Protect yourself from poor air quality like smoke pollution, allergies, bacteria, dust, pets and more with our picks for the best air purifier.
To help inform our air purifier picks, we gathered 14 of the most popular models at the CNET Labs product testing facility in Louisville, Kentucky, where we put them through a rigorous set of tests. Our goal was to determine which air purifiers offered the best performance in terms of particle removal efficiency, energy consumption and quietness, while also evaluating their respective feature sets and value. The particle-removal test The air we breathe isn't just air. In truth, it's a combination of human-generated and naturally occurring particles. The former is composed mostly of urban, industrial and automotive emissions of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and combustion byproducts, and the latter is mostly represented by smoke from forest fires, sulfates, soot and matter from volcanic activity around the globe. Gianmarco Chumbe/CNET According to the EPA, some of these microscopic solids and liquid droplets, which can be made up of hundreds of different chemicals, are so tiny that it's almost inevitable to inhale them. PM10 and PM2.5, which are particles of less than 10 and 2.5 micrometers in diameter, respectively, pose the greatest risk to human health since once inhaled. They allocate deep into the lungs and even into the bloodstream, impairing the proper functionality of the lungs and heart. "That's the size that can go into our body, into our lungs and go into our bloodstream," said Zhao. "That is the number one environmental risk factor globally. It kills about 6 to 7 million people a year," he said, due to cardiovascular or…