Where to buy: the Vital 200S-P is $169.95 in white at Amazon, marked down from $189.99, and $199.99 in black. It is $189.99 at Levoit. Genuine replacement filters are $42.49 at Amazon and $44.99 at Levoit.

• What size room is the Levoit Vital 200S for?
• Is it AHAM certified, CARB listed and ozone free?
• How quiet is the Levoit Vital 200S?
• Vital 200S vs 200S-P vs 200S Pro: which one to buy
• Levoit Vital 100S vs 200S
• Levoit Core 300 vs Vital 200S
• How often to change the filter, and what it costs
• Is it good for allergies, pets and smoke?
• Common problems with the Levoit Vital 200S
• Questions people ask

What size room is the Levoit Vital 200S for?

A main bedroom or a living room. AHAM certifies it for a room up to 388 square feet.

We bought a Levoit Core 300-P in April 2021 and put it in our bedroom. We found it was too small for the room, so we moved it to our home office, which is smaller.

If a Core 300 would be too small for your room, the Vital 200S is the size up.

Measure before you buy. Multiply the length of the floor by its width, and look for a purifier certified for at least that much. The air purifier size guide walks through it room by room.

Ignore the “up to 1,875 sq ft” in the Amazon listing’s title, and buy by the certified size, on this purifier and on any other. If your room lands right at the limit, I would size up.

In a bigger room it keeps working, just more slowly. For an open-plan space, buy for the whole area.

Is the Levoit Vital 200S AHAM certified, CARB listed and ozone free?

Yes to all three. You can trust the 388 square feet, and it adds no ozone to your bedroom air.

It is in AHAM’s directory of certified purifiers, which means independent labs have checked its room size.

California lists it as filter-only, with no ionizer.

How quiet is the Levoit Vital 200S?

Quiet enough to sleep beside on its low settings, with the display switched off.

Put it in sleep mode and press Display Off. The room stays dark, you will hardly hear it, and it keeps cleaning while you sleep.

Low is quiet too, outside sleep mode. Above speed 2 it gets loud. Turbo cleans the air fastest.

Run it high while you are out of the room, when the noise will not bother anyone.

Auto mode picks the speed for you. A dust sensor reads the air, and a light on the unit turns blue when the air is clean and red when it is bad. On red, auto takes the fan up to high, which is loud in a bedroom at night.

So at bedtime, switch to sleep mode.

Levoit Vital 200S vs 200S-P vs 200S Pro: which one should you buy?

They are the same purifier. Buy the 200S-P in white, which costs less.

Levoit’s own store sells only the Vital 200S-P. Filters are sold as Vital 200S filters, and they fit. “200S Pro” is a nickname you will see on review sites, and Levoit does not call it that.

So buy whichever listing is cheapest in the color you want. Pick black only if it suits your room better.

Check who is selling it before you order, because the warranty does not cover a purifier from an unauthorized seller. Both Amazon listings are sold and shipped by Amazon itself. Levoit’s own store costs more, and shipping there is free.

Buy the 200S-P if

• It is going in a room too big for the Core 300 or the Vital 100S-P.
• You want it to speed up and slow down on its own as the air changes.
• You want it quiet enough to run in the room where you sleep.

15.6 x 8.5 x 19.8 in13.2 lb23 to 54 dB, Levoit’s figuresAuto mode with a dust sensorSleep mode and turboDisplay Off buttonWi-Fi and VeSync appAlexa and Google AssistantWashable pre-filterAlso in black

Levoit Vital 100S vs 200S: which one is right for your room?

The 200S for a bigger room. The 100S for a smaller one, like a nursery or an office, for under $60 less.

Pick by the room first. The 100S-P is certified for 222 square feet. If your room is small enough for it, the Vital 100S-P is at Amazon.

Another difference is Pet Mode, a button on the 100S-P and a setting in the app on the 200S-P.

The filters differ, too. The 100S-P’s costs less, under $40 at Levoit, but you change it every 9 to 12 months instead of every 12. Over a year, you spend close to the same on filters for either one.

Everything else you would use day to day works the same on both. The 100S-P weighs 8.6 pounds against 13.2 for the 200S-P, so it is the easier one to carry from room to room.

If you do plan to move it around, size it for the biggest room it will go in.

Check the name before you pay at Levoit. It also sells an older Vital 100, with no S and no Wi-Fi, for the same price as the 100S-P. Make sure the one in your cart says 100S-P.

Levoit Core 300 vs Vital 200S

Buy the Core 300 for a small room and the Vital 200S for a bigger one.

The Vital costs more, under $170 at Amazon against under $100 for the Core 300-P at Levoit. The extra money also buys Wi-Fi, the app, a dust sensor and auto mode, none of which the plain Core 300-P has.

It will not cost you more in electricity, either. AHAM rates its yearly energy use a little lower than the Core 300’s, even though it is certified for the bigger room.

Then there are the filters. My wife did not like that part of ours. She kept having to buy new filters, because they were not washable.

The Vital 200S fixes part of that. Its outer pre-filter rinses clean in the sink. The main filter behind it still gets replaced, so filters stay on the shopping list.

If you already have a Core 300 in a room it is too small for, do what we did and move it somewhere smaller. Then put the Vital where the Core 300 was.

Our Levoit Core 300 review covers the smaller one in full.

How often to change the Levoit Vital 200S filter, and what it costs

Replace the main filter every 12 months, and clean the pre-filter every 2 to 4 weeks.

That makes the running cost one standard filter a year, under $45 at Amazon or Levoit. I think that is worth paying for clean air in the room where you sleep. Put it in the budget from the start, so the first one does not come as a surprise.

Only the outer layer of the filter washes. Clean it with a soft brush or a vacuum hose, or rinse it with water and a little mild soap. Let it dry all the way before it goes back in.

Never wet the main filter behind it. A light on the unit tells you when it is due.

That light keeps count of running time and does not test the filter itself. Levoit’s filter page says one lasts 6 to 12 months, so if the purifier runs hard through wildfire season, check it before the light comes on.

Which filter to buy

• The standard filter, for everyday use.
• The Toxin Absorber, for wildfire smoke. Under $60 at Levoit.

Other brands sell filters made to fit it for a little less. I would stick with Levoit’s own.

The 2-year warranty does not cover filters, which it treats as parts that wear out.

Is the Levoit Vital 200S good for allergies, asthma, pets and smoke?

Yes. It is quiet and dark enough to run all night beside your bed, and the pet hair it catches rinses right off.

If allergies or asthma are the reason you are buying, put it in your bedroom and leave it running through the night. “I no longer wake up the whole household at night with my coughing,” wrote an owner whose cough came from pet hair, dust and seasonal allergies.

For wildfire season, fit the Toxin Absorber filter.

The sensor reads dust and smoke in the air, but it cannot smell. A cooking smell on its own will not speed it up, so turn it up yourself when you cook.

If you have a dog or a cat, its hair clogs the pre-filter, so clean it more often.

Turn on Pet Mode in the app. It gives the room a hard clean on high, then settles down to medium, over and over. In a dark room it holds at medium, so it stays quieter while you sleep.

Common problems with the Levoit Vital 200S

Auto mode can work too hard or not hard enough, the app can lag or drop Wi-Fi, and the top speeds are loud. Each of these has a fix or a way around it.

Some nights auto mode ramps up louder than you want. If an ultrasonic humidifier is nearby, move it, since its mist can read as bad air. Otherwise switch to Quiet Auto in the app, which stops at medium.

Other times auto mode barely reacts. If it seems stuck, clean the sensor lens, and call Levoit if that does not fix it.

If the air does not seem any cleaner, take the plastic wrap off the filter, clean the pre-filter, close the doors and windows, and stand it on a hard, level floor with nothing blocking the vents.

When it connects, the app is nice to have. You can check the air from your phone, set a schedule and change the speed without getting out of bed.

The app can lag, and the Wi-Fi can drop out. Set it up on a 2.4GHz network, with Bluetooth on, any VPN off and the purifier close to the router. Some settings live only in the app, like Pet Mode and Quiet Auto, but you can run the purifier from the buttons on the unit without it.

If yours turns out faulty, the 2-year warranty covers defects. Levoit decides whether to repair it, replace it, give you store credit or, if you bought it from Levoit, refund you. Its own store also gives you 30 days to return it for your money back.

Get in touch with Levoit before you pack it up. One owner whose first unit misfired says Levoit sent a new one promptly.

Who should skip it

Skip it for a room bigger than 388 square feet, and look for a purifier certified for the room you have.

Skip it for a nursery or a small office, too. The Vital 100S-P is certified for a room up to 222 square feet, and it costs less.

Questions people ask

I sold contract-grade furniture from 2016. More about who runs it.