Best Air Purifiers For Smoke Under $100 (2022 Review)

If you’re in the market for a budget friendly air purifier for smoke, you’ve come to the right place!

In this proHVACinfo guide, you will learn the following:

  • What are air purifiers for smoke under $100?
  • What are the different types of air purifiers for smoke under $100? (do HEPA filters matter?)
  • How do air purifiers for smoke under $100 work? (what you should know before buying)
  • What do you look for in the best air purifiers for smoke under $100? (how to get the most bang for your buck)
  • And much more!

Short on time? Below you’ll find a quick list of our top 5 recommendations, keep scrolling to learn more!

ImageProduct
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Holmes 4-Speed Air Purifier
  • Enhanced Carbon Filter
  • Good for Large Rooms
  • Filter Viewing Window
  • Enhanced Carbon Filter
  • Good for Large Rooms
  • Filter Viewing Window
View on Amazon
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Pure Enrichment PureZone 3-in-1 Air Purifier
  • UV Sanitization
  • Energy Efficient
  • Ozone Free
  • UV Sanitization
  • Energy Efficient
  • Ozone Free
View on Amazon
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Hamilton Beach TrueAir Air Purifier
  • Household Name Brand
  • Easy To Clean
  • Economical Replacement Filters
  • Household Name Brand
  • Easy To Clean
  • Economical Replacement Filters
View on Amazon
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LEVOIT Air Purifier for Smoke
  • 360 degree air intake
  • H13 True HEPA Filter
  • Specialized Toxin Absorber Filter
  • 360 degree air intake
  • H13 True HEPA Filter
  • Specialized Toxin Absorber Filter
View on Amazon
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Homelabs Purely Awesome Air Purifier
  • Appealing Design
  • Highly Portable
  • Child-Lock Function
  • Appealing Design
  • Highly Portable
  • Child-Lock Function
View on Amazon

What Are Air Purifiers For Smoke Under $100 (are they any different)?

Air Purifiers are devices designed to pass polluted air through a filter, or a series of filters, in order to remove harmful large and small particles from the atmosphere in your home.

Once the air is filtered, a fan pushes the clean air out into the space. For this reason, they are sometimes referred to as air sanitizers, as they clean the air you’ll eventually be breathing.

Portable air purifiers for smoke under $100 are typically smaller units designed to clean the air in a single room, or a partial area of that room, as opposed to cleaning a larger area (or even the air for the whole building).

Best-in-class air purifiers (of all price ranges) feature “True HEPA” filtration, which is a rigorous quality standard the purifier must meet to earn the “HEPA” designation.

In the under-$100 range, you’re more likely to run into “HEPA-Type” filters. These can still be effective, but don’t meet quite the same standard as their “True HEPA” counterparts.

Don’t worry; you can still find air purifiers under $100 that have True HEPA technology (we’ve picked some of our favorites to review).

What Are The Different Types Air Purifiers For Smoke Under $100?

HEPA Filtration

HEPA stands for “High Efficiency Particulate Air” [filtration]. With this type of purification, air is forced through an extremely fine filter media, capable of clearing air pollutants as small as 0.3 microns.

For this reason, they are exceptionally effective for capturing and removing air contaminants.

If you’re specifically looking for an air purifier for smoke, you’re actually less inclined to care about HEPA vs. HEPA-Type filters.

Why?

These are particle filters, so they target different air pollutants than those generated by smoke.

What you should really be focused on is an air purifier with a solid activated carbon (sometimes called activated charcoal filters). These are most effective for handling contaminants like smoke. Let’s take a look!

Activated Charcoal Filtration

Activated charcoal (sometimes also referred to as “activated carbon”) is a material that has been used in industrial filters for quite some time.

It is exceptionally effective at removing gases like smoke and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs from the atmosphere.

This makes them an excellent choice when it comes to removing harmful smoke particles.

Again, if your focus is on eliminating smoke and its associated smell, be sure to get an air purifier with a strong activated charcoal filter.

Ionization Purifiers

Ionizing air purifiers produce charged ions and blow them out into the air in the room the purifier is in.

When the ionized particles come into contact with the neutrally charged atmospheric particles, they take on that charge.

The end result is the atmospheric particles becoming attracted to, and sticking to walls and other surfaces, rather than continuing to float in the atmosphere.

Electrostatic Purifiers

Electrostatic purifiers make use of filters with an electrostatic charge.

As air passes through the filters, the electrostatic filter media attracts and captures airborne contaminants.

Some electrostatic purifiers are even capable of killing mold spores, viral, and bacterial particles with their positive charge.

UV Lights

UV, or ultraviolet light is a known killer of germs and viral particles. Some air purifiers are fitted with built in lights to combat pathogens in the air.

While having the UV feature is nice overall, it isn’t all that helpful for smoke specifically.

Check out our In-Depth Review and Safety Guide on UV Lights!

How do Air Purifiers For Smoke Work?

By utilizing any one (or sometimes multiple) of the technologies listed above, air purifiers for smoke clean the air that passes through them, and then push that air out into the room, or space, that you are in.

The large particles and contaminants found in smoke can be extremely hazardous to health, but an effective air purifier can literally trap the particles in its filter media, or neutralize them in the air with ionization technology before they ever reach your lungs.

 If you’re interested in a deeper dive on air purifier technology, take a look at our article on How Air Purifiers Work

What Do You Look For In The Air Purifiers For Smoke (and what to keep an eye out for at a lower price point)?

The technology used for purification varies between units, but there are still some features common to most purifiers that you should be on the lookout for.

High Effectiveness Percentage

You will want to make sure that your air purifier is rated to remove at least 99% of small particles from the air.

Ultrafine particles (those that are less than 10 micrometers in diameter) are actually the most hazardous to health, so the higher the rating for small particles, the better.

The True HEPA purifiers we recommend are rated to remove up to 99.97% of particles!

Build Quality

When shopping to a budget, you are far more likely to find poorly made products, especially in the ultra-competitive air purifier market. This is why it’s especially important to look for sturdy products.

Buttons are often the first thing to break on cheaper devices, so be sure that the controls on the purifier you buy are sturdy enough for daily use.

Ease Of Filter Replacement

Not only should any filter media be easy to remove and replace, it should also be easy to find. A good air purifier for smoke under $100 will use replaceable filter media that is either a generic size, or readily available, and cost effective to replace.

Our Reviews Of The Best Air Purifiers for Smoke Under $100

Check out our guide on the Best Holmes Air Purifiers!

Want to learn more about medical-grade air purifiers? Check out our guide here!

Final Thoughts

In many cases, you’ll “get what you pay for” when it comes to buying cheaper air purifiers, but in some cases, like the ones we’ve brought to you in this proHVACinfo guide, you’ll get something really useful.

With wildfires becoming more and more common, smoke is a serious concern for many residents across certain areas of the country.

You can significantly reduce the health hazards caused by smoke related pollution by investing in an air purifier for smoke.

Not only will you reduce the associated health hazards by investing in an air purifier for smoke, you will also reduce the wear and tear on your home’s HVAC system.

A purifier will capture airborne contaminants, leaving fewer particles to find their way into the ducting.

Remember – clean air in, clean air out!

Stephen Marks

Stephen Marks

Stephen is an HVAC and home-repair enthusiast. He's here to answer any of your questions about HVAC!

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Stephen Marks

Stephen Marks

Stephen is an HVAC and home-repair enthusiast. He's here to answer any of your questions about HVAC!

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