I have a cat, seasonal allergies, and a partner who burns candles constantly, so the air in our apartment is a whole situation. I got three air purifiers at three different price points and tested them the same crude way: I watched how fast each one cleared a smoky room.

The candle test

I blew out a candle in a closed bedroom to fill the air with a little smoke, then turned each purifier on high and timed how long until the haze and smell were gone. It’s not a lab, but it tells you more than the spec sheet about how well a unit actually moves air through its filter.

What I found

• The expensive one cleared the room fastest, but the mid-priced one was maybe ninety percent as fast. The jump from cheap to mid was huge; from mid to expensive was small.
• Noise was the real difference. The budget unit was loud enough to hear from the next room, which matters if it runs in a bedroom.
• The cheap one moved air fine but its filter clogged with cat hair in weeks, and replacement filters cost almost as much as the unit.

What I’d tell a friend

• Check replacement filter cost before you buy. A cheap purifier with expensive filters is a bad deal.
• Buy for the room size, then go one step up. Most people under-size them.
• Run it in the bedroom if you only get one. That’s where the most hours happen.

I kept the mid-priced one. It cleared the smoke almost as fast as the expensive one and stayed quiet enough to sleep through.