124 buying guides, comparisons, how-tos and calculators.
124 guides· Page 1 of 7
Enter your room's size and ceiling height to get the smoke CADR you need for allergies, smoke or wildfire days, and how many air changes an hour your current purifier delivers.
Filter-only purifiers do not make ozone. Ozone generators are designed to, and some ionizers and other electronic purifiers make it as a byproduct. Here is how to tell which is which.
A nursery monitor is most useful for temperature, humidity and ventilation, with PM2.5 as a bonus. It does not replace a smoke or CO alarm. Here is what to track and what to buy.
A home monitor is a bundle of small sensors, each good at one thing. Knowing which sensor sits behind each number tells you which readings to trust and which to treat as a trend.
The MA1201 is a rolling console that humidifies an open house from one spot. It needs space, a wick every 30 to 60 days and careful cleaning, but nothing portable moves more water.
The View Plus is the most complete home air monitor Airthings makes: radon plus particles, CO2 and VOCs, on batteries or USB-C. It is expensive, and worth it mainly if you want radon too.
The Wave Enhance is Airthings' small, battery-powered monitor for bedrooms and offices. Unlike the old Wave Mini, it measures CO2 with an NDIR sensor. It does not measure radon or particles.
The Wave Plus does the two jobs most homes care about after particles, radon and ventilation, in a battery-powered disc you can mount on a wall. It skips PM2.5, and costs less for it.
The 45i is Alen's mid-size purifier: a strong claimed CADR, a choice of filters for different problems, and a lifetime warranty that only lasts as long as your filter subscription.
The 75i is Alen's large-room machine, built for open plan spaces up to about 540 sq ft at allergy-level air changes. It is quiet and efficient, but its CADR is Alen's own and it costs more than certified rivals.
Washable filters save waste but most are MERV 8, which catches large dust and pollen and little smoke-size particulate. For allergies or smoke, a disposable MERV 13 is the better buy.
The Atmotube PRO 2 clips to a bag and measures particles, CO2, VOCs and NOx wherever you go. Its predecessor tested well for particles in South Coast AQMD's program; the PRO 2 adds CO2.
The HealthMate Plus is the chemical-focused version of Austin Air's HealthMate: the same heavy steel body, with an impregnated carbon blend aimed at formaldehyde, VOCs, wildfire smoke odor and traffic fumes.
The HealthMate is built around one idea: a huge carbon bed that soaks up odors and chemicals for years. It is heavy, plain and expensive up front, and cheap to run after that.
The Awair Element looks better than most monitors and measures the five things most people care about. It is sold through Awair rather than Amazon, and independent accuracy data is thin.
The Awair Omni is built for offices and buildings, with a dashboard for fleets of monitors and RESET accreditation. In a home, you pay for features you will not use.
Cool mist only, at least 3 feet from the crib, cleaned every few days, with distilled water and the humidity kept at 50% or below. Here is the guidance behind each rule.
Enter your basement's size and how damp it is. The calculator uses ENERGY STAR's sizing guide and rounds up, as ENERGY STAR advises, to a 25, 35 or 50-pint class.
