify the air inside your home. The c600 currently sells for just under $850 on Amazon.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
