Many individuals use air purifiers in their homes to help remove irritants from the air. Since airborne particles circulate 24 hours a day, it’s best to keep your air purifier operating, even when you’re asleep. However, having an appliance that runs throughout the night can be disruptive to your nighttime routine.
AirDoctor claims to have a solution. They say their 4-in-1 Air Purifier removes “100% of airborne particles at 0.003 microns in size,” which means the air purifier can remove contaminants from the air that cause both short-term and long-term symptoms associated with indoor air pollution. Additionally, according to AirDoctor, the product’s WhisperJet fans are 30% quieter than fans found in ordinary air purifiers, ideal for those who want a peaceful home environment.
The AirDoctor Air Purifier sounded like the perfect product for our needs, so we tested it to see if this air purifier really could clean the air while you sleep. Here’s what we found.
To test the AirDoctor air purifier, we had an individual who currently uses a Honeywell HPA300 HEPA Extra-Large Air Purifier use AirDoctor 4-in-1 a test. This individual uses the air purifier to treat a large area of their home, removing not only dust but also smoke and pollutants from the wildfires that regularly occur in the western portion of the United States. There are five people who live in the house, and four of them suffer from pet allergies, so they need an air purifier that can remove allergens from the air as well.
Our tester used the AirDoctor 4-in-1 in place of the Honeywell and took extensive notes on how the home environment was affected by this product. They also paid particular attention to how disruptive the appliance was to day-to-day living.
The AirDoctor Air Purifier is a home air purifying appliance that features an UltraHEPA filter that is capable of capturing 100% of particles down to .003 microns in size. For comparison, a regular HEPA filter is only designed to remove 99.97% of particles down to .003 microns in size. Additionally, the unit can remove a majority of volatile organic compounds and gases from your home’s air. To do this, the AirDoctor purifier uses a three-stage filtration system that is designed to circulate the air in a 900 square foot room up to three times in an hour. The air purifier also has a built-in sensor that monitors the air quality and automatically adjusts the performance of the unit as needed.
We found the AirDoctor to be a sleek, unobtrusive machine that has easy-to-understand controls. The built-in air sensor made it easy for us to maintain good air quality in our home.
The setup was easy. After the unit arrived, we carefully removed it from the box. We took off all of the plastic tape, opened it up and removed the plastic packaging from the filters inside. After closing the unit, all we had to do was plug it in and turn it on.
When it's operating in Auto mode, the AirDoctor air purifier constantly evaluates the air quality and displays either a blue circle for good air quality, an orange circle for fair air quality or a red circle for poor air quality. The machine then adapts its performance based on the quality of the air. We thought this was a nice feature because it makes us aware of the current air quality as the unit automatically adjusts to more effectively purify the air. We were very pleased with the set-it-and-forget-it functionality of this model.
When it is time to change a filter, one or both of the filter indicator lights will turn on — there’s a light for the ultraHEPA filter and a light for the carbon filter. To change the filter, you must turn off and unplug the unit. Next, open the front, pop out the filters, unpack the new ones, drop them back in and cover it up again. After that, you are good to go for up to another 12 months for the ultraHEPA filter and up to another 6 months for the carbon filter.
The air quality indicator is one of the best features of this air purifier because it lets you know at a glance the quality of the air in your home.
One of the key selling points we wanted to test were the WhisperJet fans. The unit has four operating speeds. At the two lowest speeds, we found the company’s claims were true, and the AirDoctor runs at a whisper-quiet level. When we moved up to the third speed, while the unit could still be considered “quiet,” there was a noticeable increase in operating volume. When the unit kicks into its highest speed, however, it is very loud — sounding like a portable air conditioner at maximum speed. On the plus side, this only happens in Auto mode when the air quality turns poor. We found this to be a reasonable trade-off to quickly purify the air in your home.
We tested two units in a 4,000 square foot house. While this is considerably different than the manufacturer recommends, we found it eventually did a decent job of purifying all of the air in the house. For example, if we opened our windows during the recent wildfires, our indoor AQI (per PurpleAir) would be between 150 and 200, but with all windows closed, and the two AirDoctors running, we found the indoor number would drop to an AQI of 40 to 50 overnight.
The cost of the AirDoctor 4-in-1 Air Purifier is $495 with a one-year filter replacement combo pack available for $149.95.
You can purchase both the AirDoctor 4-in-1 Air Purifier and the replacement filters on Amazon.
While testing the AirDoctor air purifier, we noticed a definite improvement in the air quality, as well as a substantial decrease in congestion due to household allergies. The AirDoctor also had a substantial impact on managing the indoor pollution created by the smoke from wildfires. Overall, this product is excellent at managing or eliminating indoor air pollutants such as pet dander, dust, pollen and smoke. It is even capable of removing lingering cooking odors. Unless you have it at the highest speed, this air purifier can be run at night without disturbing your sleep.
From our experience, there aren't too many drawbacks with this machine. The primary concern for some people will be the cost of the unit and the replacement filters. Additionally, while it can be disconcerting to have it kick into high gear when poor air quality is detected, you can override the Auto mode and have the air purifier operate at a lower speed if you don’t like the noise.
Admittedly, the AirDoctor 4-in-1 Air Purifier is a high-end air purifying unit. However, if you want the best product for purifying the air in your home, we would have a hard time recommending anything else. This machine is ideal for someone who is concerned about the indoor air quality of their home, and it can help reduce symptoms in individuals who have allergies or sensitivities to air pollution and smoke.
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Allen Foster writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
