Our experts shoot the breeze how we test air purifiers

Whether you're shopping for your first air purifier or looking for an upgrade on yorur current model, you're probably wondering how we test air purifiers at woman&home. This is my chance to clear the air on all the mysteries surrounding our testing process. I promise I'll try to keep puns to a minimum.

To curate a buying guide for the best air purifiers, there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. The team and I do lots of research into big name brands as well as smaller start-ups and innovators. We have a series of standard trials that every air purifier needs to breeze through and then we pick the best of the bunch to recommend to you.

Whether you're looking for the best budget air purifier or the best air purifier fan, we'll have tested at least five and narrowed it down to one. Now, let's get into the details.

How we choose which air purifiers to test

I've already given you a little bit of insight into how our selection process goes. I always keep an eye on big-name-brands such as Molekule, BlueAir, and Levoit, but with brands like Viesty and Shark jumping into the air purifier market, there's a lot going on.

I make sure to research every model that I think you'd be interested in buying and if it passes my research round (where I make sure that it would suit the woman&home audience), I'll call it in for me or one of our experts to test. 

I like to make sure we have something for everyone: an air purifier for allergens, for pet homes, for large homes, small ones, budgets, and those who are happy to splash the cash, but if you see one that we haven't written about, send me a message. I'm always happy to shoot the breeze about what's on the market.

Testing the air purifiers

Once I've found an air purifier that I think you'll like, I call it in to my home or to one of our expert's homes. From there, I put it through a series of tests designed to be tougher than everyday use, but nonetheless representative. I'll spray more than the average amount of dry shampoo near the air purifier or I'll burn two pieces of toast. You might do this, but it's likely these will be one-offs rather than regular occurrences.

Unboxing and setting up the air purifiers

In the review that I write up, one of the first sections you see will be about the packaging and unboxing. Lots of brands will send their air purifiers with plastic and non-recyclable packaging, which isn't always necessary, it's bad for the planet, and will be space-consuming in your bins. 

I'll let you know about this as well as how robust the box is, how easy it is to carry, and I'll also flag any extra accessories or spare filters that get sent with the air purifier.

After that, I'll get the air purifier set up and ready to go. In some cases, that's as simple as plugging the air purifier in. However, in other instances, you'll need to download an app, connect to WiFi, and add in extra parts. It's good to have a heads-up on whether you'll need a tech-savvy person to hand when setting up or whether it'll be a breeze.

Design and controls

Next, we get to be a bit superficial. These air purifiers occupy space in your home, so I think it's important that they look good. Some brands can do this a lot better than others. It might be small, stylish, or neither of those, but either way, I think you'll want to know. I'll also let you know whether it's easy to move around and of any special extras that you'll need to think about aesthetically, such as colour options.

Next, I'll walk you through the control panel and how you can get the air purifier working. There's a great deal of versatility on the market: some models have one button that you use to toggle through settings and others will have LED screens and multiple different controls. This is a key part of the review, because it'll tell you how well the air purifier suits your needs. If, for example, you'll use this in your bedroom, a night mode is essential.

How it performs in my tests

I have a series of standardised tests that I run through with every air purifier that I test. I burn toast (who doesn't), light and blow out a candle, roast a tray of vegetables, fry on the hob, spray dry shampoo, and generally live my life around the air purifier. I selected these tests because they're some of the most common, but also the most damaging things you can do to reduce the air quality in your home. 

Of course, mine are extreme tests, but they also cover a range of pollutants in your air: you'll get the dust, the VOCs, the gases, and everything else that you don't want to be breathing in. I'll monitor the time, noise, and efficiency with which each air purifier works. I'll also make notes on visuals and other sensory differences, such as how long it takes for the air to smell clean and what the room feels like. It's all well and good if your air purifier's graph tells you that it has cleared the air, but if it doesn't feel like that's the case, it's no good.

Talking about cleaning, storage, and maintenance

Here's where air purifiers really diversify. Some models simply need you to change their filter every 6-9 months, others need you to wash re-usable filters, or pre-filter layers, and others need more technical, specific cleans. This will carry both financial and effortful weight, so I like to make sure you know exactly what you're signing up for with your air purifier.

If there are other maintenance tasks, such as changing water, adding moss, or giving the device a clean, I'll let you know about that. I'll also talk about your storage options if you ever want to pack your air purifier away. I leave no stone unturned.

Comparing the air purifier to other models

Given that I've tested all of these air purifiers in person, I very naturally end up comparing them in my head. Here's where I get to share all that with you. I think of it as helping you towards feeling like you've been 'shopping your options', because I'll try to show you what you can get for a little more money as well as what you can get for a little less. This will help you towards a sense of whether you're getting good value from your air purifier as well as letting you work out what extras your willing or unwilling to pay for. 

Coming to a conclusion

At the end of the review I'll bring together my thoughts on who the air purifier suits. I'll let you know who should buy it and where there might be better options out there. You should have answers to all of your questions, but if you're not satisfied, shoot me an email. I'm always happy to chat about all things air purifying.