9 Best Air Purifiers for Baby Room & Nursery of 2022 – Reviews & Top Picks 

Last Updated on December 11, 2021

Aviano AV890 7-in-1 Smart Home Air Purifier wTrue HEPA Filter for Large Room

Whether you’re purchasing an air purifier for the first time or replacing one that you’ve had a while, we can help. It can be difficult enough to sort through all the brands and features for a purifier that makes you hfappy, but when you need one to protect the lungs of a newborn, the decision can become a real challenge.

We’ve reviewed dozens of air purifiers already, and we have chosen nine different models that all have some features that will improve performance in the nursery and baby room.

Keep reading for our detailed reviews of each air purifier for a baby room and nursery, where we compare filters, noise, sharp edges, and PlasmaWave to help you make an educated purchase.

Let’s look at the models we’ve chosen for you to look at.


A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites

Image Product Details
Best Overall
Winner
Winix Air Purifier Winix Air Purifier
  • Charcoal filter
  • True HEPA filter
  • PlasmaWave technology
  • Best Value
    Second place
    Zeonetak Hepa Air Purifier Zeonetak Hepa Air Purifier
  • Quiet
  • Soft light
  • Low cost
  • Premium Choice
    Third place
    Fellowes Baby Air Purifier Fellowes Baby Air Purifier
  • Night light
  • Detects and reacts to air quality
  • Vornadobaby Purio Air Purifier Vornadobaby Purio Air Purifier
  • Cord concealment
  • Child-safety controls
  • Medify Medical Air Purifier Medify Medical Air Purifier
  • Nightlight
  • 3-speed fan
  • The 9 Best Air Purifiers for a Baby Room & Nursery – Reviews 2022

    1. Winix 5300-2 Air Purifier – Best Overall

    Winix 5300-2

    We chose the Winix 5300 as our pick for the best overall air purifier for a baby room & nursery because it has plenty of helpful features to help your child breath better at a fair price. It features a True HEPA filter along with a carbon filter to remove 99.97 percent of airborne particles. It features four fan speeds and a sleep mode. Sensors detect air quality and display it on the control panel. The sensors can also sense when it’s time to change each of the filters and will show that information as well on the control panel.

    Aside from the filters, the Winix also features a PlasmaWave technology that uses negative ions and water vapor but does not create ozone.

    The main downside to this air purifier is that the replacement filters are expensive, especially the charcoal ones, and they are the ones that always need replacing.

    Pros
    • True HEPA filter
    • Charcoal filter
    • PlasmaWave Technology
    Cons
    • Expensive replacement filters

    2. Zeonetak Hepa Air Purifier – Best Value

    Zeonetak Hepa Air Purifier

    The Zeonetak Hepa Air Purifier is our pick for best value, and we believe that after looking over what it has to offer, you will agree the Zeonetak is the best air purifier for baby room and nursery for the money. It’s a compact air purifier that uses a True HEPA filter to clean the air. It features soft light and a sponge area for placing essential oils. In our experience reviewing this air purifier, it ran quietly even with the fan on the high-speed setting. It also removed a large amount of dirt for such a small unit.

    We wish it were bigger. It is best for placing in front of you on a table or next to a crib. A toddler might grab it and play with the part that you can put essential oils, so you don’t want that.

    Pros
    • Low cost
    • True HEPA filter
    • Soft light
    • Quiet
    Cons
    • Limited to small areas
    • Not for toddlers

    3. Fellowes Baby Air Purifier – Premium Choice

    Fellowes AeraMax Baby DB55

    The Fellowes AeraMax Baby DB55 Air Purifier is our premium choice for people who aren’t afraid to pay a little extra for clean air. The AerraMax Baby features a True HEPA filter and a carbon filter and is designed to filter a room 200 to 400 square feet. It’s certified asthma and allergy-friendly and can detect air quality and react by adjusting the fan speed accordingly. The AerraMax Baby also uses PlasmaWave to help gain the benefit of negative ions without the harmful Ozone. The soft light is useful to illuminate the room without making it bright, and the display features a child lock mechanism.

    When we reviewed this model, we found it strong and effective but not a great air purifier to have around curious toddlers. This unit can tip over without much effort, especially if the child is tampering with the child-safety locked panel.

    Pros
    • True HEPA
    • Detects and reacts to air quality
    • PlasmaWave
    • Night light
    Cons
    • Tips over
    • On-off button

    4. Vornadobaby Purio Air Purifier

    Vornadobaby Purio Air Purifier

    The Vornadobaby Air Purifier is a three-stage purifier that has plenty of features that make it a good choice for a baby room. It features a true HEPA filter combined with a charcoal filter to eliminate 99.97 percent of contaminants from the air. It has a curved design with no sharp edges, child safety locking controls, and has cord concealment. There’s also a built-in nightlight to comfort your child and to help you make adjustments in the dark.

    Despite all the great features the Vornadobaby offers, we found it to be quite noisy. If your child is a sensitive sleeper, this device is likely to disturb them. It’s quieter on the low setting, but in our experience, the low setting doesn’t create enough circulation to make much difference in air quality. We also felt that the buttons on the control panel are quite hard to press.

    Pros
    • True HEPA
    • Child-safety controls
    • Nightlight
    • Cord concealment
    Cons
    • Noisy
    • Buttons hard to press

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    5. Medify MA-14 Medical Air Purifier

    Medify MA-14 Medical Grade Filtration H13 True HEPA Media

    The Medify Medical Air Purifier is a compact and lightweight air purifier. It has a CADR of 120 and features a three-speed fan and a nightlight function. There are no sharp edges to worry about, and it’s small enough to put up on a shelf or nightstand.

    In our experience with this model, it is only effective on the most enclosed areas. It’s too small for many rooms, and even with the fan on its highest setting, it doesn’t move much air. The filter is extremely lightweight and will need constant replacing. There is no charcoal filter to remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).

    Pros
    • Three-speed fan
    • Nightlight
    Cons
    • Tiny filter
    • Only good for a small area
    • No charcoal filters

    6. Alen BreatheSmart Classic Air Purifier

    Alen BreatheSmart Classic Large Room Air Purifier

    The Alen BreatheSmart Classic Air Purifier is rated to purify a large area. It comes with a HEPA-Pure filter, but you can change to three other filters depending on your needs. Other filters might target mold, while others might target odors. It also uses infrared technology to detect particles in the air and displays the air quality by changing the color of the on-off ring.

    In our experience with it, it worked well, but it is noisy. The front panel is attractive but is held on by magnets and falls off easily when bumped. The loose panel wouldn’t be such a big deal ordinarily, but since we are looking for a purifier to put in a baby’s room, we must take some points off.

    Pros
    • Switchable HEPA filters
    • Air quality sensor
    Cons
    • Noisy
    • Cover falls off

    7. Aviano AV890 Home Air Purifier

    viano AV890 7-in-1 Smart Home Air Purifier

    The Aviano AV890 features seven stages of filtration. It has a washable aluminum pre-filter, an anti-bacterial filter, a HEPA filter, a nano-cold catalyst filter, a charcoal filter, an ultraviolet radiator, and a negative-ion generator.

    That many filters pretty much cover every base for air purification. It also has three fan speeds, an air quality sensor, and rounded edges.

    When we tested it, we found it to work reasonably well and wasn’t too noisy, but for some reason, even with all the filters, it had trouble removing cigarette smoke. The negative ion generator can also generate ozone that we do not want around small children.

    Pros
    • Seven stages of filtration
    • Three fan speeds
    • round edges
    • air quality sensor
    Cons
    • Creates ozone
    • Doesn’t remove cigarette smoke

    8. Germ Guardian AC4150PCA Air Purifier

    Guardian Technologies

    The Germ Guardian is a dual-purpose air purifier and nightlight projector. It features three optional rotating nightlights that can help children feel more comfortable and keep them entertained throughout the night. Its compact design stands only 11-inches tall and will fit on any table or nightstand. It has a True HEPA filter and features a carbon filter to help remove harmful VOCs. It also emits ultra-violet light to neutralize bacteria and other living organisms.

    In our experience with this unit, the only negative things to be said were that its small size would prevent its use in a large room. Also, the filter combined with the rotating projector creates quite a lot of noise and causes it to be one of the loudest purifiers on this list.

    Pros
    • Three rotating nightlights
    • True HEPA filter
    Cons
    • Very Noisy
    • Too small for a large room

    9. Blue Pure 211+ Air Purifier

    Blue Pure 211+

    The Blue Pure 211+ is the last air purifier on our list, and though it may not be as good as the first three picks, there might still be something about this model that interests you. This model features a Swedish designed filter that reports to filter up to 99% of contaminants from the air. It also features a carbon filter for filtering harmful VOCs. It’s energy-efficient and uses only 60-watts with the fan up high. One button operation and no sharp edges make it safe for babies and toddlers.

    While many new hard-plastic items can have a bad smell when you first open them, this particular item set us back. The potent odor penetrated the entire area and remained the whole time we reviewed it. It ran a little loud, and there’s not enough information about the Swedish filters to trust them yet.

    Pros
    • Carbon filter
    • Energy efficient
    Cons
    • Swedish filter
    • Terrible odor

    Buyer’s Guide

    Let’s discuss the essential things to look for when choosing an air purifier for a baby room and nursery.

    The Micron

    The term micron refers to a unit of measurement. When talking about air purification, we are talking about removing particles from the air. An air purifier that can remove smaller particles is better. Some of the most harmful things in the air are the smallest.

    Examples

    • Human hair = 100 microns
    • Pet dander = 8 microns
    • Dust = 8 microns
    • Fungal spores = 7 microns
    • Anthrax = 6 microns
    • Tobacco smoke = 6 microns

    Types of Air Purifiers

    There are several different types of air purifiers available, and they all work a little different. Let’s look at the different types.

    Mechanical Purifiers

    Mechanical air purifiers use a fan to push air through a filter. They can use one or more of various kinds of filters to clean the air. This type of air purifier is the most common.

    Filters

    Let’s look at the different types of filters used in mechanical purifiers.

    HEPA Filters

    HEPA stands for High-Efficiency Particulate Air, and this is the industry standard type of filter used in critical situations and large buildings. It’s considered the most effective.

    HEPA filters are tiny glass filters woven into a paper mesh. These filters can capture a particle down to 0.3 microns in size. A typical HEPA filter can last 1 to 3 years before it needs replacing.

    HEPA-like Filters

    Hepa-like filters are also sometimes called HEPA-type filters. These filters are similar to HEPA but haven’t gone through the process of getting certified. These filters are not as effective as HEPA, but many can still filter particles down to five or six microns.

    Carbon Filters

    Carbon filters are more for removing odors than removing particles. This type of filter is especially useful for removing VOCs, which are Volatile Organic Compounds that a HEPA filter cannot filter. VOCs exist in several places around the home and are harmful to you, your children, and your pets. Many air fresheners, nail polish removers, paints, laundry detergents, and lots of other items put VOCs into the air.

    Carbon filters are much more expensive than HEPA filters, and they only last about three months. There is also some debate over if there is enough carbon in many filters to adequately filter out odors and VOCs.

    Ultraviolet Air Purifiers

    An ultraviolet or UV air purifier is a type of mechanical purifier that uses a fan to push air over an ultraviolet light instead of through a filter. The UV light will kill living organisms like bacteria, mold, and fungus.

    The downside is that it doesn’t remove anything from the air and only works to sterilize the environment. Another contested issue is whether on not an organism spends enough time under the light as it passes through the purifier to neutralize it.

    Ion Air Purifiers

    Ion air purifiers work by emitting negatively charged ions. The negatively charged ions attract positively charged particles in the air, and when they combine, they fall to the ground.

    There are a few downsides to the ion purifier.

    • There is some debate over how well they work and if they put enough negatively-charged ions into the air to affect air quality.
    • The contaminates in the air fall to the ground. You still need to vacuum and dust the surface that collects the falling material.
    • The process of creating ions also creates ozone.

    Ozone can trigger chest pain and sinus inflammation, leading to bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma. We recommend that if you do use an ionizing purifier that you do so in an unoccupied room and allow the ozone to disperse for at least 30 minutes before re-entering.

    Vornadobaby Purio Air Purifier White

    Smart Capability

    Smart purifiers can provide deeper insights into the quality of your air and the performance of the purifier. It collects data using various sensors and sends them to your cell phone or other device using an app. Smart purifiers can provide helpful info, including quality of air and filter condition.

    ACH Rating

    ACH stands for Air Changes Per Hour. This rating tells you how many times per hour your purifier can filter all the air in a room. A 3X-ACH rating means that a purifier can filter all the air in an area three times per hour. The strength of the fan and the size of the room are the most significant contributors to this rating. Most will give an ACH rating per amount of square feet. The higher the ACH, the more chances the device will have to remove pollutants.

    CADR Rating

    CADR stands for Clean Air Delivery Rate. This rating gives you a standard by which to compare the effectiveness of multiple air purifiers. To receive a CADR rating, all claims made by a product must be valid. Judges also test a device’s ability to remove three types of air pollution, dust, tobacco smoke, and pollen. Each of the three pollutants receives a number from 10 to 450 based on how well the purifier removes that pollutant. A higher number means more of that pollutant gets caught in the filter.

    • A CADR rating of 200/300/400 means 200 dust, 300 tobacco smoke, and 400 pollen.

    Room Size

    We calculate room size in square feet. To learn how many square feet your room has, multiply the length times the width. An 8-foot by 10-foot room will have 80 square feet. Although we purchase our air purifiers bases on the square feet of our room, high ceilings can affect purification. If your ceilings are high, add a few feet to your calculation.

    Placement

    Where you place your purifier can have a significant impact on how well it performs. Place your purifier close to the center of the room and away from obstructions like tables and chairs.

    Noise Level

    The amount of noise the air purifier makes is important because we will use it when we sleep. If the unit is too loud, it can interrupt your sleep. More importantly, it can disrupt the baby’s sleep.

    Power Use

    Air purifiers run continuously, and the amount of power they consume is a factor when choosing one for your home. Always try to look for models that have energy-conserving features or have an energy star rating.

    Baby Specific

    baby sleeping

    Because we are explicitly looking for air purifiers to put in the baby room, there are a few other considerations we need to make.

    Lockable Controls

    One of the primary features we need in a purifier for the baby’s room is a way to lock the controls, so curious babies don’t change them.

    Hide a Cord

    Anything our air purifier can do about lessening the amount of cord to trip over or choke on is appreciated.

    No Sharp edges

    We don’t want any sharp corners or parts that break off. Soft curves are better.

    Nightlight

    An air purifier with a soft light can comfort a child and help a parent navigate a dark room without waking the child.

    Conclusion

    We hope that after reading this article about air purifiers, you are a little bit closer to making this difficult decision. We believe in our choice for the best overall. The Winix 5300-2 delivers clean air with a HEPA filter paired with a charcoal filter. It also features the new PlasmaWave technology and isn’t too loud to operate. Our pick for the best value is also an excellent choice for smaller areas and is only a fraction of the price of some of the other models.

    No matter what air purifier you choose to place in your nursery or baby room, we hope that we have helped you arrive at a decision. Hopefully, our buyer’s guide was helpful and informative, and our reviews gave you an idea of what’s good and what’s bad. If this best air purifier article has helped you, please share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.