I’m going to be doing a comprehensive review of the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH air purifier and walk you through replacing the filter so that you can know what maintenance it takes. As well as how much that costs and how much time it takes. So, let’s talk about why you’re going to need an air purifier in the first place.
It’s something that most people never really look at when it comes to their health, but it’s something that has really inhibited me and caused a lot of pain in my life, and I hope by sharing this with you, you might be able to avoid some of it. So, the reason why having an air purifier is so important is because of mold. Most of us spend 80% of our lives indoors, and all houses, for the most part, have some mold or mildew in them. Some have more, and some have less. We’re spending a lot of time indoors that we must breathe clean air, especially in the bedroom when we’re sleeping and spending an extended period, 8 hours in that one room; we want to optimize that.
We want to make sure that we’re breathing the cleanest air possible and make sure that if we’re susceptible to mold or mildew, we’re doing our best to negate any impact or effects that might be having on us. So typical mold spores will range between 2 and 40 microns as the size of the particle. Most air filters, including the one that we’re going to be discussing in this video today, will filter out 2.3 microns so much, much smaller and can capture a lot of other stuff, not just multiple hours, but a lot of different things.
It is noteworthy that mold spores attach themselves to dust, so we must filter out the dust and mold spores. When looking to buy an air filter, for this reason, you want to make sure that you get something that has a power of at least 250 CFM. We’re going to get into what that means in a minute, and you want to make sure that it is a true HEPA filter. We will talk about all these different weird abbreviations and vocabularies that you have to familiarize yourself with when looking to buy an air filter.
So, the first thing to note is the CEDAR, which is the clean air delivery rate, which means how quickly and effectively can the purifier remove the pollutants from the air, and next is going to be the filter type, which is the HEPA filter. You want to make sure that it is a true HEPA filter, and HEPA stands for high-efficiency particulate air.
These filters are the ones that I was discussing that can filter up to 0.3 microns, and just to give you perspective, the follicle on your hair is 17 microns, so 0.3 microns is very small, and that means we’re capturing 99% of the stuff that could be impacting our health in a harmful way. Another filter that you’ll often see is our charcoal filters, and these are used for filtering outgas.
Some filters use ionizers that will attach an electron to the air molecule, and then that molecule will magnetize that dust. The dust will fall down, and you can vacuum out the dust. There’re arguments online about whether you know ionizers are safe because they omit just a little bit of ozone, which is toxic, especially to the lungs. Some people say that you shouldn’t have an air purifier with ionizers, and some say that the levels are so low that they will not have a significant impact.
Some filters use ultraviolet lights to ZAP and destroy mould and mildew particles. But I will reference down below why this may not be necessary, and you might end up just paying more money for this feature even though you don’t need it.
OK, so let’s talk about the air filter. This is the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH. And it doesn’t look like much, but this thing is a beast. I did so much research trying to figure out what is the best air purifier for mold, and this is the one that I have discovered, and I’m going to walk you through exactly.
How does it work? So air gets filtered in and pulled in through. So, I’ve had this air filter for about a year. Unlatch and slide the filter out. So, this is the washable prefilter, which gets all the massive particles.
This washable prefilter captures a lot of the big particles that would otherwise saturate the charcoal filter in the HEPA filter. So this gives it an extra layer of protection, and on a lot of air filters, they have replaceable prefilters instead of washable ones. So, this one is nice because it doesn’t cost anything more. You just get to clean it and then put it back in.
So, I’ve taken off the carbon filter on the back, and it gets pretty dirty. And then behind it is the HEPA filter, which is the crucial one. This is the one that will be getting those tiny little particles, and all we have to do is pull the little tab to pop it out. I can’t believe how clean it is. That means our filter is doing a good job. It’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing.
You have three settings for the filter. First, the auto setting will set the fan based on the air quality in the room. Now right here, you have the choice to turn on the ionizer. I personally keep the ionizer off because I don’t want to be breathing in ozone.
But if you don’t think that’s a big deal, you can easily enable the ionizer. You can set the filter on a timer for one hour, 4 hours and 8 hours, and then it will tell you with a bit of light, indicating if the filter needs to be replaced. So, I saw that this light had gone off, which meant that this filter needed to be replaced.
That’s why I bought the replacement filter, and then this light will indicate to you the quality of the air in the room, and it will change colors as the air’s quality worsens. The air quality in my last room, I noticed that when this filter went out, this turned orange, which is not a good sign.
Pay attention to what the button is telling you. What this light is telling you. And that will determine what the quality of the area is in your room, and then you’ll be able to change it accordingly as things get better or worse. A little challenge is in the bedroom.
So if you notice the lights on the filter, this is not good for a good night’s sleep. But for these lights, I found a quick and easy solution. Just a piece of duct tape and problem solved. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world. You can get like a nicer piece of tape if you want, but I found that that is good enough for me, and I care more about the air quality in my room than having a piece of duct tape on the top of it. So, I recommend that you buy something to cover up these lights at night so that you don’t have to deal with any blue light exposure.
The Coway Airmega AP-1512HH air purifier can output about 250 CFU per minute. The higher the CFU, the better the capacity to clean the air. At 250 CFU, you’re looking at roughly around 300 square feet in a larger room. I believe the number they reference on their site and have tested is 360 square feet or 361 square feet, which should be good enough for most large bedrooms.
Most air purifiers that hang out around this price for a bit cheaper will only give you about 80 to 120 CFU. One of the reasons why the Coway is such a good option is for the CFU output, true HEPA filter, prefilter and carbon filter. And the fact that it has a three-year warranty, it’s only about 200 bucks and based on all the reviews that I’ve watched, all the articles and research that I’ve done, this is the best option. It has an ionizer that you can turn on or off is a big deal because some people want it that others don’t. Still, you can toggle it on and off.
Something also to consider is how Noisy it is. So, for a 250 CFU unit. This filter has a much lower decibel to output ratio zero for the amount of filtration that you’re getting. It’s actually relatively quiet, and it’s also very energy efficient. If you’re looking for a relatively inexpensive, super-efficient, energy-efficient, noise-efficient, and filtration-efficient, then the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH air purifier is the best model.
On the market, especially for people who have issues with mold or who are concerned with mold because it has that true HEPA filter, and it’s going to do it at a price that’s not outrageous, and it’s going to work for pretty large rooms.
I’m going to show you what it looks like in terms of maintenance. The filters last about one year, and it costs about $45.30 to $45.00 to replace. So not too much in terms of care, which is fantastic. That’s what you’re looking for, and it should last way beyond the three-year warranty.
The only drawbacks about this are the lights on the top. This is not ideal for a bedroom, but I’ll take it because I can just put some tape over it. And that’s the end of that. But then the other thing is that with its carbon filter, there are two different types of carbon filters.
There are ones with honeycombs that are better at filtering out the VOCs, gases and odors. So if you’re more concerned about gas, odors and VOCs, you might want to look at other alternatives.
Please take the prefilter, give it a good scrub, and then put it back there. Then, we pop the HEPA filter. OK, so little arrows tell you which direction to put the filter. Then you’re going to take one of these carbon filters. Then we took our prefilter that we just washed and put it back there. And now it’s good to go.
As you can see, I’ve just turned this on, and it’s like air quality is no good, so this goes to show you how important it is to have one of these, not only in your house but especially in your bedroom. To ensure the filter reading is accurate, clean the tiny particle reader on the side every two months.
Take a Q-tip and gently rub on the particle reader until cleaned. This will ensure that the particle reader is relatively accurate. Make sure that you get any dirt that might be settled on the reader.
So that’s it for the review for Coway Airmega AP-1512HH air purifier, and if you found this helpful, please give it a love. And if you want to get the item, I have put the link to the product on Amazon above.