The best medical-grade air purifiers, based on over 70 tests

Medical-grade air purifiers can remove more particles than standard H11 or H12 HEPA filters, which are often used in residential settings.

While H11 captures 95% of particles over 0.3 microns on a single pass, and H12 captures 99.5%, H13, often described as a medical-grade filter, offers enhanced particle removal rates, even from the smallest particles. 

These filters can capture 99.97% of particles sized 0.3 microns or bigger, and H14 takes it a step further, removing 99.995% of particles for comprehensive protection from allergies, bacteria and viruses.

A medical-grade air purifier can be a great help to people suffering from asthma, COPD, immunocompromised or any medical issue requiring clean air that is free of viruses, bacteria or tiny harmful particles.

We also ensured each option had fair long-term costs and acceptable sound levels, even at the highest fan speed. For most situations, we recommend H13 filters over H14, as those filters are so dense that they can restrict airflow and lead to leakage risk as air tries to go around the filter.

The following air purifiers all utilize medical grade H13 filters and ranked highly in our particle removal test. We tested each of them following the same process:

The data we collect from our tests show us which air purifiers are high-performing and worthy of spending your hard-earned dollars on and which simply don’t make the grade. 

Staff picks: Top 3 medical grade air purifiers

There are many air purifiers that utilize medical-grade filters on the market; here are my top three units that we’ve tested and reviewed.

Let’s look a little deeper into my top recommendations, along with four more high-performing air purifiers and a couple of units that you should avoid at all costs.

1. Staff pick: IQAir Healthpro Plus

When it comes to medical grade HEPA filters, IQAir is top of the game — the Healthpro Plus offers the highest grade HEPA on the market today.

If you’re serious about air quality, suffer from severe allergies and/or respiratory disease(s) or live in a highly polluted area, the IQAir Healthpro Plus is a unit you should look into. This robust air purifier is engineered and built in Switzerland, and each unit is rigorously tested before being sent out into the world.

When you look under the hood of the Healthpro Plus, you’ll find its three carefully engineered filters that maximize its efficiency at removing airborne particles. IQAir’s HyperHEPA filter is the main attraction, which removes 99.5% of particles down to 0.003 microns. To put that into context, the size of SARS-CoV-2 ranges from 0.07 microns to 0.09 microns.

Although the IQAir Healthpro Plus may look intimidating, it’s simple to operate and has a clear screen to navigate through its settings. Plus, there’s a remote control if you need it. There are no smart functions like an auto mode or app connectivity; the Healthpro Plus strictly concentrates on air quality over gadgetry.

If you’re looking for an extremely high-performance medical-grade air purifier…you’ve just found one.

Read our full review

2. The best performance per $ spent: AirDoctor AD3000 

If you’re looking for a fast-acting medical-grade air purifier that won’t drain your bank balance – the doctor is in.

A lot of marketing hype surrounds the AD3000, making big claims about its performance. And, if I’m honest, the hype is justified. The performance of this air purifier leaves many of its rivals in the dust (pun intended) with its UltraHEPA (medical grade) filter, auto mode, AQI and a CADR of 340 CFM.

Danny (HouseFresh founder) has the AirDoctor 3000 running in his bedroom over all the air purifiers we have because of its high performance and awesome effectiveness of its UltraHEPA filter at removing airborne pollutants down to 0.003 microns (100 times smaller than a standard HEPA filter).

As well as a medical grade filter, the AD3000 comes with the usual features we expect from modern air purifiers, like an auto mode, timer and light dimmer. It also features an ionizer that can be switched on and off (if you don’t like it).

Even though the price is slightly on the higher side, you’re paying for medical grade UltraHEPA filters and it’s one of the best performance per $ spent on the market today.

Read our full review

3. The quietest option: Smart Air Blast Mini

A medical grade air purifier built like a tank – This powerful unit delivers a CADR of 450 CFM with ninja-like sound.

Smart Air doesn’t make air purifiers like other brands. You won’t find smart features, an AQI or control screens; they believe in the core science. 

The Blast Mini is a testament to these beliefs. There’s just one dial to control the fan speed…that’s it. But that’s not a bad thing, as they put all their efforts into engineering the Blast Mini into a high-powered air-cleaning beast.

Even though this large air purifier uses a high-performance fan, Smart Air has managed to keep its sound output to a minimum. The average maximum noise produced across all air purifiers we’ve tested is 64 dB; the Blast Mini kicks out just 56 dB at its highest fan speed and 45 dB at its lowest.

The medical-grade HEPA filter in the Blast Mini is enormous. Smart Air has wasted no room in this unit, as the filter takes up the whole front. This huge filter has a lot of surface area to capture pollutants so that it can last 12 months over the usual 6 months. This, combined with a large fan, makes the Blast Mini an excellent option for a medical-grade air purifier.

For many consumers, the main benefit of the Smart Air over the IQAir Healthpro Plus will boil down to price; it costs $600 vs $899 for the IQAir HealthPro Plus. All while providing faster results in our clean air test.

Read our full review

4. Best wall-mounted option: Smart Air SA600 

Smart Air proves that medical-grade air purifiers don’t need bells and whistles to be effective.

Smart Air has solidified itself as a trustworthy brand in the world of air purifiers. Their no-nonsense approach to engineering over gadget ingenuity has proven highly effective. With a dual-inlet comprising two medical-grade HEPA filters and two activated carbon filters, the SA600 is no different.

Compared to the Blast Mini, the SA600 couldn’t be more different on the outside, but it’s the inside that counts, right? This smaller unit still packs a punch and earned its spot in this guide with its dual H13 grade HEPA filters at the forefront of its cleaning performance.

These two medical-grade filters are engineered and tested to remove 99.97% of airborne particles in your home, like dust, pet dander, allergens and even viruses smaller than COVID-19. Combine that with Smart Air’s powerful fans and you have a strong deterrent against pollution.

Read our full review

5. Mila

A futuristic air purifier with a brain that doesn’t solely rely on smart technology to clean the air in your home.

When it comes to computer technology, the Mila is the opposite of Smart Air. This medical-grade air purifier is packed with features and settings so you can tailor your unit to your needs and wants. Combine that with seven different filters to choose from (yes, I said seven), and you’ve got an air purifier that’s totally customizable to your home.

You can’t deny it; the Mila is a good looking air purifier with its wooden legs and curved body. The highlight of this unit is the machine brain. We haven’t quite reached AI status in air purifiers yet, but this is the closest you will get. I spent a while looking through each setting and I don’t think I would use them all, but they’re there if I want them.

Pretty face, big brain and filters to match. The options range from the basic H12 HEPA right up to an H14 HEPA packed with 1.25 lbs of activated carbon to remove odors and VOCs from your air, making the Mila even more customizable. If you’re looking for a medical-grade air purifier with plenty of features, you can’t go wrong with the Mila.

Read our full review

6. Dyson Purifier Cool TP07 

The TP07 showcases a combination of air purifier and fan that utilizes H13 HEPA filters.

Dyson is at the forefront of home devices, pioneering new technology and design in vacuum cleaners, hair care and now, air purifiers. The TP07 has two different features that can be used simultaneously. It’s a rotating fan and an air purifier containing medical-grade filters. It may not have the fastest cleaning performance in this guide, but its features and style make up for that.

Dyson isn’t known for shying away from innovative design, and the TP07 is no different. This towering unit takes up little floor space and can rotate 360 degrees to distribute clean air evenly. There is only one physical button to switch the unit on/off, so you use the remote control or the Dyson app to change the settings. Here, you can adjust the fan speeds, switch to auto mode, adjust the fan direction and engage rotation.

The display screen is very informative, showing you the quality of the air, fan speed, rotation and fan settings, timer and humidity, all with high-quality graphics. Under the hood, you find the medical grade HEPA filter in two halves. These easily click onto the body, saving you time when replacing them.

If you have the budget, the TP07 is a stylish combi unit with H13 HEPA filters.

Read our full review

Other medical-grade air purifiers that we tested but don’t recommend

As with most products, you have the good and the bad. There are air purifiers that use medical-grade HEPA filters but don’t have the performance or power to get the most out of them. Here are two units we own that we suggest you avoid at all costs.

• Levoit EverestAir – If you’ve seen our review of the EverestAir from Levoit, you’ll know how highly we rate this air purifier. Unfortunately, due to recent challenges made by Dyson concerning false advertising, Levoit has removed all mention of ‘HEPA’ from their branding. This means we can’t possibly include it in this guide.

What to look for when buying a medical-grade air purifier

Medical-grade air purifiers use a HEPA grade filter known as H13, which can trap 99.97% of particles sized 0.3 microns or bigger. While this type of medical-grade filter will be able to capture tiny particles such as viruses, you will still need to ensure that you can provide enough airflow to clean the air in your room.

But, with so many medical-grade air purifiers on the market, it can be tough to decide which is right for your home. Luckily, there are guidelines to follow to make sure you get the most out of your new air purifier.

Here are the top things to consider when choosing a medical-grade air purifier that are often overshadowed, yet more important than the initial cost and design of the unit.

1. Has the HEPA H13 received confirmation by independent evaluation?

The use of the term HEPA H13 is not regulated, so it’s easy for air purifier manufacturers to use this terminology even when they haven’t tested their filters through an independent body.

With Levoit recently removing the HEPA term from their marketing, it’s not just smaller brands you need to worry about.

To avoid risking buying a device that isn’t HEPA H13, you need to stick to companies that prove that they have had their HEPA filters tested by an independent body. The EU rules are BS EN 1822-1:2019; for the rest of the world, you will want to look for ISO29463.

For those with serious medical issues, you are better off spending more money on a brand like IQAir or Smart Air that are very open about their independent testing and avoiding cheaper brands that seem to offer the same features at a far cheaper price.

2. How big is your room?

It’s not just the grade of the filter that counts; it’s also the air purifier’s performance. The size of your room heavily dictates which air purifier will work effectively in it. Using the measurement CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate), we can calculate how effective an air purifier will be at cleaning the air in different-sized rooms.

The general rule is the larger the room, the higher the CADR is needed.

As well as CADR, you also need to consider ACH (Air Changes per Hour). While first-pass filtration is helpful, it’s even more critical that an air purifier can clean enough air to provide at least 4.8 air changes per hour.

For example, for a 350 sq ft room, you would need an air purifier with at least a CADR of 224 to provide 4.8 ACH (what the EPA recommends for portable air purifiers.) This is much lower than the 98 CFM that the Dyson combo units provide, meaning a room that size would still suffer from particulate pollutants.

It is essential that you accurately measure your room first, then work out what CADR you will need to clean it effectively. Feel free to enter your room size in our CFM calculator tool to see the CADR needed to keep the air clean in your room:

3. What are the long-term costs of running an air purifier?

For those wanting to keep the air clean all the time, you will need to ensure your air purifier runs 24/7, 365 days a year. If your air purifier is inefficient, it can end up adding a higher cost to your electricity bill.

It’s not just the cost of energy you need to consider, as all HEPA filters need replacing once they become full of particles. Eventually, airflow gets restricted so that they cannot clean as efficiently so you need to buy a new filter periodically to keep your air purifier performing to its highest standard. 

Some air purifier brands prey on consumers not thinking about the long-term costs when buying, so they offer cheaper units that cost much more in the long term in filter replacement costs.

There are now a lot of generic filters available for different models of air purifiers that cost much less, but if you are concerned about HEPA H13, be sure to stick to the genuine filters that will have been independently tested.

Common questions about issue

Wrapping up

Running an air purifier in your home is the best way to remove harmful airborne pollutants from your air. The scientific data to back this up is ample and well-documented. Air purifiers that contain a medical-grade filter will stop more particles in a single pass than low grade filters.

The trick is to find an air purifier that is right for your space and has enough power to utilize its high-grade filters efficiently and effectively. Each unit I have featured in this article is high-performing; some have more brains than brawn, and vice versa.

Which will you choose for your home?