These air purifiers will tackle cigar and cigarette smoke

According to the CDC, 11.5% of all adults in the U.S. smoke cigarettes and 3.5% smoke cigars; if that’s you, then you most likely don’t mind the odor, but that potent smoke can travel far.

In fact, cigar and cigarette smoke can enter your home from neighbors or even from one person smoking as they walk by. The smell is pervasive and can make it hard to sleep or spend time in a room where the smoke has invaded.

We all know the dangers of secondhand smoke, but smoke particles from cigarettes can even cause thirdhand smoke, a residue of toxic particles that becomes embedded in furniture, carpet or walls. Thirdhand smoke particles can last for years and remain toxic as long as they are present in your home. 

While there are things you can do to clear smoke from a room, a long-term effective solution is to get an air purifier. This will allow you to remove smoke particles and odors before they cause harm.

Cigar and cigarette smoke are some of the hardest types of pollutants to remove, so I made sure to only include air purifiers that excelled across all our tests. All the devices in this list were capable of completing our particle removal test with glowing results and feature large carbon filters to deal with the many hazardous gases and odors from this type of smoke.

Staff picks: Top 3 air purifiers for cigarette and cigar smoke

For those eager to know what our top recommendations for dealing with smoke are, here are three solid options:

For a more comprehensive guide to the five recommended air purifier and why they’re good options against cigarette smoke, be sure to check out the full article below. 

1. Best overall: IQAir HealthPro Plus (with V5 Cell Filter: 5.5 lbs carbon)

Powered by a HyperHEPA filter and more than five pounds of activated carbon to deal with smoke particles and odors.

The IQAir HealthPro Plus is big. It needs to be big to make room for three stages of air filtration: a thick pre-filter for large particles and debris, a lab-certified HyperHEPA for fine and ultra-fine particles, and a massive gas filter with activated charcoal and zeolite for VOCs and unwanted smells. 

Even with such a dense set of filters, it still managed to clean our test room in 24 minutes in our particle removal test. This showcases how powerful its fan is at drawing the air in, which could translate to a noisy air purifier, but luckily, it doesn’t: the HealthPro Plus only generates 36.9 dB of noise output at its lowest fan speed and 61.2 dB when operating at top speed (which is the mode you should run it in to effectively remove cigar or cigarette smoke).

The HealthPro Plus is a long-term investment, costing nearly $900. If I were forced to choose one air purifier, this is the device I would pick — especially when dealing with any type of smoke. IQAir has so much trust in its unit that they locked their CEO inside a smoke chamber with just the HealthPro Plus to clean the air as he breathed.

➜ Read our full review

2. Best for large spaces: Smart Air Blast Mini (with Carbon Filter: 2.62 lbs carbon)

Unmatched in speed, the Blast Mini can quietly clean the air of rooms of up to 700 sq. ft.

As the fastest unit we tested, Smart Air’s Blast Mini only needed 12 minutes to bring PM1 levels down to zero in our test room. The exact kind of air cleaning performance you need considering how fast tobacco smoke and toxic particles spread through entire homes.

The Blast Mini also has one of the biggest HEPA filters we have ever seen. The H13 grade filter can trap fine and ultra-fine particles on its large surface and last up to 13 months. It also features a removable pre-filter but you’ll need to purchase the optional activated carbon filter to tackle cigar/cigarette smells and chemicals. It’s worth the while, though, considering the generous 2.62 lbs of loose-fill activated carbon packed in the filter.

Despite being a considerably large air purifier, the Blast Mini’s design is modern and can blend in easily. It may lack the bells and chimes of other top-tier units. Instead, it has just a straightforward one-dial command to navigate between speeds. The Smart Air team focused on outstanding air cleaning performance, and the Blast Mini simply excels. 

➜ Read our full review

3. Best for smart features: Mila Air Purifier (with Home Wrecker filter: 1.96 lbs carbon)

Mila is the perfect pick for tech enthusiasts looking for a smart air purifier that will keep the air clear autonomously.

Mila is all about simplicity and making people’s lives easier. The Automagic mode is one of a kind: equipped with eight sensors, Mila will detect pollutants as soon as they enter the room and adjust fan speeds. Meanwhile, the Mila App offers seven settings to customize the experience even further.

Yet, Mila’s versatility goes further: it allows you to choose from seven different filters based on the needs at hand. For cigar and cigarette smoke, we recommend choosing the Home Wrecker, which has the most activated carbon among Mila filters. The Home Wrecker has 1.96 lbs of granular carbon to adsorb VOCs and a reliable H12 HEPA filter to remove fine particles.

Mila doesn’t stand out for its speed (we clocked 35 minutes in our speed test). I suggest looking elsewhere for that. Instead, Mila offers an advanced, practical solution to indoor air quality. The smart sensors and in-house developed algorithm will pick up on pollutants, factor in humidity levels and even detect human presence and factor it in when adjusting speeds. The vigilant Mila will adjust its setting on its own and ramp up the fans as soon as it detects cigar or cigarette smoke and other pollutants slipping in.

➜ Read our full review

4. Best budget option: Levoit Core 600S (with Smoke Removal filter: 0.79 lbs carbon)

Ideal for medium to large-sized rooms, the Levoit Core 600S has all the smart features of top-tier air purifiers, a good amount of activated carbon and a budget-friendly price tag.

The Core 600 is a speedy unit that finished our cleaning speed test in only 15 minutes. As the biggest unit in Levoit’s Core range, it is also suitable for large spaces up to 600 sq. ft. rooms. Yet, its energy consumption is among the lowest on this list ($75 per year), only bested by the smart Mila ($58). 

Levoits’ three-sage filtrers feature a non-removable pre-filter, the main filter for fine particles and activated carbon. I recommend the Smoke Remover filter to deal with cigar and cigarette smoke, as it has the highest amount of carbon of the range. It is more expensive than regular filters – it will sum up to $160 a year, considering they last 6 months, but you get 0.79 lbs of pelleted carbon.

The Core 600S is one of the best high-perfomring units on the budget range. It has an outstanding cost-per-CADR ratio when compared to other large units, offering a solid mix of cleaning power and smart features for no more than $300.

➜ Read our full review

5. Best carbon filter: Austin Air HealthMate (with 15 lbs of carbon)

One of the few (and best) USA-made air purifiers with an activated carbon filter like no other, perfect for removing VOCs and toxic chemicals.

Although you’ll miss some perks with the Austin Air HealthMate, such as smart features or an auto mode, it has a seriously robust filter with four stages of pure mechanical filtration. With no more than one dial to navigate through fan speeds, this heavy-duty unit is straightforward to the core.

The real substance is in the medical-grade HEPA filter and massive activated carbon filter, ideal for tackling the finest particles and VOCs of cigar and cigarette smoke. Then, unlike other air purifiers, the Austin Air HealthMate has two pre-filtering stages, one for large-sized and the other for medium-sized particles that would otherwise clog the main filter faster — as a matter of fact, the HealthMate filter has an impressive lifespan of five years.

During performance tests, the Austin removed all PM from our room in 37 minutes. True, it could sound unimpressive compared to the speedy and budget-friendly Levoit Core 600. But, then, there’s no comparison to the activated carbon filter this unit is packed with — not even the IQAir Healthplus Pro has as much. No air purifier beats the Health Mate in dealing with VOCs.

➜ Read our full review

Other units we tested but don’t recommend for cigarette and cigar smoke:

• PuroAir HEPA 14 240 – This is one hyped unit that simply lacks the performance to back it up. After a close inspection, the PuroAir is no more than a cheaply made replica of the Levoit Core 300 – for twice the price. One of the core promises of this air purifier is the H14 HEPA filter, which, after testing its performance, didn’t prove to enhance the air cleaning capabilities. Pointlessly expensive, the PuroAir won’t do much against cigarette smoke either.

• Levoit H132 – Was shocked to see this device recommend for smoke by a well-known magazine as while its cheap its performance in our particle removal test was very poor it took 1 hour and 38 minutes to make our test room clean. Underpowered for most situations but would be dangerous if you relied on it to remove smoke.

• Okaysou AirMax 10L Pro – A super popular air purifier thanks to its slick use of TikTok influencers, but it failed to match our expectations. It cleaned our test room in 4 minutes longer than the much cheaper Core 300, and it made claims about its 5-in-1 filter technology that wasn’t true.

• Dyson HP04 – A high price for a good-looking device, but it has a very small CADR, and it took 1 hour and 24 minutes to clean all pollutants measuring 1 micron in our test room. Unless you like the fan function, this will be nearly useless for smoke issues.

• Levoit LV-H128 – At less than $40, this is a great price but a terrible air purifier as it took 2 hours and 42 minutes to clean our test room of 728 cubic feet of particle pollutants measuring at least 1 micron. It will be totally useless for any sized room to deal with smoke from cigarettes and cigars.
  
• Molekule Mini – You have probably seen adverts for this good-looking device from Molekule. We were a little suspicious of its PECO technology, and it took almost an hour to bring down the levels of PM1 to breathable levels. At this price level, it’s just a total waste of money, and you are better off with any of the other air purifiers we recommend. There is even a class action settlement in progress for devices sold by this brand.

Our methodology

To date, we have performed hands-on testing and reviews for 73 air purifiers and, just as importantly, published all the data we gathered to identify those that will perform best in various scenarios. 

Part of our process is choosing which units to purchase and test:

First, we gather the latest lab CADR and energy usage data from the AHAM VERIFIDE program and ENERGY STAR DIRECTORY, respectively. We combine this with data from Clean Air Stars and data we have gathered. 

Then, we use this list of hundreds of air purifier models to look for those with high levels of air cleaning performance to $ ratio, low sound levels, and easily available and fair-priced filters. 

We use our own money to buy those air purifiers that look worthy of hands-on testing and original experiments to confirm performance level, sound generation and long-term running costs, as well as evaluate features and long-term usage in a home environment.

To identify those that would be best for smoke, we chose those with a high level of cleaning performance but also included a large amount of activated charcoal and avoided those devices that created excessive levels of sound or poor value for money.

What to look for when buying an air purifier

1. Room Size

Many air purifier manufacturers will overstate the room size they can work in. While AHAM requires room sizes to be based on 4.8 air changes per hour, many air purifier brands will give the room size for 1 air change. 

Be very wary of manufacturers who don’t provide a CADR rating or don’t send their devices to AHAM for testing, as we have seen many of these devices over-exaggerate their performance when we test them ourselves.

The problem is that 1 air change is next to useless, especially with something as pervasive as cigarette or cigar smoke. 

That is why when we list room sizes, we always base them on their reported CADR and the maximum size when providing at least 4.8 air changes per hour. 

To make things simpler, we produced a tool that tells you the CADR in CFM you need for your room size – just enter your room size and adjust the ceiling height if required, and our tool will let you know what CADR is needed:

2. Filters

For dealing with tiny particles that can measure as small as 0.1 microns you will want to look at HEPA-grade filters. HEPA H13 are filters that have been tested to be 99.97% efficient at capturing particles 0.3 µm in size. HEPA H13 is used a lot in marketing material but most manufacturers don’t share third-party testing. One of the reasons I am a big fan of IQAir is that they share all their third-party lab data so you can be confident that all of their filters have been tested to this grade. 

Besides, other types of filter technology can sometimes make the air quality worse but in nearly all cases they promise a lot but fail to deliver. 

Just stick with HEPA it’s backed by decades of research and has no chemical byproducts.

While HEPA does a great job of removing the tiniest of particles from the air, odors and gasses will just pass through. You will need a good-sized activated carbon filter to deal with gasses and odors such as those from cigarette or cigar smoke. 

When it comes to activated carbon, bigger is better, which is why the top two choices we recommend for dealing with smoke are to measure their carbon filters in lbs. 

Be wary of the fabric carbon filters you see with devices from Blueair, as these filters will quickly lose effectiveness. 

Look for activated carbon filters that use pellets of actual carbon, as they will last much longer and are much more effective at removing odors. 

3. Features

Many newer air purifiers come with app support, onboard sensors and auto-modes that kick in when the sensor detects pollutants like particles or gasses. 

You will have to leave your device running continuously for regular issues with smoke, so these features might not be as useful as they are for those who want an air purifier for occasional cooking odors. 

For those who like their devices to be smart, our current top favorite is Mila, which combines multiple sensors and is more like a smart thermostat than an air purifier as the device learns the issues with your home to adjust to be most effective.

Wrapping up

I’ve intentionally made a varied selection of air purifiers for dealing with cigar or cigarette smoke. It’s a serious issue; you should be able to find a unit to fit your circumstances, budget and needs. 

Whether you found in this guide the unit that sounds right for you or will keep browsing on the internet for other options, make sure to check if the one that catches your eye is powerful enough and has the right CADR to clean your space, has a high-performance main filter and features an activated carbon filter (the more, the better) for the fumes and VOCs.   

My goal is to help more people improve their indoor air quality. So, if you have any doubts about our testing process or have a question that I haven’t covered in this guide, please feel free to email me directly: danny@housefresh.com

Last update on 2024-09-12 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API