
It’s that time of year again, as we all wait for the nip in the air to bite us. However, the most pleasant time of the year also brings air pollution-related issues like smog. With the festive season approaching, this is the right time to make your home winter-ready with a powerful air purifier.
If you are searching for an efficient and sleek air purifier that will blend into your house interiors, let me introduce you to the Coway AirMega 150. Coway is a 35-year-old South Korean brand known for its R&D to combat air pollution. We put the Coway Airmega 150 air purifier through its paces to let you know if it’s a meaningful addition to your home.
Coway AirMega 150 Air Purifier Review: Design and Build
Please excuse the Apple nerd in me, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between the Coway AirMega 150 and the Mac Pro. The AirMega 150 features a similar cheese grater-esque perforated design on the side with a sleek and lightweight build. And get this: you don’t have to invest Rs 70,000 in a wheel kit because the air purifier weighs just 5kg.
Jokes aside, the Coway AirMega 150 has an unfussy design measuring 540 x 260 x 430mm. This means you can place it anywhere in the room without having to rearrange your furniture or even hide it behind a couch if that’s what you want. Props to Coway for offering a discreet yet functional design that will appeal to most Indian consumers.
Despite its sleek and lightweight design, the Coway AirMega 150 offers a coverage area of 355 sq. ft., which makes it ideal for medium—to large-sized rooms. The air purifier’s Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) is 178 CFM, which is consistent with other air purifiers in this price segment.
I particularly loved the design’s maintenance aspect. The Coway AirMega 150 comes with a one-click filter cartridge removal for convenient and hassle-free maintenance. The cherry on top is that the pre-filter, which requires bimonthly cleaning, can be removed without removing the front panel. The deodorising and HEPA filters must be replaced every 6 and 12 months, respectively.
You will find a dedicated LED indicator for each type of filter, which will light up when these filters need cleaning or replacing. There’s another LED indicator for air quality, which glows blue for good, and then varying levels of drop in air quality through green (moderate), yellow (unhealthy), and red (very unhealthy) colours. Apart from the LED indicators, there are physical buttons for power on/off, modes, and filter reset.
The air purifier offers four fan modes: auto, silent, 1, and 2. These are self-explanatory and cycle through with each click of the button. The flexibility of selecting modes based on requirements adds a touch of tech sophistication to an otherwise non-fussy air purifier.
I like that there’s no app to connect the air purifier with. All that the end consumer has to do is assemble the appliance out of the box and power it on. Even first-time air purifier users can get it going out of the box without having to read through the pages of the cumbersome user manual, and that’s a win in my book.
Coway AirMega 150 Air Purifier Review: Filters and Air Quality Testing
By now, I have harped on about the design and the convenience of maintaining the filters enough to make you want one for yourself. But wait, it gets better. The filters are not only super easy to remove but also use patented Green Anti-Virus True HEPA Technology designed to significantly reduce pollutants in your home.
Filters
The Coway AirMega 150 has a powerful three-layer patented Green Anti-Virus True HEPA filter technology. It’s a combination of three filters, as listed below.
- Washable Pre Filter: This is the first line of defense, removing PM10 particles, dust, dirt, pet hair, and dander from the air.
- Urethane Carbon Filter: This is a deodorising filter that is self-explanatory. It removes bad odours, harmful gases, VOC, formaldehyde, and even cigarette smoke from the room.
- Green Anti-Virus HEPA Filter: This is the last line of defense against finer particles like pollen, viruses, allergens, and PM2.5 particles. Coway claims that this filter kills 99.99% of viruses from the air and traps as small as PM0.1 particles as well.
Corner Placement Test
I placed the Coway AirMega 150 in the corner of my room and observed the performance of the purifier at various time points. The methodology used was to start with extremely poor air quality, showing the reading of PM2.5 at 400 and AQI at 100. Here’s how the AirMega 150 performed.
AQI | PM2.5 (µg/m³) | |
Initial test conditions | 100 | 402 |
After 10 minutes | 36 | 92 |
After 20 minutes | 30 | 40 |
After 25 minutes | 30 | 31 |
As you can see in the table above, the Coway AirMega brought the AQI down to 36 from 100 and PM2.5 levels from 402 µg/m³ to 92 µg/m³. This appliance achieved the feat in just 10 minutes, which is impressive.
To put things into perspective, the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 (review), which costs 3x, brought the AQI down to 36 in 25 minutes. The similarly priced Philips 1711 brought the AQI down to 40 in 20 minutes.
Needless to say, Coway AirMega 150 offers much better performance than its peers and even more premium models. That too in the corner placement where the air circulation is not optimal.
Centre Placement Test
To get more accurate performance readings, I then placed the air purifier in the middle of my room. To my surprise, the readings were more or less the same. Take a look below.
AQI | PM2.5 (µg/m³) | |
Initial test conditions | 100 | 400 |
After 10 minutes | 37 | 94 |
After 20 minutes | 30 | 40 |
After 25 minutes | 30 | 32 |
This shows that no matter where you place the Coway AirMega 150 in the room, the air purifier will perform as efficiently in the corner as in the center. Once again, Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 brought the AQI down to 42 in 25 minutes, which AirMega 150 achieved in under 10 minutes. The Coway AirMega 150 is exhibit A of punching above its weight.
Ease of Changing Filters & Cost
Cowway suggests cleaning the pre-filter twice a month. It is washable and doesn’t require replacing unless damaged. Removing it is quite straightforward as well since you just have to grab the Coway-branded tab on top and pull out the filter from its slot.
The deodorising carbon filters need to be replaced every six months, and the HEPA filter every 12 months. Of course, this is subjective to the air quality in your home and might need replacement sooner or later, depending on it. The air sensor and LED indicator will notify you when the filters are due for replacement.
On Amazon, the combo of carbon and HEPA filters is listed for Rs 4,390. The pricing is quite reasonable considering you only have to replace them twice or once a year.
Coway AirMega 150 Air Purifier Review: Noise Levels
Coway is known for making silent air purifiers designed to operate without disturbing the people in the room. The brand claims that AirMega 150 operates in the range of 22-49dB, which is comparable to other purifiers in this segment. There is also a silent mode, where the AirMega 150 adjusts the fan speed to produce next to no noise, ideal for sleeping at night.
Coway AirMega 150 Air Purifier Review: IoT Integration and Features
The Coway AirMega 150 is intended for straightforward use and doesn’t feature any IoT integration, smart connectivity, or a dedicated app. You take the air purifier out and turn it on to enjoy pristine air quality in your home. This is ideal for those who don’t want to mess with setting up the app and dealing with connectivity issues.
However, it comes with a handy Auto mode, which I loved and had as the default mode the entire time. The feature can detect the air quality in the room and adjust the fan speed according to the pollution level. It optimised the power consumption and saved me from the trouble of selecting modes based on the AQI indicator LED.
Coway AirMega 150 Air Purifier Review: Verdict
In the words of Leonardo Da Vinci, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” And that seems to be true in this case. With a simple plug-and-play operation and an Auto mode to intelligently adjust fan speed, the Coway AirMega 150 achieves the same results as much more premium air purifiers. If you are looking for an affordable and straightforward air purifier without compromising performance, the Coway AirMega 150 is the best option.
Note: Shubh Bhushan conducted the AQI, TVOC, PM2.5 and HCHO tests with calibrated equipment along with the author for this review.