​​Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier

I don’t want to be one of those giddy-with-first-impressions folks in not testing a product thoroughly for months before posting a review… but this thing makes me wanna do just that. It arrived simple & understated.. and by that I mean, unpacking was easy and it did not take brute force or cleaning stray pieces of styrofoam for 30 minutes after unboxing. It slid out, I removed two pieces of protective styro caps, and unwrapped the shrink wrap. I took off the plastic wrap from the filters (which were already in place so I didn’t have to read a book of instructions first to figure out where to put them). Then I simply plugged this sucker in, and it worked on auto right out of the box. It was like unboxing an Apple product — so intuitive, so seamless, so simple. Kudos to manufacturers. And of course, as first impressions go… it looks good. So I love it even more because it’s pretty.

Aesthetics aside, it is also built well… and perfectly sized. I attached photos to show that it’s not too tall, nor is it too deep. It is a bit shorter than my nightstand, which is of an average height. It’s a bit on the wide-side, but you can position it however you see fit. It does need about a foot on the right side to allow for proper air flow, and probably a good idea to keep the front end free & clear since the “circle” is from where it pulls in air… but I found this guy could be positioned in many places throughout my home without being an eyesore. I have it in my bedroom currently, but I plan to buy one for my family room as well, and maybe the basement also. It really does work. My bedroom is often very stuffy, especially in the winter when we have the heat temperature set to 73 degrees — I like it warm & toasty, but my nasal passages feel otherwise. I do suffer from pollen allergies, as well as mild allergies to dust mites, grass, ragweed, mold spores, and pet dander (although I still have 2 shed-heavy fur-babies.) But my allergies are never bad enough to warrant any real attention, I just suffer through it since they’re pretty mild. HOWEVER, I keep saying mild when in all reality, I didn’t know the difference between no allergy and mild allergy until sleeping one night with this purifier running. Man what a difference. My nose was not all dry and cracked up feeling on the inside. It also was not runny or scratchy, which is how it often feels after running my humidifier all night (which I run to keep my nose from feeling so dry!) This machine does not mask the issue, or dampen it, or freeze/cold draft it away…. it CLEANS THE AIR. I know, I know… it’s hard to imagine, but boy is it easy to feel. I slept for the last 2 nights like a newborn baby. Granted, I’ve only had it for 2 days but the difference from walking into my bedroom vs the other rooms of my home, cannot be ignored. My home isn’t particularly old, or stuffy, or dirty, or dusty. Yes we have pets, but I am a Dyson maniac and we have a brand new HEPA HVAC filtration system; we have our ducts cleaned regularly; and, there are no smokers or other reasons for contaminated air (at least that I can find.) However, when plugging this thing in… it ran a blue and then purple light for a bit on auto, but then changed to RED (which freaked me out a bit as it sounds rather aggressive). And it ran that way for about 10 minutes. I left it to its job, and when I returned a little while later, it was back to a blue light and I could barely hear it running anymore… but the air did in fact feel lighter, crisper, and easier to breathe. It felt much like the very first time I walked onto my hotel balcony in Vancouver, Canada and took in a giant breath. It just felt… clean.

Air quality is a legitimate thing, and having poor air to breathe makes life a less tolerable for people with allergies or lung issues. Again, not something I suffer from necessarily, but I appreciate the cleaner air this provides nonetheless. So I cannot imagine how much better breathing could be for someone that does have serious allergies, asthma, or other breathing troubles. I would say this gem is a no brainer, if you do. But even if you don’t, you’ll still notice the difference after plugging this guy in and letting it run for about the first hour.

I do think the auto feature could become a bit of a power monger as I have never witnessed it turn off after being on auto as if to say “okay, I’m done. All clean.” So I do set the timer feature when I’m not going to be upstairs and I shut it off when I’m leaving the house for awhile. Another thing to note is that there are studies about potential harmful effects to lungs when using the UV and ion cleaning features. It is recommended that you only use these settings when not in the house as breathing in UV treated air is said to be harmful as a result of O3 air, similar to breathing in air high in ozone levels. So I only set my purifier with these features when not in the room.

I can’t yet speak to durability or filter tolerance, but they are priced reasonably enough that changing once or twice a year would be totally acceptable. I will update if I find that longevity or level of purifying impact worsens, or if cleaning/upkeep isn’t as great with this machine moving forward, but for now… I am a Coway air purifier believer.

** UPDATE – after 7 months of constant use, I will say that my initial reactions were still pretty accurate in that this purifier does do what it claims to do. I notice that it is reactive to smells, smoke and other air-purity issues when they are occurring, even when I am simply cooking sausage or something extra smokey or fragrant in the kitchen — while I have this unit upstairs in my bedroom, which is a considerable distance from the kitchen (bedroom in front of the house on 2nd floor, kitchen in the back of the house on the 1st floor.) So I know that it indeed works because I can hear it begin to run rapidly when I accidentally burn something or even when making bacon or something that has a smell or odor. I also know that it is filtering dust and pet hair, because both of my Coway purifiers (I have one upstairs and the tower unit downstairs) needed HEPA filter replacements at 6 months. The manufacturers suggestion is 6 months for the carbon odor filter, and 1 year for the thick, HEPA filter.. but my HEPA filter was so dirty at 6 months that the “change filter” light came on for the tower unit, so I figured I would change this 1512HH unit at the same time, and it definitely needed it. The filters were both clogged with so much dirt, dust and pet hair.. I couldn’t believe this stuff was floating around my house for it to grab. In fact, even strands of my hair were in the filter! And my hair is pretty long, well below shoulder-length. I figure it must have sucked it in from the floor. Pretty cool purifier… I still give it 5 stars and 2 thumbs up after 7 months of use.

El purificador resultó ser más grande de lo que esperaba sin embargo, como se coloca en el piso no estorba mucho y como es de color blanco combina bien con el color de las paredes.

Es realmente fácil de utilizar, me tomó menos de 5 minutos poderlo programar para que funcione perfectamente bien durante toda la noche.
Al otro día lo apago presionando 1 botón.
No cuenta con control remoto.

Sólo se escucha un murmullo en el nivel 1 pero en los demás niveles tampoco hace gran cantidad de ruido.

El indicador de luz para la calidad del aire se ilumina bien y se distingue desde una posición alejada además, se puede apagar al momento de dormir con sólo oprimir un botón.

En la información del fabricante se indica que se cambia el filtro de carbón cada 6 meses y el HEPA una vez al año.

Junto con el purificador compré un kit de recambio que incluye 2 filtros de Carbón y el HEPA por $1219, a considerar el precio de los consumibles.

En resumen si es el purificador mas bonito que encontré y además cumple muy bien la función de limpiar el aire de contaminantes suspendidos como polvo y malos olores, muy recomendable.

I wanted a quiet new air purifier for my apartment and I am so glad I got this one. Prior to purchasing this, I had gotten a Dyson HP07. After 3 days of wrestling with it I returned it. It was too noisy even on the lowest fan speed setting, and the auto function did not fully turn off the fan when the air was clean it just reduced fan speed to 1/10. (Still too noisy!).

After that bad experience, I literally researched every single air purifier you can buy. Coway is the only brand that has purifiers that fully turn off after the air quality reaches a certain standard. They call it their “ECO” mode. All other brands who have an auto function just reduce fan speed according to air quality but they never fully turn the fan off unless you manually turn them off. Useless!

Anyway the Coway AP-1512HH(W) in ECO mode works great. It works exactly as I hoped it would. In addition to this it purifies the air after cooking faster and more thoroughly than the Dyson did. On the lowest fan speed setting it is really quiet and there is no high pitched whining from motor control circuitry. You can check Youtube reviews for noise examples. The noise levels on this thing are perfect.

The wire mesh prefilter is fantastic. All air purifiers should have one like this.

I have not had any issues running my AP-1512HH(W) in parallel with a separate hot air humidifier. It does however turn on when things get steamy after a shower. I’m fine with that.

The model that is currently shipping lets you turn off the big blue light by pushing the ION button for 3 seconds.

The only question that remains for me is how the air purifier will perform in several months time, and if the filters really do last 6-12 months as claimed.

Update 6 months later: I would say the carbon odor filter lasted about 3 months, but the main HEPA filter lasted 6 months and could probably have been used for even longer than that. I replaced both at the same time but should have replaced the carbon filter sooner. So overall the cost of running this thing is not too bad, just make sure you replace the carbon filters twice as often. This purifier excels at removing larger particles like smoke, but it does struggle with some odors and I still need to aerate the apartment sometimes. The lowest fan speed setting is so quiet that I don’t even bother with auto or ECO mode anymore, I just leave it on low fan speed most of the time. Overall I have no regrets purchasing it.

I got this as we have pets and I have asthma and I am allergic to dust, spores, scents e.g. It came very carefully wrapped from the boxing of the product to the individual filters all in protective packaging. I turned it on and straight away it detected cooking smells and on Auto it started up and turned itself off when air went from red to blue. For those saying it doesnt work … did you take all the wrapping off the filters? Its a modern design and fits nicely against a wall. The air felt so much fresher this morning ( we live near to the sea so home has a sort of beach hut smell generally and close by trees blow pollen in) It clearly removes spores as I didnt have my usual sneezing fit this morning having left it on auto over night.

If I had bought this air purifier for most rooms of my house, it would be great. Unfortunately, I bought it for my bedroom, which means I want it to be quiet and dim.

Good:
* Seems to do its job, filtering air. It moves a lot of air.
* The speed 1 is very quiet
* Clear indicators for current air quality and for filter replacement
* Multiple air flow speeds

Mixed:
* You can turn off the biggest light, the one showing air quality. Unfortunately, it’s the most useful light (though way too big and bright for night time), and other LEDs cannot be disabled. I keep a strip of cardboard over the top delay. The bright lights are all on the top, which make them easy to cover.

Bad:
* The highest air flow setting is VERY loud, loud enough that it would wake me from a deep sleep. This means the “auto” setting is worthless to me, as I do not want it to shift into airplane engine mode in the middle of the night. I have to leave it on 1 or 2 manually.
* No way to turn off all LEDs or to limit auto mode to lower speeds.