Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier Review

If you are looking for a high quality air purifier for your home then you are going to want to check out the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty. It’s nearly universally recommended, sells for a reasonable price, is a good size, and it’s pretty good looking as well. It’s a no-brainer pickup for most home and apartment buyers.

Coway Video Review

Coway AP-1512HH Basics

The Coway AP-1512HH is a home air purifier that works with spaces of up to 361 square feet (about a 18 foot by 20 foot room). It’s a HEPA filter with a pre-filter for catching large debris (pet hair, etc.) and a charcoal filter for odor elimination.

Why To Trust Us And Our Testing

Why should you take anything written here seriously? There are lots of reasons, but here’s the important stuff.

As someone with moderate allergies to mold and dust I’ve used many air purifiers over the years and done many hours of research, including at data-backed appliance sites. I’ve been a dedicated air purifier user for well over a decade and have owned products from Coway, Medify, Dyson, and others.

I’ve owned two Coway AP-1512HH air purifiers, the first of which I bought in 201, and a Coway Airmega 200M Air Purifier, which is basically the same thing but sold through Walmart.

Testing

Testing air quality is quite difficult to do well. There are finally affordable air quality monitors on the market, from brands like Purple Air, Airthings, Awair, and now Amazon with their Smart Air Quality Monitor. I haven’t started using one of the yet, but will soon. So far my allergies have been an excellent judge of air quality, but I also observe air flow (using an air speed measurement tool), room freshness, and sound levels.

I’m very diligent about replacing my air filters and, having spend over $400 on Coway air filters over the years, I’m well versed in replacing Coway air filters, cleaning filters, and judging filter performance.

Why It’s Our Pick

Long story short, this purifier offers just the right mix of performance, size, price, quiet operation, and features.

With an average price of under $200 the AP-1512HH is not cheap, but given it’s quality, use ratings, and huge number of positive reviews, it’s known to be a good deal.

This stylish air filter is quite quiet, which was a major factor in our choosing to purchase and ultimately recommend it. There is an “Eco” mode which has the filter’s fan run very quietly while an air quality sensor polls the ambient air quality.

When particulate (dust, pollen, dander, smoke, etc.) is recognized the fan will spin up to maximum speed and clean the air. This can be a little bit jarring, since it’s definitely a surprise when it happens, bit it’s a great feature. The purifier has non-variable speeds as well, like “1” and “2” and “3”. These range from essentially silent to quite noticeable.

The air filter has a built in timer which will turn it off after 1, 4, or 8 hours of running.

Filter Design

The Coway AP-1512HH combines a carbon prefilter with a HEPA filter for odor reduction plus maximum filtration of your air, making for improved overall air quality.

The carbon or deodorization filter is light weight and meant to be replaced twice as often as the HEPA filter. It combined with the exterior cowl in odor to catch larger dust and debris, like pet hair, but you’ll still want to occasionally vacuum out the HEPA filter if you live in a high dust environment. This won’t prevent you from needed a new HEPA filter every 6 months or so (if running the Coway continuously) but it will temporarily boost airflow and effectiveness. That is, of course, the best and worst part of the HEPA filter: it captures massive amounts of dust and particles from the air, but it also traps just about everything so it tend to slow down quality as it accumulates airborne particulate.

Downsides of the AP-1512HH

We like the filter a lot, but it’s not perfect. Here are some things to keep in mind because you buy.

1. Price Fluctuations
   We’ve seen this air filter range from $160 to $220, so you might buy it and see the price drop shortly after.
2. Filter Replacements
   An AP-1512HH replacement filter will run you $45 and they last about 6 months, so expect to spend about $100 a year to operation this filter.
3. Many LEDs
   Coway might have designed this air purifier to be great in bedrooms, but it has number of obnoxiously bright LEDs on it. You are going to want some tape or LED dimming stickers to address them. There is a big blue LED that is particularly offensive — it’s bright and blue LEDs are more problematic to sleeping then red or amber.
4. No Remote
   This air filter lacks a remote so it can’t be turned off from across the room. This generally isn’t a problem but can annoying if Eco mode has it start running loudly when you are on a conference call or trying to sleep.