IQAir Atem Car review

The IQAir Atem is the best car air purifier on the market right now
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Our verdict

For just under $400, this is currently the most powerful car air purifier on the market. It cleaned the air from smoke in our Tesla Model 3 in just 37 minutes, and the app worked well (even if it’s not as slick as Dyson’s app). 

 

The performance is still less impressive than a standard air purifier, so we recommend using the car option inside vehicles but choose a larger unit over the desk model.

Founded in 1963, IQAir is one of the oldest air purifier brands around. Their high-end (and high-priced) units are manufactured in Germany, which makes them stand out at a time when most other brands have moved manufacturing to China.

I immediately became a big fan of the IQAir Healthpro Plus when I reviewed it in 2021, although it’s not cheap to buy or run, with filters costing up to $200 per year.

The IQAir Atem was released in 2017. It is aimed at people looking to use an air purifier in the car or as a portable unit for their desk. 

At $399.99, it costs the same as some larger air purifiers we have reviewed, so it’s not cheap, but we had high expectations and wanted to see how well it performed at keeping the air inside our car clean. 

There are two versions of the IQAir Atem, the Atem Desk and Atem Car, both priced at $399.99. The only difference is that the filter used in the Atem Desk can’t deal with gasses but the unit can be plugged into a traditional outlet — the car model uses the car DC power outlet. 

For $99 you can buy a desk accessory kit or car accessory kit to swap modes. 

  1. In our home lab of 728 cubic ft, we light an incense stick to generate particle pollution and VOCs.
  2. We set up our trusted Purpleair Indoor Sensor with the latest Bosch gas sensor to track levels of PM1ug/m3, PM2.5ug/m3 and PM10ug/m3 and VOCs in the air.
    purpleair
  3. We switch the air purifier to its highest speed and measure how long it takes to get our room air quality down to PM1 level to 0.
  4. For portable air purifiers, we repeat this test inside our Tesla Model 3 to see how good the unit is at cleaning the air in a small enclosed space.
    Testing QT3 in Tesla
  5. We use an energy meter to measure precisely how much electricity is used when running the unit at the lowest and highest fan speed settings.
    enery meter
  6. We track sound levels emitted by the air purifier at different fan speeds with the help of a commercial sound meter.
    sound meter

TL;DR The lowdown on the IQAir Atem Car

danny
“The best car air purifier on the market. It cleaned our Tesla model 3 in 37 minutes, but it comes with a hefty price tag. It has a high-quality HEPA filter, which can remove gasses and odors. Still, for those on a budget, there are better value devices for keeping your air clean.”
— Danny Ashton, HouseFresh Founder & Senior Writer
IQAir Atem Car 2

If you don’t want to read my full review, here are my key findings to help you figure out if the IQAir Atem Car is the right air purifier for you: 

What we really like

It cleaned our Tesla Model 3 in 37 minutes — 10 minutes quicker than the Smart Air QT3 and Westinghouse 1804.
Its design stands out for the right reasons.
The build quality is excellent, as expected from IQAir.
The HEPA filter is large and of high quality.
The app works well, but it’s a little slow to adjust to changes.
It’s quiet when running on low fan speeds.

What we think could be better

The price — at nearly $400, this is not an affordable air purifier.
Seat attachment didn’t work on our Tesla Model 3 as it has no adjustable headrests — it might be an issue if you drive a similar vehicle.
Touch buttons are not very intuitive and it was often easier to adjust using the app.

The specifications

Cost per CADR is a hefty $22.66 in comparison the Levoit Core 300 is 68 cents!

On paper, the IQAir Atem is a low-powered unit compared to traditional air purifier designs. Still, it’s entirely designed for vehicle use — with seat attachment and 12-24V DC power cable.

You can see the full breakdown below:

HouseFresh rating:★★★★☆
Time to clean our Tesla Model 3 (with the device running at top speed):37 minutes  
Time to clean our 728 cubic feet test room (with the device running at top speed):1 hour and 55 minutes
Air purifier technology:HyperHEPA Plus Filter
Recommended room size (4.8 air changes per hour):150 sq. ft. for car mode
Clean air delivery rate (CADR):Dust: 39 CFM
Dimensions (in inches / in cm):17.7H x 9W x 17.7D inches (29H cm x 29W x 10D cm)
Weight (in pounds / in kg):5.2 lbs (2.4 kg)
Filter life:1 year
Noise level in decibels (measured from 3 ft. away with a sound level meter):Speed 1: 35.5 dB
Speed 2: 40.5 dB
Speed 3: 58.2 dB
Electricity consumption in watts (recorded with an electricity usage monitor):Standby mode: 0.4 watts
Speed 1: 1.7 watts
Speed 2: 3.8 watts
Speed 3: 10.81 watts
Estimated running cost (electricity consumption + official filter replacement):$106.46 per year
Cost per CADR cfm (based on dust CFM as reported by AHAM):$10.23
Manufacturer’s warranty:2 years
Country of manufacture:Switzerland and Germany

Clean design that fits a modern car 

As you can see, IQAir has gone for a modern design that will fit well in most vehicles, moving away from the clunky beige design we see with their larger units (and in other portable air purifiers).

IQAir Atem Front

Most of the car air purifiers we recommend have to be placed somewhere inside the car, but the IQAir Atem offers a few different options for where to put it.

The first and top option is to use the straps to put it in place around the headrest of the driver or passenger seat. In this way, it doesn’t take up any space and can be easily adjusted by passengers in the back.

IQAir Atem Car 1

Sadly, this way of securing the Atem is not as effective in a Tesla Model 3 because the headrests don’t have the normal rails. This didn’t deter me from strapping the Atem to my seat but, while it did fit, it wasn’t fully secure.

IQAir Atem Back

IQAir also recommends strapping it in an empty seat in the back. This isn’t perfect, as it uses up a full seat, but it’s a good option for those with headrests that don’t work with the IQAir Atem design.

When we compare the IQAir Atem to other portable units, you can see it’s much bigger and far less portable than other car air purifiers:

Portable Air Purifiers Comparison

Similarly to some of the portable air purifiers, there is no screen on the Atem. Now, what I wasn’t expecting is the lack of physical buttons: everything is done with one touch by pressing the Atem logo that sits in the center of the device.

IQAir Atem Car 3

You will hear a sound when pressing the logo, but I found it was hard to hear it when there was a lot going on or the kids were in the car with me. That is why I ended up using the app to adjust the fan speed a lot more often than the button.

IQAir Atem Car App

Powerful HyperHEPA Plus filter

The car version of the IQAir Atem comes with IQAir’s famous HyperHEPA Plus filter that can clean the air from pollutants as well as gasses and odors. This is essential when driving on highways or roads with high levels of traffic pollution.

IQAir Atem Open

When you take the filter out of the IQAir Atem Car you can see where that $400 was spent. 

The sizeable filter takes up a lot of space in the unit.

IQAir Atem HEPA top

The HyperHEPA filter is clearly of high quality, similar to what is used in IQAir’s larger models. I was surprised at first to see a small, cheap-looking carbon-like filter on one side, but I realized that this was just a filter to protect the fan and isn’t used to clean the air.

IQAir Atem Fan filter

The Atem Car’s HyperHEPA Plus is $10 more and includes gas filtration technology. The regular Atem Desk filter only includes HEPA without the ability to clean the air from odors and gasses.

IQAir Atem HEPA Side

The filters are easily removed once you click the button on the back of the device near the power cord.

IQAir Atem No Filter

Many air purifiers will ship their HEPA filters in plastic, so ensure you remove them before starting the unit, or it won’t work.

The Atem cleared our Tesla Model 3 in 37 minutes

Similarly to other portable air purifiers, I tested the IQAir Atem in two different environments: the interior of our Tesla Model 3 (around 97 cubic ft.) and inside our 728 cubic ft. test room.

In both cases, I first used an incense stick to fill the space with smoke pollutants. Then, I recorded how fast the IQAir Atem could clean the air while running at its top fan speed. As usual, I did this by measuring PM1.0ug/m levels in real time with the help of our industrial quality air quality sensor from PurpleAir, which uses the latest Bosch BME680/688 gas sensor.

It’s worth mentioning that before running this test inside my car, I ensured all internal fans in the Tesla Model 3 were switched off. The results of this test are based on running the IQAir at its highest possible fan speed while being plugged into the car: 

Air cleaning performance test results

I expected the IQAir Atem would be faster than other portable units that we have tested like the Smart Air QT3. Still, I was impressed with how fast it could clean our Tesla Model 3 of particle pollution. See the comparison below:

When comparing the performance of the IQAir Atem to small corded air purifiers AND portable air purifiers cleaning the air inside our home lab, I was actually quite pleased to see how well the Atem faired:

Noise levels test results 

The standard noise levels are very quiet on speeds 1 (35dB) and 2 (40dB) and you often forget that the air purifier is running. I changed the fan speed in the app to 100% and the noise is pretty noticeable at this speed (58dB), so I can understand why this is not the default.

Overall, the Atem runs a little louder than the Smart Air QT3 at both its lowest speed (35dB vs 32dB) and highest speed (58dB vs 49dB).

The cost to run an IQAir Atem: $106.46 per year

For a small air purifier, it’s not a cheap unit to run — it costs much more than other portable purifiers, due to the high price of its HyperHEPA plus filters.

1. Electricity costs = $16.47 per year

Like other small, portable air purifiers you can use inside your car or other vehicles, the IQAir Atem doesn’t use much energy. Our meter reading test showed that it pulls just 10.8 watts when running at its highest fan speed. 

Assuming we run the IQAir Atem for 24 hours a day every day (365 days) non-stop, it would still only use $16.47 worth of energy.

IQAir Atem Power

2. Filter costs = $89.99 per year

Similar to the larger IQAir units, the filter costs associated to the IQAir Atem are much higher compared to other portable air purifiers. The HyperHEPA Plus Filter costs up to $89.99 per year and the HyperHEPA Plus costs $79.99, but it cannot deal with gasses and odors. 

At the point of writing this review, no generic filters are available for the IQAir Atem Car, so you will have to stick to genuine IQAir filters. The only problem is that IQAir filters seem to be unavailable on Amazon, so you will need to get them directly from IQAir.com. Not as convenient as I would like.


Bottom line

The IQAir Atem is the best car air purifier on the market right now. 

Yes, it isn’t as affordable as other portable air purifiers. Yes, the filters are not available to buy on Amazon and are quite expensive too. But one cannot deny the sheer air cleaning power of this device.

IQAir Atem Room

Those looking to save money would be better off with something like the Smart Air QT3 or the Westinghouse 1804.

But the IQAir Atem is my top pick for a car air purifier for those of you who drive through highly polluted highways and roads every day, and who have a good budget to spend. You won’t regret buying an air purifier from IQAir.

SOURCES

We calculated yearly costs associated with running the IQAir Atem Car 24 hours a day, 365 days per year utilizing the latest average energy prices as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of $0.174/kWh as of May 2024.

At HouseFresh, we have been reviewing air quality products since 2010. In all these years, we learned not to rely on manufacturers’ claims and the ever-so-glowing marketing materials. That is why we buy products with our own money, so we can write unbiased reviews after we’ve had enough time to evaluate air quality products in our home lab. Every unit we recommend has been thoroughly tested to assess its performance, energy consumption, and noise levels emitted in real-life environments. If you have any questions about our testing process for different types of air quality products, just drop us an email at hello@housefresh.com.

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About the author

Danny Ashton

Danny is the founder of HouseFresh and has been writing about air purifiers since 2010. He is our lead tester and reviewer, and is also the human in front of the camera in our YouTube channel.

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