This $89 Budget Air Purifier Performs Like a Premium Model, Clearing Smells and Pet Dander Fast

I live in a house with an open-plan kitchen-diner, and internal doors that have gaps, making cooking smells a constant pain in our daily life. They spread from the kitchen to the living room and waft upstairs.

As someone with the nose of a hound, cooking smells are my biggest pet peeve at home. We often air-dry clothes indoors to protect delicate items from shrinking in the dryer, and to save on energy bills over winter. But those two winter issues together, at a time when our home is lacking the usual natural ventilation we enjoy when the weather is warmer outside means I needed a better fix.

That’s why I’m glad to have tried the compact oneisall Double-sided air purifier from Amazon, which tackles these issues, and reduces the pet hair and dander floating around in our air with whisper-quiet operation whilst taking up minimal air space.

Why This Budget Air Purifier Has Impressed Me

To understand why it impressed, it’s key to share why I’d put off getting one of the best air purifiers I had my eye on for so long. My home is small, and we already have lots of appliances in most rooms for added comfort and functionality, including fans, portable air conditioning units, and multiple small cooking appliances.

I didn’t want to give up more floor or counter space for an item I thought I’d use intermittently, or deal with the sound I incorrectly thought an air purifier would have.

However, the oneisall purifier, available for fast delivery at Amazon, has made me eat my words. It’s quiet, even on its top speed, compact, light, and easy to move, and not only helps reduce cooking odors, but also keeps dust, pet hair, and dander under much better control, especially in my bedroom, where I needed it the most.

I’ve tested it in my home for a month and have been pleasantly surprised by the benefits it’s brought, which also included less dust gathering on surfaces.

It’s Great on Pet Hair

Its main strength, in my opinion, comes from its ability to grab pet hair and dander from the air and stop it from circulating or settling on surfaces. It does this on two washable filters that can be rinsed, dried, and reused. This saves from the long-term costs of having to replace them as often.

Dan Fauzi, our resident home technology editor and expert tester, explains, ‘This air purifier has an activated carbon filter – a rare feature in purifiers under $100, but an essential one when dealing with odors, as HEPA filters only capture particulate matter, not smells.

‘On paper, it has many of the specs that we see in purifiers that cost a lot more, such as the Coway Airmega Mighty, including automatic air quality detection, which means you can set it and forget it. It is impressive to see this much packed into a budget model!’

I mostly needed the dander and pet hair purification function in my bedroom, as during the daytime, my two cats, who shed a lot, love to groom themselves and sleep on my bed.

As I am allergic to them, this was triggering me at night. Usually, I keep them out of my bedroom as much as possible; however, since testing the oneisall air purifier, I let them in to see how effective the pet hair and dander collection is.

To my view, it’s very effective given that even with my cats sleeping on my bed and spending most of their day in my bedroom, my allergies are no longer triggering overnight. That benefit alone makes this a worthy spend.

I did, however, find that it couldn’t clear cooking smells from the entire lower floor of my house as I’d hoped, which measures around 500 square feet, but did just fine working room by room, and reducing odors in our kitchen-diner at the source, for instance, in around 15-20 mins. That positively impacted how much spread leaked out to the rest of the house.

Dan adds, ‘With a 118 CFM purification rate, this oneisall purifier is best for rooms that are roughly 180 to 250 square feet – not the 2,200 square feet claimed on the product spec. As a rule of thumb: You want the CFM to be around two-thirds of the room size.’

This test period has also coincided with my heating being broken (around two weeks on and off), so opening windows and improving ventilation naturally has been nearly impossible, as we were preserving all the heat we could.

I also found that no matter how high the cooking smells or how close the air purifier to the source of the smell, the indicator for particles remained below 7, which, to me, indicates the associated sensor may not be very sensitive. This doesn't impact functionality, only the information you are able to get from the unit.

For comparison, if I spray hairspray next to it, it remains at a 7. However, in my BYD Atto car, which had an advanced HEPA air purification system, when I turned on the air purification system and sprayed hairspray or sun protection spray on myself, the parts per million indicator would shoot into double or triple figures, and the auto-detect would amp up speed to clear it fast in about one minute.

Who It’s Good For

After testing this appliance in my compact home, I found that I loved its timer functions, whisper-quiet operation, multiple speed settings, and the option to turn off the running lights for less disturbance if used overnight.

It worked well on cooking smells in closed rooms, and though it didn’t facilitate that smell removal from my entire downstairs floor like a Shark Neverchange Air Purifier Max would, I was no longer having to re-wash air-drying laundry after cooking more odorous dinners.

It is fantastic for pet owners, whether that’s for tackling litter and food smells, pet hair, and dander, or all of the above. The washable filters collect hair visibly, and you can wash and dry them to reuse them quickly.

Setup was also quick and easy, taking just a few minutes to place the foam filters the right way around with clear instructions, and plug in to go. Plug yours in directly to the outlet, rather than on an extender, to avoid any potential issues or fire risks.

It’s also great for small space living as it’s compact and looks slick, with filters running on both sides for maximum air quality impact.

What to Shop

All prices were correct at the time of publication.

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