Get unlimited access to everything VICE has to offer.

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

4 Magazines Delivered to Your Door

We independently evaluate all of our recommendations. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more here.

After Testing Way Too Many Air Purifiers, THIS Is the Best One for Your Bedroom

‘Tis the season of wildfire smoke and allergies. Spend less time sneezing and more time snoozing with the best bedroom air purifier I’ve ever tested.

By Matt Jancer | Reviewed by Ysolt Usigan

Share on X (Opens in new window)X

Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Facebook

Share using Native toolsShareCopied to clipboard

Think you’re safe and breathing pure, clean air inside your own home? Hah. Think again, my pollution-huffing friend. Homes are way leakier than you’d imagine, and your indoor air is basically just outdoor air that’s wafted in through open windows, unsealed gaps between your floor and walls, underneath and around your front door, and your HVAC system, and it’s lousy with soot, pollen, mold spores, viruses, and weird pollutants with unpronounceable names that drift into your house from smokestacks and tailpipes.

I’ve used a lot of air purifiers over the past seven years as a tech journo with a specialty focus in home air purification. Want to know which one lives in my bedroom, the one to which I entrust my own lungs and health? The Coway AP-1512HH Mighty.

TL;DR – My Quick Verdict

Even after seven years I’ve yet to find a better bedroom air purifier. Many companies have introduced competitors since then, and I’ve tested many of them, if not most of them. The Coway AP-1512HH Mighty remains my favorite because it’s been as rock-solid reliable as could be in all that time. I’ve witnessed firsthand how well it can clear out a room filled with fire soot and smoke, and clear up stinky gym clothes and burnt cooking smells. Coway’s filters are genuine HEPA filters that clear up viruses, dust, allergens, mold spores, outdoor pollutants, and more. It may not be flashy, but it’s as good as an air purifier filter can get outside of a hospital.

AP-1512HH Mighty (opens in a new window)

My Coway has whirred away in a succession of bedrooms for 24 hours straight constantly since the fall of 2019. It’s been with me through a few apartment fires (I didn’t start any of them!), including a major one in April 2022, and a whole bunch of German Shepherd fur, Canadian wildfire smoke, and cloyingly strong beauty product stenches that could’ve choked a state fair mule. This has been a long-haul test, and even if it failed tomorrow, I’d have still gotten my money’s worth.

my take: coway AP-1512hh mighty air purifier

Coway rates the AP-1512HH Mighty and Airmega 200M for 1,748 square feet, but that’s only purifying all the air in such a space once per hour. That’s 1 ACH, or air change per hour. For truly great air purification, the CDC says to aim for 5 ACH, and the EPA endorses it. This Coway is rated for 4.8 ACH in a room measuring up to 361 square feet, and that’s close enough.

That’s a room that measures, for example, 18 by 20 feet. When I call it the best air purifier for........

© Vice