No matter where you live or who you live with (I’m looking at you, cats), some gross stuff is gets into the air. Allergens, smoke, dust, pet dander — the things that can agitate your allergies are everywhere, all the time. I have cats, so I breathe an absurd amount of cat litter dust every day, I’m sure. What helps me? Having a good air purifier.
To deal with this, I deployed two Blueair’s Blue Pure Mini Max air purifiers, one on each floor of my apartment, which are the smaller siblings of the device that performed best in CNET’s laboratory testing of air purifiers.
Of course, you don’t need a messy home to benefit from an air purifier. And you may have someone on your gift-giving list who could benefit from breathing in a little less dust or dander. Looking for other deals? Here are our favorite deals under $25 that are still available.
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Compact and effective air purifiers
When CNET’s intrepid lab engineers put air purifiers to the test, the champion was a different Blueair model, the Blue Pure 311i Max. Its auto mode allows it to respond to changing air quality conditions — running on a higher setting when needed, but conserving energy when air quality is high. The Blueair devices also did an excellent job of clearing particles in our testing chamber.
The Blue Pure 311i Max is great for larger spaces, but my focus was on running one in the living room and one in the bedroom, so I opted for two of the smaller Blue Pure Mini Max purifiers. They’re small enough to fit on a desktop, quiet enough to provide easy-to-ignore background noise and they do a good job of removing irritants from the air.
You also have your choice of filters, with essentially three tiers: a basic particle and carbon filter, a mid-tier one with better filtration of smoke, and a higher-end one that does all that plus allergens. I started out with the basic filter but upgraded to the allergen blocking one when I replaced it, a choice I’d make again.
Do air purifiers make a good gift?
You may want to tread lightly giving someone an air purifier as a gift without some understanding. You don’t want to imply one of your loved ones has a smelly, gross home.
But we all, to an extent, live in dirty places, and if you’re comfortable taking that risk, an air purifier can make a great and useful gift. Think of it as a gift that says: “You have pets I’m allergic to, and I’d like to spend more time with you.”
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