Some stores pay me when you buy through a link here, and your price stays the same. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. How this works

I like Winix. I had an older one in my studio apartment for several years, back when I was single, and it would rev up at the slightest whiff of bad air.

The one in our bedroom now has an auto mode that hardly changes at all, so I think it’s defective. I never had time to take it up with Winix and just lived with it. After close to four years, though, it’s time to move on.

Our bedroom is about 9 by 20 feet, and the Coway Airmega Mighty2 is the one I’ve got my eye on. Our other purifier is a Levoit, the Core 300-P in our home office, so for this room I’ve been weighing Levoit against Coway.

Best for a bedroomCoway Airmega Mighty2

Best for: the room you sleep in.

If it’s going beside your bed, this is the one to look at. Leave it in Smart mode and it notices when you turn out the lamp, then settles into sleep mode on its own, so there’s nothing to press on your way to bed.

Curious how the air’s doing? It’s easy to check, since the Information button brings up a fine-dust reading right on the unit, no app needed.

Specs16.9 x 17.9 x 9.3 in

Size

16.9 x 17.9 x 9.3 in

Weighs

15.2 lb

Noise

19 to 50 dB

Smoke CADR

240

Room up to

372 sq ft, worked out from Coway’s figures

Filter

One Max2 filter a year

Warranty

1 year on parts, 3 years on the motor and electronics

Best if you want an appLevoit Vital 200S-P

Best for: anyone who’d like to run it from a phone, or a home with a cat or a dog.

If an app is high on your list, the Vital is the one. The VeSync app runs it from your phone, and Alexa or Google Assistant can run it by voice.

With a cat or a dog in the house, Pet Mode in the app is a great extra. It runs high for 15 minutes and medium for the next hour, then starts over, and there’s a pet version of the filter, too.

Specs15.6 x 8.5 x 19.8 in

Size

15.6 x 8.5 x 19.8 in

Weighs

13.2 lb

Noise

23 to 54 dB

Smoke CADR

250

Room up to

388 sq ft, AHAM certified

Filter

One a year by the manual, 6 to 12 months on Levoit’s filter page

Warranty

2-year limited

Levoit or Coway: which air purifier should you buy?

The Coway Mighty2 for a bedroom, and one of the two Levoits for an app, a pet or a small room.

The Mighty2 cleans with its filters alone, so there’s no ionizer to think about in the room where you sleep.

If you’d rather run it from your phone, or there’s a pet in the house, the Levoit Vital 200S-P suits you better.

The original Coway Mighty is the one to carry from room to room, since it weighs less than the Vital or the Mighty2 and there’s nothing to pair. For a Coway with an app, that’s the MightyS.

For a nursery, a home office or a small spare room, the Levoit Core 300 is all you need. It’s the one we own.

Wondering whether you can trust Coway’s room sizes with no lab behind them? The original Mighty’s matches the lab formula, and the Mighty2’s is our own math with the same formula, since Coway gives it only as a time. The room-size section shows both.

Levoit vs Coway, side by side

The rows I’d read first are the ionizer, the quietest setting and the app.

Looking down the rows, the Mighty2 is still the one I keep coming back to, since its lowest setting is the quietest of the three.

Levoit Vital 200S vs Coway Mighty AP-1512HH

Of these two, get the Vital 200S if you want an app and no ionizer at all. The Mighty AP-1512HH is the one if you’d rather have three years on the motor and nothing to pair with a phone.

Coway still sells the original Mighty alongside the Mighty2. For a bedroom, I’d pick the Mighty2 over both of these.

After living with our Winix, I care a lot more about auto mode this time. I like that the Mighty2 shows me its fine-dust reading, so I could check that it’s keeping up with the air.

Best for carrying room to roomCoway Airmega Mighty AP-1512HH

Best for: a purifier you’ll move from room to room.

At 12.3 pounds it’s the lightest Coway here, and with no app to pair, it’s easy to pick up and plug in wherever you need it. It’s simple to run, too, and shoppers with allergies say it helps.

Specs16.8 x 18.3 x 9.6 in

Size

16.8 x 18.3 x 9.6 in

Weighs

12.3 lb

Noise

24 to 53 dB

Smoke CADR

233

Room up to

361 sq ft, Coway’s own figure

Filters

Smell filter every 6 months, HEPA every year

Warranty

1 year on parts, 3 years on the motor and electronics

And the Coway Airmega MightyS

Think of the MightyS as the original Mighty with the ionizer taken out and Wi-Fi put in. It runs from Coway’s IoCare+ app, which is also where its timer lives, since the unit has no timer button.

Coway rates it for 326 square feet, a touch less room than the Mighty, and it takes one Max2 filter a year. It’s the only Coway here with an app, so if your heart’s set on a Coway and you still want your phone in charge, this is the one I’d look at.

Does Levoit or Coway have an ionizer?

Of the five models I looked at, only the original Coway Mighty, and it has a button to switch it off. Everything else cleans with filters alone.

With its ionizer on, the Mighty can give off some ozone, and California certifies it as tested to stay under the state’s limit. The Mighty2, the MightyS and the Vital make none at all.

Which is quieter at night, Levoit or Coway?

The Coway Mighty2, on the brands’ own figures. Turned all the way down, it runs at 19 decibels, quieter than either of the others, and its sleep mode uses that same lowest speed.

You don’t even have to pick that mode. In Smart mode it switches to sleep once the room has been dark for three minutes, and once the lights have been on again for five, it returns to what it was doing. If you’d rather it go off after you’ve fallen asleep, there’s a timer that runs up to 12 hours and then turns it off.

Press auto on the Vital itself and it never climbs to turbo, so on a bad-air night it stays below its loudest. You can switch the display off and lock the buttons, and the app adds Quiet Auto, which keeps auto from going past medium.

Left on auto, the original Mighty will climb to speed 3, its fastest, when the air turns bad. Eco mode lets it rest once the air clears, and you can turn off its air quality light at bedtime.

How often do Levoit and Coway filters need changing?

Once a year for the Mighty2, and every 6 to 12 months for the Vital. The original Mighty runs on two schedules, a new smell filter every 6 months and a new HEPA filter every year.

The Mighty2’s one Max2 filter holds the carbon and the HEPA layers together, so there’s a single thing to swap. It isn’t meant to be washed, and the year can run shorter or longer depending on your room.

Stick with Coway’s own filters for it, since its manual says an off-brand one can cost you the warranty.

The harder the Vital works, the sooner its filter wears out, so if it runs hard all year, you could end up buying two. There are versions for pets, smoke and toxins, and Levoit’s own store sells a wildfire bundle that pairs the Vital with the Toxin filter.

For the original Mighty, Coway’s filter set holds one HEPA filter and two smell filters, which covers a year on that schedule.

All three have a washable pre-filter, so between new filters that’s the only part to keep clean.

Which has the better warranty, Levoit or Coway?

Coway’s, if the motor is what worries you. Every Mighty gets three years on the motor and electronics, where Levoit’s limited warranty covers the Vital for two.

Coway covers the other parts for a year, and the Mighty, the Mighty2 and the MightyS all get the same terms. Neither brand’s warranty covers the filters.

Which Levoit or Coway for a small room? The Levoit Core 300

The Levoit Core 300, for a nursery, a home office or a small spare room. It’s certified for rooms up to 222 square feet, so on paper it covers a bedroom about 9 by 20 feet, and it’s far smaller than either Mighty.

We bought ours in 2021 and started it out in our bedroom. It was rated for a room that size, but it never felt like enough to us, so now it lives in the home office, the smaller of the two rooms.

It runs quietly in there, and for a room like that I’d buy one again. For a bedroom like ours, though, I’d go bigger, with the Mighty2.

Best for a nursery or home officeLevoit Core 300-P

Best for: a baby’s room or a home office, where a big purifier would be more than the room needs.

It’s made for a small room, and it’s light enough to pick up and carry to another one whenever you need it there.

For a nursery, I love how little floor it takes!

Specs8.7 x 8.7 x 14.2 in

Size

8.7 x 8.7 x 14.2 in

Weighs

7.9 lb

Noise

24 to 54.5 dB

Room up to

222 sq ft, AHAM certified

Filter

Every 6 to 8 months

Warranty

2-year limited

Can you trust Levoit’s and Coway’s room sizes?

Yes for Levoit’s, which are lab-certified, and yes for the original Coway Mighty’s, which matches the lab formula. The Mighty2’s is our own math with that same formula, so it’s a fair guide, but no lab has checked it.

Certified means independent labs have tested the purifier and checked the room size it claims. None of the three Mightys is certified, so with Coway you’re going on its own numbers.

A certified size comes straight from how fast a purifier clears smoke. Run the original Mighty’s smoke figure through that math and you get exactly the 361 square feet on Coway’s own page.

For the Mighty2, Coway only gives the size as a time, how big a room it cleans in 15, 30 or 60 minutes. The same math on its smoke figure puts it at 372 square feet, a little more room than the original.

You can skip the huge room sizes in the Amazon titles. On the two Mightys, they’re rooms each one clears just once an hour, and the Vital’s is far past the size it’s certified for.

Our bedroom, about 9 by 20 feet, comes in well under the smallest of the three, the original Mighty’s 361 square feet. So for our room it comes down to the quiet setting and the ionizer.

Questions people ask

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