Coway Airmega AP-1512HH True HEPA Air Purifier with Air Quality Monitoring, Auto Mode, Timer, Filter Indicator, Eco Mode

I bought a $90 tower purifier which took a long time to clear the air and which was noisier than a jet engine. I lived with it, but when the Canadian wildfire smoke descended upon us in NYC, I loaned it to my downstairs neighbor, who had elderly and special needs family members, and I ordered this as a replacement.It's more than double the cost of the other unit, but based on the reviews from the New York Times and other review sites, the quality and performance are well worth the investment. So I splurged and got this unit.While I was waiting for it to arrive, the air pollution got really bad and I had been coughing, eyes were watering and I was forced to wear an N-95 mask at home just to breathe.When the purifier finally arrived, I turned it on and the sensor light went red to indicate the high level of contamination in the air. I opened the doors of every room of my apartment to let it go to work and after a few minutes at full power, the light turned from red to purple, and about 5 minutes later, it went blue. I took my mask off and the air was pure and fresh. It is an absolute superhero at cleaning a large volume of air very quickly. I was thoroughly impressed.The sensor is very sensitive and will turn purple if you are just cooking something that releases strong scents into the air (sauteeing onions and peppers, etc.) and it goes red if you're burning anything.Another upside is that my kitchen smoke detector has stopped going off if I'm grilling something, because the purifier keeps the air quality under control.At the highest setting, it's about as loud as my old purifier at the middle setting, which is to be expected, as you would only set it that high to quickly clear out a room or if there's smoke from cooking, etc.But the massive volume of clean air it blows out in exchange for that short term annoyance is staggering.However, at the 2nd highest setting it is barely detectable, producing a pleasant, white noise background sound that you quickly tune out. It makes falling asleep very easy, and if you have the air conditioner on you can't hear the purifier at all.At it's lowest setting, it blows out a nice stream of air but is utterly and completely silent. You couldn't even hear it at night time in a small, quiet room with the door shut. Amazing.They say you never regret buying the best. They know what they're talking about. This is worth every penny and then some. 5 stars, all day.

My wife has recently learned she has some really bad allergy problems, and the doctor recommended we try a HEPA air purifier. We chose this model as it had many good reviews and was recommended on several review sites.She generally wakes up congested and doesn't get very good sleep due to it. But this morning, after only the first night running this device in our bedroom, she woke up for the first time ever without being congested and felt like she slept a lot better. So while this was only the first night, it made a huge difference.I don't generally have those issues, but I can tell a difference in the air quality. It's hard to put into words, but it just feels cleaner to breathe.This evening, I decided to run in it our living room for a couple hours to see how it did. As we started cooking dinner, it almost immediately kicked into higher fan speeds. Shortly after dinner, there was almost no lingering food odor, it was almost like it never happened.I never put much thought into air purifiers, but this has made a believer out of me so far. So much that I just ordered another one to run in the living room in addition to the bedroom.This thing might look like a giant iPod Shuffle, but it sure works.Now to the (slight) downsides.The air quality indicator is pretty bright (not overly bright, but bright), it'll definitely give off a blue glow in a dark room. It's fixable enough with some tape or something, but something to keep in mind.This will cost some money to maintain. As of this posting, you're looking at around $45/year for filters. It'll add up if you have more than one of them, but I don't think it's too bad. It's a pretty small price to pay for clean air, as long as the device itself holds up. Though initial quality seems pretty good.There will be some noise when running at higher speeds. At low, it's virtually silent. You have to try pretty hard to hear it, and you have to be near it. At medium, it's still pretty quiet, probably not even louder than a normal fan. At high, this thing moves some major air, and you can hear it. It's not annoyingly loud, but you can hear the massive amount of air being moved. I'd compare it to a window unit fan running without the compressor noise. Just a lot of air moving. Luckily, unless you have some heavy pollution, the unit doesn't spend a ton of time on high, especially in a bedroom where it'd be likely to bother you more.One more thing to note, make sure you take the plastic off the filters! They're shipped sealed. I made the mistake of not reading the manual before turning it on (the manual DOES warn you to remove the plastic first) then wondering why it wasn't moving much air and making some odd noises (like it trying to force air thru plastic).We'll see how this works in the long run, but so far it's very promising.