[verdict]
The PureZone air purifier is made by Pure Enrichment, a brand from A Bear Down Brands, LLC, based in California. The company produces various home air quality products, from humidifiers to heat therapy. According to Linkedin, they were founded in 2010 and currently have 55 people working for them.
They make products with a budget in mind, with many lower-priced products that are big sellers on Amazon. PureZone is their design for a portable air purifier and they also sell several standard air purifiers.
| Why You Can Trust This Review We buy products ourselves so we can give you an unbiased opinion every time, which means we don’t rely on the specs that manufacturers provide. We built a testing room in our home and test air purifiers in there: 1️⃣ We closed the door to our testing room and lit a powerful incense stick. We turned on the PureZone Mini at full speed and used an air quality monitor to track PM1.0ug/m3, PM2.5ug/m3 and PM10.0 ug/m3 levels as they decreased. 2️⃣ We used an electricity usage monitor to plug in the PureZone Mini and track energy consumption levels. We record energy usage at its lowest speed and its highest speed. 3️⃣ We used a sound level meter to record noise levels when running the PureZone Mini at its lowest and highest speeds. With all this data in hand, we can use Flourish to visualize the data and compare the performance of the how long the air purifier took to remove all the pollutants. |
I didn’t sit down to write this review until AFTER we conducted all these tests. You can rest assured I will tell you if this is not a unit you should buy.
TL;DR The Lowdown on the Pure Enrichment PureZone Mini
“The PureZone Mini is an affordable and portable air purifier — great for traveling or for your car, but not a good option for using in your home.”
— Danny Ashton, Founder & Senior Writer
If you don’t want to read my extensive review, here are my key points about the PureZone Mini air purifier:
What We Really Like:
👍 Portable design both in weight and size — super easy to throw in a bag or take on the plane
👍 Simple to use with one button that does everything
👍 No ionizer or ion-generating technology that can make air quality worse
👍 USB-C charging with the ability to charge the battery quickly
👍 Battery lasts a decent amount of time with 12 hours on low, or 2.5 hours on the highest speed
What We Think Could Be Better:
👎 Air cleaning performance is not enough for even the smallest rooms in your house
👎 FIlter costs soon add up and could become a high cost if you use the unit often
👎 Activated charcoal is used in such small amount it’s not useful
You Get What You Pay For
At less than $50 this is one the cheapest portable air purifiers on the market. But its air cleaning power won’t blow you away, with a CADR score of only 10 CFM.
| HouseFresh Rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
| Time to clean our Tesla Model 3: | 3 hours and 41 minutes |
| Time to clean our test room: | 6 hours and 49 minutes |
| Air purifier technology: | HEPA and Activated Carbon Pre Filter |
| Recommended room size: | 54 ft² |
| Clean air delivery rate (CADR): | 10 CFM (17 m3/h) |
| Dimensions (in inches / in cm): | 8.5H x 2.7D x 3.3W inches / 21.5H x 6.8D x 8.8W cm |
| Weight (in pounds / in kg): | 0.27 kg / 0.58 lbs |
| Noise level (measured from 3 ft. away): | Speed 1: 35.7 dB Speed 2: 37.5 dB Speed 3: 43 dB |
| Filter life: | 6 months |
| Electricity consumption (kilowatt-hour): | Standby mode: 0 kWh Speed 1: 12.1 kWh Speed 2: 7.5 kWh |
| Estimated running costs (electricity consumption + filter replacements): | $29.44 per year |
| Manufacturer’s warranty: | 5 years |
| Country of manufacture: | China |
It’s Tiny!
I love how small the PureZone Mini is. It weighs just under 0.6 lbs, so it is also light enough to use for traveling.
The size of the PureZone Mini guarantees portability, especially considering the handle at the top of the unit. However, I think there are improvements to be made.
| ⚠️ Unfortunately, the handle came off a few times, leading to the unit falling to the floor. Luckily, the air purifier didn’t suffer any damage and I could put the handle in place again. |
You will be able to access the filters when turning the air purifier upside down.
In terms of comparing the PureZone Mini with other similar portable air purifiers, the number one option would be the Smart Air QT3. Both these units are portable and have similar performance and specifications. In terms of design, the PureZone Mini is much smaller.
Personally, I like the look of the QT3 but that’s my preference, for sure. I can see why other people would prefer the PureZone Mini – especially if the idea is to have the unit in their car, as it fits the cupholder like a glove.
Simple 3-Speed Control
The PureZone Mini portable air purifier is very simple, with just one button that switches it on and three selectable speed modes.
I suggest keeping it at the highest speed to clean the air effectively as this is a very small unit. You need to assess if you’re comfortable with the noise level output at that speed, though! Keep reading to learn more about noise levels.
I read about some people hanging the Pure Enrichment Pure Zone around their necks. While I am not sure how effective this would be, it would be straightforward to do, considering how light and small this unit is.
Let’s Talk Filters: True HEPA With Activated Charcoal
The PureZone Mini comes with a solid HEPA filter and a small amount of activated carbon. It’s not bad for filtering the air from particle pollution but it would be useless against VOCs.
The filters are defined as True HEPA — similar to the H11 and H12 filters that will stop 99.97% of particles smaller than 0.3 microns. It makes sense they would choose to use a lower grade HEPA than the medical grade H13, as this would reduce airflow too much for such a small fan.
There is also meant to be activated charcoal in the pre-filter, but it looks like a minimal amount and I doubt it would do much for odors. I bet it is just included to make it look good in marketing. You need significant amounts of carbon for it to be effective, and in such small amounts, this air purifier is nearly useless for gases and VOCs.
I liked exploring the interior of the PureZone Mini. Upon inspecting the fan, I would say it reminds me of those small fans used to cool computers.
Replacing the filter is as straightforward as you could probably imagine. Turn the unit upside down, open the cover and extract the filter:
| ⚠️ When you first open the Pure Enrichment PureZone Mini, remove the filter from the bag; otherwise, it will do nothing to remove pollutants in your air. |
The PureZone Mini Cleared Our Test Room in 409 Minutes
No one wants to read an air purifier review that just looks at the design and aesthetics; we want to know how well the unit removes pollutants from your home air.
As with all the air purifier reviews we conduct here at HouseFresh, we tested the PureZone Mini in our testing room of 705 cubic ft and tracked the removal of incense smoke using our indoor purple air sensor.
The PurpleAir indoor sensor lets us see how quickly PM1ug/m3, PM2.5ug/m3 and PM10ug/m3 particles are removed from the air. We test all our air purifiers in the same space, allowing us to compare performance across different devices.
The PureZone Mini is a portable air purifier, so we had problems removing all the pollutants from our test room.
In 5 hours and 39 minutes, it made the room breathable. Considering the small size of this air purifier, it makes sense that it would not be able to clean the air as it is designed for much smaller rooms.
Air Cleaning Performance Compared to Other Air Purifiers
It didn’t compare favorably with the Smart Air QT3, another portable design that took 286 minutes (roughly one hour less) to achieve a similar level of “clean air.”
When compared to a non-portable unit like the Levoit Core 300, which managed to clear all pollutants in 40 minutes, you can see the potential downsides of portable air purifiers for use in the home.
Noise Levels Test Results
We also tested noise levels emitted from the PureZone Mini with the help of our sound level monitor. Check out the chart below to find out how sound levels compare to other units:
Of course, noise levels can be a subjective thing as something you find noisy might be totally acceptable to me. That’s why I recorded a video so you can hear the sound:
The Cost to Run a PureZone Mini: $29.44 Per Year
1. Electricity costs = $9.46
As this is a portable device, the electricity costs will be minimal and related to how much you use it. I was pleased to see a USB-C charging port, as we have many chargers in the house.
2. Filter costs = $19.98
$9.99 might seem cheap for a filter replacement, but considering how little air it can clean, the costs could soon start to add up if you use it regularly. In the long term, you would be better off with a large air purifier that would cost far less in filter replacements for any serious issues requiring long-term usage.
We saw that you could purchase generic versions of the filter, bringing costs down to $4.25 if you buy four.
The Bottom Line
There are not many portable air purifiers on the market, and this is one of the better ones we have seen. It comes with all the downsides of portable air purifier designs, with a low level of air cleaning performance when used in most rooms in the house, but it could be helpful for travel during flights or driving.
I like the ability to be able to remove pollutants while I am driving, and for now, this is the primary use I would recommend. If that’s the type of air purification you’re looking for, you should also look at the Smart Air QT3.
Just be aware that you will be disappointed if you plan to use the Pure Enrichment PureZone Mini to replace a standard non-portable air purifier, such as the Levoit Core 300 or the Taotronics AP003.
SOURCES
We used the Department of Energy’s appliance energy calculator to calculate the yearly electricity costs associated with running the Pure Enrichment PureZone Mini for 24hs a day for 365 days. We ran this calculation utilizing the U.S. average utility rate of $0.12/kWh as of March 25th, 2023.
Last update on 2024-04-22 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
