Are you looking for the best filterless air purifier?
Do you want an air purifier that doesn’t require expensive filter changes?
If so, then you’ve come to the right place.
Our free guide below offers unbiased reviews to help you find the best ionic air purifier for your home or business.
We’ll start by explaining how filterless air purifiers work, and why ionic air purifiers are so popular, then we’ll show you the three best products you can get for your home.
Table of Contents
Best Filterless Air Purifier Comparison Chart
Here’s a chart showing the comparison between the top three products.
We’ll go more in depth about each one later in this guide but this gives you a sense of what’s available and an easy way to quickly compare them.
| Image | Air Purifier Details | Price |
|---|---|---|
  | Ivation Ionizer
| Check Price |
  | Envion Ionic Pro
| Check Price |
  | IonPacific ionBox
| Check Price |
How a Filterless Air Purifier Works
As the name suggests, an air purifier with a filterless design doesn’t use a physical filter to trap pollutants from the air.
Other common names for this type of devices is an “Ionic air purifier” or “Air Ionizer” and it operates by simple physics to eliminate airborne particles from the air you breathe.
Many airborne contaminants such as allergens, dust, and germs are made up of positively charged ions.
To remove these pollutants from the air, an ionic purifier emits a steady stream of negatively charged ions.
Because opposites attract, the negative ions attach themselves to the positive ions forming an ionic bond.
Eventually, the bond becomes so large that the particle cluster becomes too heavy to remain in the air and falls to the floor (or gets captured on an electrostatic collecting plate—more on this in the next section).
A filterless air cleaner ionizer continues to pump out negatively charged ions into the room and eventually the air becomes negatively charged—this creates clean, fresh air for you to breathe.
Why Ionic Air Purifiers are So Popular
While air ionizers are not the only type of air purification technology available today, these devices have become very popular for homeowners and apartment renters.
Low Cost
The main reason for their popularity is that ionizers do not require costly filter changes.
Unlike most of the other best home air purifier models that use a paper HEPA filter to clean the air, some ionic purifiers include an electrostatic collection plate.
This plate attracts the negatively charged particles like a magnet and collects them on an easy to reach surface.
As you can see, the most attractive aspect of filterless ionic purifiers is that once you buy the device, you never have to spend another penny on maintenance to keep it working effectively.
Compact Size
A nice advantage of filterless ionic air purifiers is the fact that many of them are small and compact, or thin and vertical.
That design allows you to place the device practically anywhere inside a room without it getting in the way or being an eyesore.
Many ionizers can be set on a table, desk, or in a corner without reducing its efficiency.
No Restrictions
Another benefit to owning an ionic air purifier is that it doesn’t require suction to clean the air.
Unlike HEPA air purifiers that must suck air into the machine in order to trap the particles inside a paper filter, the best filterless air purifier has no limits.
It can purify the air inside a room instantly, without any restrictions.
Removes the Finest Particles
Out of all of the air cleaner technologies on the market, filterless air purifiers can get rid of the smallest sized contaminants.
This is great news for anyone who suffers from allergies.
These devices can remove particles as fine as 0.01 microns in size which is 300X smaller than what a HEPA air cleaner can control.
That capability covers practically every common allergen found inside the home.
Now that you know how air cleaner ionizers work, and why they’re so popular, it’s now time to share with you our air ionizer reviews so you can find the best ionic air purifier for your home or apartment.
Keep reading below to find out which unit fits your needs and budget.
Top 3 Best Ionic Air Purifier Reviews
#1 Best Filterless Air Purifier
Ivation Ionizer
By far this is the best filterless air purifier you can buy for the lowest possible price.
With adjustable output control dials, it can purify a space up to 3,500 sq. ft., making it perfect for any level of the home or an apartment.
The ionizer fan speed can also be adjusted using a rotating dial, allowing you to increase the air filtering power with ease.
A handy tip is to set the ionization dial to the maximum setting when you first use it and let it run for at least 24 hours to quickly purify your space. Then turn it back to 1/4 of the way for everyday use.
This product also includes an O3 control dial which produces ozone to freshen the air. This feature helps to kill airborne bacteria, mold, viruses, mold, and fungi.
Some people are sensitive to ozone in the air, so you can leave this function turned off if you’d like.
Or, just turn it on when you’re not at home so it can freshen the air as much as possible before you return.
As for design, this is the only filterless purifier on the market which uses a solid cherry wood finish. This subtle touch makes it an elegant device that will complement any room.
Finally, the true power of this air cleaner is that it can eliminate everything from odors to gases, to tobacco smoke, and more.
Plus, it includes ceramic collection plates that collects harmful particles from the air and can be washed clean.
If you want the best ionic purifier that packs a lot of power and has a small footprint, this is your top choice.
#2 Best Ionic Air Purifier
Envion Ionic Pro Air Purifier
This is another high value air cleaner but was made specifically for medium to large size rooms.
While you can’t purify a huge basement or every inch of an apartment like our #1 recommendation can, it does have enough power to cover up to 500 sq. ft. of space.
That’s plenty good for most living rooms and bedrooms.
The most impressive feature on this filterless air purifier is that it has some of the most efficient electrostatic collection plates available.
Envion used a blade design which gives them more surface area than a standard plate would and made access to them easy from the front of the machine.
Another top selling point that makes this a top choice is the fact that most airborne contaminants end up collected inside the device as opposed to falling onto the floor.
This makes your whole room cleaner, not just the air.
#3 Best Filterless Ionic Air Purifier
IonPacific ionBox Filterless Air Purifier
Our final recommendation for the best ionic air purifier with a completely filterless design is this product here.
What makes it so unique is the fact that it’s the smallest air purifier of its kind that can purify a space up to 500 sq. ft.
That’s the same coverage as our #2 pick above but this device can fit in the palm of your hand.
Another nice feature is that it can be powered through your wall electrical outlet or through a USB port on your computer.
This makes it the ultimate traveling machine you can take anywhere you go.
The only drawback is that this purifier doesn’t include electrostatic collection plates.
The device only emits negative ions into the air as a way to clean it which is still perfectly fine for most home applications.
Finally, this is the cheapest air purifier you’ll find with the most air cleaning power.
If you’re on a budget or want the option of having something you can take with you, then you should try this ionic air purifier. It’s a great bargain!
More Advantages for Choosing a Filterless Air Purifier
As we already mentioned above, the most attractive aspect for choosing a filterless air purifier is the fact that they don’t require costly filter changes. This is great news for anyone who’s looking for a high value, low upkeep cost for an air cleaning machine.
A few other advantages that an air ionizer gives you over its main competitor in technology, which uses High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filtering include:
- Maximum space coverage – Ionic air purifiers can purify a much larger space than other types of products. As you saw in our #1 recommendation above, it can handle up to 3,500 square feet. The largest area a HEPA device can purify is around 750 square feet.
- Initial Cost and Maintenance – Ionizers are often the least expensive type of air purifier to buy and most cost nothing to maintain. Other products that include physical filters can cost between $20-100 for each filter change, which can occur up to 4 times per year.
- Noise Level – Filterless air purifiers make barely any noise since they don’t operate by sucking air into a physical filter. HEPA devices, on the other hand, do work by pulling in air using multiple fan speeds which can be quite noisy – especially if you want a unit for a bedroom.
- Style and Design – Air ionizers are the most compact designed air cleaners you can find. Since they don’t use a filter, they can be built short and square or tall and thin. This unique design feature makes it convenient to place these devices anywhere you can imagine, even in the corner of a room. Other types of air purifiers require a large air space around the unit in order to effectively pull air in and recirculate it to the room, making it cumbersome for some room applications.
Common Questions People Have about Ionic Air Purifiers
Do Ionic Air Purifiers Really Work?
Yes. The particles that make up air itself as well as contaminants like allergens, mold, bacteria, and smoke are made up of atoms that have positive and negative charges.
When an atom or molecule has an equal number of protons and electrons, it is balanced.
Ionizers send out electrically charged particles into the air that change a molecule’s balance.
Once this balance is disrupted, it causes the particle to fall out of the air.
The best ionizers include an electrostatic plate that collects these particles and can be washed clean.
Are Ionizers Safe?
Yes. The process ionizers use to purify the air is similar to that which occurs naturally in our environment to cleanse the air.
Molecules that have extra negative ions attached to them are what contribute to the fresh air smell you experience in the natural world.
Additionally, research has shown that breathing in positive or negative ions has no effect on the respiratory system.
The only caveat here is that some ionic air cleaners do produce ozone as a byproduct which can make them dangerous to your health.
However, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as long as the air cleaner produces a level less than 0-0.05 ppm then there’s no reason for concern.
Obviously, the versions of these air purifiers are ones that don’t produce any ozone at all.
Do Ionic Air Purifiers Remove Odors?
Yes. Air ionizers are effective at removing common household odors from pets, cooking, smoke, mold, and chemical cleaning agents.
Should I Use an Ionizer?
Yes, as long as you don’t suffer from chronic respiratory conditions like asthma or COPD.
Ionizers are a great and cost-effective way to clean indoor air; however, people with asthma or COPD may experience trouble breathing when they’re operating.
Some ionizers produce ozone as a byproduct and this can irritate the lungs.
If you do suffer from either of those conditions and want to purchase an ionic air purifier it’s best to make sure that the technical specifications indicate that it doesn’t emit ozone at all.
What’s the Difference Between a Filter vs Filterless Air Purifier?
The difference between a filter and filterless air purifier is that the filter version uses a highly dense paper filter to capture airborne contaminants while the filterless type does not.
A filterless machine uses other means to remove pollutants from the air you breathe, like ionization, instead of sucking air through a filter and pushing it out the other side.
Ionization is a colorless, odorless, invisible form of air cleaning technology that attacks contaminants out in the air where they’re floating.
Air purifiers that use filters can only clean the air that travels through the actual filter material.
Both methods (filter vs filterless) are effective at cleaning the air; however, this post focuses on the advantages of using the best air ionizer without filters inside the home.
Enjoy Your New Best Ionic Air Purifier
We hope these air ionizer reviews helped you make a decision on the best filterless air purifier for your needs.
If you’d like to learn more about other types of air purifying technology, visit our buyer guides section. Otherwise, enjoy your new best ionic air purifier.