Don't suffer with seasonal allergies — I test air purifiers for a living and these are my top 3 recommendations for filtering out pollen and dust | Tech Radar
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Don't suffer with seasonal allergies — I test air purifiers for a living and these are my top 3 recommendations for filtering out pollen and dust
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As someone with asthma, I’ve always been sensitive to seasonal allergies and hay fever. Even living in a historic home comes with its own challenges of dust and pollen that may trigger my allergies. About six years ago, I got my first air purifier in the hope that it would aid me in battling allergies and breathe a lot easier. The results have been significant.
Air purifiers are designed to capture everything from dust to pollen, pet dander, and even bacteria and toxic chemicals. Since using an air purifier with high quality filtration, I’ve experienced less allergen triggers and swollen sinuses at night.
Most air purifiers will bring some relief to allergy sufferers, but some are better than others. I’ve put together a list of the top three air purifiers that will reduce the effects of allergy season through various modes, smart features, and high-quality filters. Read on to learn more.
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The Govee Life Smart Air Purifier Lite has a three-in-one HEPA Filter which includes a pre-filter that removes hair, lint, and fibers and a Personal HEPA filter that traps PM 2.5 and any other 0.1-0.3 micron particles such as dust, bacteria, dander, smoke, smog, ash, and pollen. Finally, an active carbon filter clears odors quickly.
For $50, you get quite a bit of features including app and voice control and four modes – sleep, low, high, and custom modes. With the custom mode, you can set the air purifier on high, low, or sleep mode for a certain amount of time. Unfortunately, the app doesn’t share air quality data, so you aren’t able to see how well the filter clears the air of things that could trigger your allergies. If you’re especially sensitive, you might want to set the purifier on high during allergy season and in the late afternoons (with the custom mode) when pollen levels rise. Thanks to its compact size, you’ll have no issue moving the air purifier to whichever room you’re in.
While the Govee Life Smart Air Purifier Lite has an aromatherapy feature, our tester found the results underwhelming. This might not be a bad thing since some essential oils exacerbate allergies. That said, you might want to give the aromatherapy feature a try since peppermint and eucalyptus oils are known to alleviate inflammation caused by allergies.
Read our full Govee Life Smart Air Purifier Lite review
Despite its high price tag, the Levoit Everest Air is a favorite air purifier among Tech Radar testers. This slim purifier has the capability of purifying larger spaces thanks to three-stage filtration system, which includes a washable pre-filter that captures dust, pet fur, lint, and hair, an H13 True HEPA filter that traps dust, pollen, dander, and fine dust, and an activated charcoal filter combo that keeps your home odor-free. The vents are adjustable, so you have some control over the direction of the airflow.
Users can choose Sleep, Turbo, or Auto mode with the onboard buttons or an app. In Auto mode, the Levoit Everest Air can sense airborne articles and increase or decrease the fan speed to best clear the air. We love that it can detect PM 1.0, PM 2.5, and PM 10 which includes everything from fine dust to pet dander, dust, pollen, ash, and airborne allergens. In our tests, the Levoit Everest Air cleaned the air about 5 times per hour on the highest setting in a single room with the door closed. We suggest leaving it in a central space and opening your doors as it has the capability of purifying 354 cubic feet per minute.
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I’ve been using the Dreame Air Pursue PM20 for nearly nine months, and though it may be bulky, it has alleviated my allergies. The Dreame Air Pursue PM20 detects and purifies the air of PM1, PM2.5, PM10, HCHO, and TVOC, which you can monitor in real time in the app. Dreame notes that the air purifier can clean 1,833 square feet in 15 minutes. I put this to the test and discovered that the air purifier cleaned the air of toxic contaminants from hair spray in about 11 minutes.
The Dreame Air Pursue PM 20 is outfitted with a HEPA 13 grade filter which removes indoor pollen, dust mites, bacteria, haze, viruses, and other materials efficiently. A carbon filter maximizes the filter quality by removing kitchen fumes, pet odor, TVOC, formaldehyde, and other harmful gases. If all that wasn’t enough, the Dreame Air Pursue PM20 has smart features like AI Purify that automatically switches on the purifier when it recognizes any pollutants increasing. Plus, with AI follow, the purifier tracks your movements around the room and adjusts the air flow to clean the air around you. For an allergy sufferer, this can make a tremendous difference. The $639.99 / £499 price tag is high, but considering all the smart features, its cooling and heating capabilities, and pet and comfort modes, it’s a worthy allergen-reducing tool to invest in.
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Alex Temblador is a Dallas, Texas-based award-winning freelance writer and award-winning author of Half Outlaw and Secrets of the Casa Rosada. While she's best known for her coverage of travel, arts, and culture, she began to write more about design, architecture, and home products when she bought her 102-year-old house in 2020. Since then, she's reviewed products for outlets such as Real Homes, Gardeningetc., Homes & Gardens, Outside, and Trip Savvy. When she's not writing articles or reviews, Alex is jet-setting around the world, working on her next novel, or teaching a literary class.
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