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Stylish and Silent Air Purifiers for the Beautiful Home

01.25.17 | By
Stylish and Silent Air Purifiers for the Beautiful Home

It’s during winter months when windows are kept closed for extended periods spanning days, if not weeks. Interior air quality drops precipitously due to pollutants from VOCs emanating invisibly from our home furnishings, alongside other sources like fireplaces, water heaters, dryers, and stoves – in sum, it adds up to higher concentrations of harmful pollutants that in turn manifest in a myriad of symptoms.

An air purifier – alongside a humidifier – can help ease “sick home syndrome”, with several new models available today incorporating smart home connectivity features with designs that won’t aggravate the design senses, all the while alleviating the senses related to the body.

1. Blueair Classic
Sweden’s Blueair understands the inherent problem with a great many air purifiers: they’re large and intrusive, and oftentimes, an eyesore. Their line of understated and smart industrial design is already amongst the best in the category, thoughtfully designed with tastefully neutral casings. Their Classic line has been amended with a slew of upgrades, including wi-fi and smart app/air sensor connectivity, a 20% boost in clean air delivery, a sleeker profile, and quieter performance using a combination of electrostatic and mechanical HEPA-style filtration. The Classic family comes in models 205405505, and 605 – each model varying based upon room size coverage (ranging from 280 sq. ft. to 775 sq. ft.).

2. Blueair Blue
When I first spied the eye-popping palette of these colorful air purifiers, I thought stationery brand Poppin had inexplicably entered the air purifier category. Instead, these seem to be the most playfully designed expressions of Swedish design from the same manufacturer responsible for the previous subdued design. The 360° design pulls in air from its entire bottom half, filters an interior space using a particle and carbon membrane good for 24 hours use for 6 months (4,380 hours). Each model can be customized to match mood or decor with interchangeable pre-filter covers available in five colors.

3. Alen BreatheSmart FLEX
This model reminds me of the numerous decor-friendly air purifier models readily available in Asia, where population dense cities make air filtering inside every home and office a necessity, and slim space-saving designs a prerequisite. Available in 14 colors, the BreatheSmart FLEX removes 99% of particles greater than 0.3 microns from a selection of four types of HEPA filters optimized for specific filtration purposes.

4. LG PuriCare Air Purifier Round Console
LG won a Red Dot Design award for this metallic cymbal-shaped home+health appliance, one designed to be “mistaken for décor”. But it’s hard not to chuckle after noting their comparison of this air purifier’s audible output to the near silence of “falling leaves”. Its most quiet 23dB sleep mode is indeed remarkably hushed in comparison to most machines, noting an air purifier is best used at its maximum speed for optimal airflow; the PuriCare’s CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) of 205 for dust filtration matches a very respectable 10-year warranty.

5. MUJI Air Purifier
The design is nearly 2 years old now, but like most everything designed by MUJI, the Japanese brand’s Air Purifier remains timelessly at the top of our list for appliances we wouldn’t hesitate keeping out in view. If Design Milk reader comments are any indication, its function matches its fashionability.

6. Mist by Ponti Design
Is there a German automobile of most tasteful vintage in the garage? Do black turtlenecks play prominent in your closet? Perhaps a Porsche Design Group catalog graces your desk, a few Braun classics available in the kitchen? Does the mere mention of Walter Gropius and Dieter Rams warrant curiosity? Then this is your air purifier.

7. Sprimo
Taking inspiration from the functional adaptability of the similarly shaped Vornado, this compact air purifier is designed to deliver clean air in a “purified bubble of clean, healthy air” from the desk instead of handling the entirety of a room. This solution seems especially ideal for anyone who works in communal workspaces, where air quality can questionable at best, illness inducing at worst, providing a direct. Add in a built-in sensor, touchscreen interface, and scheduling, controls, and monitoring via app, and you’ve got an effective means to keeping the immediate area around you cleaner at arm’s length.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.