5 Best Air Purifiers for Living Room in 2023: Review & Comparison

Last updated on January 1st, 2023

Living rooms are usually large, often crowded, and usually are a source of odors from pets, humans, cigarette smells and so on. Not every air purifier is capable of dealing with air pollution at such scale, as most of them aren’t powerful enough or do not employ the best HEPA filters.

I and many other experts consider an air purifier that can clean the air in a living room must follow a few standards. I have listed them down below, you should take a look at them or just jump straight to the TOP 3 best air purifiers for living rooms.

So here’s my checklist of what you should look for in an air purifier:

High CADR ratings. Clean Air Delivery Rate stands for how much air was cleaned. In the USA it is measured in cubic feet per minute (CFM). The higher the rating is, the faster (and better!) air is cleaned. For the living room, your air purifier has to have at least 250 – 280 CFM.

Capable of relieving anyone from allergic and breathing symptoms. Getting rid of allergens is a daunting task, so if an air purifier fails to do so it’s a huge disappointment. All air cleaning machines that I listed here have been tested to remove allergies. The industry standard is 4.8 air changes per hour (ACH, how to calculate it click here) for total relief from allergies, so make sure an air purifier you like can cover the whole area in the room. If you have to remove allergens in an extremely large room, you might need to get 2 air purifiers to cover the whole space.

Removal of various airborne particles. Allergies aren’t the only concern, there are a lot of other pollutants in large living rooms: pets, dust, general air pollution in big cities and so on. Thus, if an air purifier can only remove dust, it will still let the other harmful particles pass through the air filter and not achieve the clean air in a room. That’s why, the best air purifiers employ several filters, therefore removing different kinds of particles resulting in complete air cleaning.

Enough with a theory, let’s see what are the best living room air purifiers in 2023:

If you don’t see the whole table, scroll it horizontally

Model	Alen BreatheSmart 75i	Air Health Skye	Airdog X8 for large living rooms
Image
Price	Under $750	Under $700	Under $1200
Best For	Dust, Mold, Germs	Viruses, Bacteria, Odors	Viruses, VOCs, Germs
Relief for allergy in	540 sq. ft.	453 sq. ft.	740 sq. ft.
Max Room Coverage*	1300 sq. ft.	1150 sq. ft.	1750 sq. ft.
CADR	347 CFM	301 CFM	470 CFM
Filter Life	1 year	6 months	Years (washable)
Filter Replacement	~$100	~$80	-
Auto Mode
WiFi
Ionizer
Noise Levels	25 - 49 dB	22 - 59 dB	63 dB
Max Power	1.8 - 45 Watts	10 - 50 Watts	110 Watts

*2 ACH

Now let’s quickly review each one of them.

Air Health Skye for Viruses, Mold, Germs, Odors and Dust

Air Health Skye is my personal favorite when it comes to HEPA & UV portable air purifiers for living rooms. I have already covered in detail this air cleaner in my review (you should definitely check it out!), so here I will pick out several of its features which are essential for me.

The first thing I have to mention is that it is extremely universal. Some air purifiers employ only HEPA filters for dust and other particles, whilst others are mostly utilizing UV lamps for treating viruses, mold, germs and bacteria. The Air Health Sky is everything above and more!

There are 5 layers of air filtration overall:

1. Pre-filter: extends lifespan for internal filters and traps hair, pet dander and large dust particles;
2. True HEPA H13 medical-grade filter for particles as small as 0.3 micron in size. They include dust, bacteria, viruses, smoke and other smells;
3. Activated Carbon filter for odor and fumes absorption;
4. Pro-Cell filter for VOCs, gases and other chemicals;
5. 254nm UV-C lamp for virus, bacteria and fungi treatment.

So if you ever wanted to have a universal air purifier for home use, the Skye is everything you have wished for!

In addition to the exceptional air cleaning capabilities, this air purifier is also quiet and smart. It can be run at low-medium speeds (there are 10 speed settings) and you won’t even notice it here. Only at the maximum speed noise might get quite noticeable.

When it comes to the smart functions, Auto mode and app/voice control are the most interesting of them. When Auto is set on, the air purifier uses a wide range of its sensors (particles, VOCs, humidity, temperature) to adjust speed. This kills two birds with one stone: keeps the air quality at the highest level while producing as low noise as possible.

Overall, I definitely recommend getting the AHAM-certified Air Health Skye if you want to buy a portable and smart air purifier for your living room.

Alen BreatheSmart 75i for Allergies, Dust, Odors, Heavy Smoke

Alen BreatheSmart 75i is also a good pick for a living room air purifier. It has several features that make it stand out for which I have put it in the TOP 3. Here are they:

• Filters customization. All Alen air purifiers come with several HEPA filters, each of which is designed to remove specific particles, such as mold, dust, germs, cooking odor, smoke, VOCs and others. Let’s say you have a dog, which smells and you want to get rid of this smell in your living room. With the BreatheSmart 75i, it’s not a problem as a specialized air filter is available for purchase: it does not just remove pet smells, but also dander and hair in addition to allergens and dust.
• Lifetime warranty. To have a lifetime warranty you have to apply for a filter subscription on the official website after registering the product.
• Long filter lifespan. All Alen filters last for 1 year on average.

The BreatheSmart 75i covers a larger area compared to the AirHealth Skye, yet the sound threshold is lower and stands only at 49 decibels which is an equivalent of a quiet office or refrigerator. Running this air purifier in the background won’t disturb neither a TV nor a conversation.

Airdog X8 for Large Living Rooms

Airdog X8 is designed to thoroughly clean the air in large living rooms, offices, kitchens. Due to the high CADR ratings, the unit is capable of cleaning over 1,500 square feet of space in regular conditions and up to 740 square feet room if allergies are the major concern for people inside the room.

Contrary to the previously reviewed air purifiers, this one (as well as other Airdog air purifiers) does not employ a HEPA filter as a means to capture pollutants. Instead, it uses a large wire frame that creates an electric field that traps particles up to PM0.014 (meaning viruses won’t stand a chance!) that later settle on a special collecting plate located inside the unit. This plate is washable and doesn’t require replacements. This method is known as Two-Pole Active technology (TPA) and I recommend checking my Airdog X8 review if you wish to know more about it.

In addition, the X8 employs a Composite Catalyst filter for VOCs, gases with an ability to deodorize the air, making it not only clean from smells but also fresh. This filter is also washable.

For dander and hair, a special pre-filter is installed at the forefront of the unit.

To sum up, the Airdog X8 is a powerful, reliable and low maintenance (electricity only) washable air purifier for various pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, VOCs, gases, mold and germs. It also removes various smells in large and extra large living rooms.

Tracs TM250 UV & HEPA Air Purifier for Viruses, Mold, Germs, Bacteria

The previous air purifiers are all made outside the USA, mostly in China. But what about USA-manufactured air cleaners for living rooms, are there any? Are they good?

Yes, yes and yes! Some worth your attention, and Tracs TM250 UV air purifier is one of them. It is best to use in 400 – 900 sq. ft. living rooms.

Several things make make the air cleaning efficient and relatively quiet with the Tracs air purifier:

• Antibacterial pre-filter for odors and toxic gases;
• Medical-grade HEPA filter. It is used in hospitals, chemical laboratories and other places that have to maintain the highest standards of air quality;
• UV-cleaning: with germicidal lamps, installed in a special chamber inside the unit, viruses are captured and destroyed;
• Both the motor and the unit are built to last for decades;
• Long filter lifespan.

As a result, viruses, germs, dust, smoke and other unpleasant odors are completely removed from the air. The long-lasting motor and HEPA filter do not require maintenance, and the only part that requires a replacement more often is the pre-filter (check price). However, it’s cheap and the overall operating costs are very low for an air purifier of such magnitude.

Austin Air HealthMate Air Purifier for Dust, Odor, Pets

Best Deal

Austin Air HealthMate is another USA-made air purifier that has been present on the market for almost two decades already. Similar to the Tracs TM, this air cleaner also offers medical-grade air filtration with the long lasting HEPA filter and excellent build quality with a steel outer body.

However, the HealthMate is more focused on removing smells rather than viruses: instead of UV-C lamps, it employs a large Activated Carbon filter, that effectively absorbs pet smells, cooking odors, gases, VOCs and fumes. It is also very effective in cleaning a living room from a musty smell.

In addition to the medical-grade HEPA filter and Carbon filter, the air purifier uses the so-called “Medium Particle Filter” that captures dust mites, allergens and mold.

Austin Air has been present for decades on the USA market and they are known to be making one the best air purifiers. If you are looking for one to put in your living room, there aren’t many alternatives if you want to have a long-lasting air purifier in your house.

Where to Put an Air Purifier in Living Room

Since all air purifiers reviewed here are portable, you can freely move them all around your living room. However, do not place it too close to walls, as there must be some space to let the air circulate freely in and out.

I, for one, follow these recommendations in choosing a place for my air purifier:

• It’s either close to a place which is a source of the odor, for example, cigarette smell or fumes (works good for lounges);
• It is put in a place which is roughly at the same distance to all corners in my living room, but not to stand in the center and obstruct a free passage. In this way, the air purifier can reach all caves and clean the air in the whole room.

Hopefully, you have found your air purifier for the living room. Cheers!