This Little Air Purifier Makes My Home Less Gross. It’s Only $50 for Black Friday

Whether you live alone or share your home with pets or other people, some gross stuff is getting into the air. Allergens, smoke, dust, pet dander — the things that can agitate your allergies are everywhere, all the time. I have cats, so I breathe an absurd amount of cat litter dust every day, I’m sure. What helps? Having a good air purifier.

To deal with this, I deployed two different air purifiers, one on each floor of my apartment. I use Blueair’s Blue Pure Mini Max air purifiers, the smaller siblings of the device that performed best in CNET’s laboratory testing of air purifiers. The Blue Pure Mini Max devices are on sale for Black Friday, down to just $50 apiece on Amazon. 

Of course, you don’t need a messy home to benefit from an air purifier. And you may have someone on your gift-giving list who could benefit from breathing in a little less dust or dander.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money

Compact and effective air purifiers

When CNET’s intrepid lab engineers put air purifiers to the test, the champion was a different Blueair model, the Blue Pure 311i Max. Its auto mode allows it to respond to changing air quality conditions — running on a higher setting when needed, but conserving energy when air quality is high. The Blueair devices also did an excellent job of clearing particles in our testing chamber. 

The Blue Pure 311i Max is great for larger spaces, but my focus was on running one in the living room and one in the bedroom, so I opted for two of the smaller Blue Pure Mini Max purifiers. They’re small enough to fit on a desktop, quiet enough to provide easy-to-ignore background noise and they do a good job of removing irritants from the air.

You also have your choice of filters, with essentially three tiers: a basic particle and carbon filter, a mid-tier one with better filtration of smoke, and a higher-end one that does all that plus allergens. I started out with the basic filter but upgraded to the allergen blocking one when I replaced it, a choice I’d make again.

Do air purifiers make a good gift?

You may want to tread lightly giving someone an air purifier as a gift without some understanding. You don’t want to imply one of your loved ones has a smelly, gross home.

But we all, to an extent, live in dirty places, and if you’re comfortable taking that risk, an air purifier can make a great and useful gift. Think of it as a gift that says: “You have pets I’m allergic to, and I’d like to spend more time with you.”

Are the Blueair Blue Pure Mini Max air purifiers on sale for Black Friday?

Blueair has marked down its Mini Max air filters down to $50 for Black Friday on its website. Amazon has them for the same price. The company also has discounts on its larger air purifiers, like the larger 311i Max available now for $161. That one topped CNET’s list of the best air purifiers.

Watch CNET for other Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on home appliances and additional products.