10 Best Air Purifiers for Pet Odors in 2024

We love our furry friends, but boy, do they smell sometimes. Pet hair and dander also build up over time, a leading cause of allergy symptoms. To keep your air breathable and your house smelling fresh, choose the best air purifier for pet odors!

Among many other categories, we tell you the best pet odor air purifier for hair and dander as well as our top pick overall. If you’re afraid you’ve gone nose-blind to that stinky litter box and your guests are just being polite, choose from one of the 10 best air purifiers for pets. Keep reading, because fresh air awaits.

Our Top Picks

Catch a whiff of what we liked about each purifier in our ranking.

A Closer Look: Best Air Purifiers for Pets

Having clean air shouldn’t be unattainable for pet owners- so let’s take a closer look at all of best air purifiers for pets.

Earning a solid number one in our ranking of the best air purifiers for pet owners is the LEVOIT air purifier. With a 3-stage filter, including high-efficiency activated carbon, the LEVOIT captures allergens, hair, dander, and other particles as small as 0.3 microns. We also liked that Levoit, unlike some other purifiers, emits no ozone through UVC light or anion. 

LEVOIT Air Purifier offers a 3-setting nightlight and operates silently. The purifier is CARB and FCC certified, and ETL listed. According to some reports, the purifier cuts down odor within about a day, and a kitten foster mother says it helped save her marriage! We were particularly encouraged by reports claiming LEVOIT helped a cat-allergy sufferer with sinus issues and asthma attacks.

Though they’re a bit spendy, LEVOIT-brand replacement filters are recommended, and there’s a built-in filter replacement reminder. 

Filter’s gonna filter, that’s what they do, and filters in air purifiers do need to be replaced from time to time. To cut down on waste, choose a purifier with washable filters. We like the Blue Pure 211+. In addition to the reusable pre-filter, there’s an activated carbon filter that’s particularly effective against pet odors. 

The purifier is also very quiet and energy efficient: Energy Star Rated, in fact, and independently tested by AHAM. Blue Pure’s filters work 5x- faster than other models in rooms of about 540 square feet. Blue Pure looks great and works quickly—in less than four hours according to one consumer report, and an hour according to another. It’s so quiet it won’t wake the baby, and cuts odors in a house with four dogs.

Digging out from under a pile of pet hair without much money to spend? The best air purifier for pet odor that won’t also cost you a ton of money is the Holmes Desktop. Though small, the Holmes Desktop works hard, with a high-efficiency filter, carbon filtration, and dual-position design. The budget air purifier for pet owners is best in rooms between 100 and 300 square feet, with a filter change indicator and 3-speed motor.

Particularly useful to remove pet smells, the Holmes is small enough to fit on a desktop or shelf. There’s also an optional air ionizer, binding negative ions to airborne pollutants like pet hair and dander. Consumers with pets who’ve used the Holmes say it gets rid of nasty pet smells from a litter box used by two bunnies and a cat! Another pet owner with allergies mentioned that the Holmes cleared up their asthma in a bedroom with the door closed, helping the air smell cleaner and improving the overall quality of sleep.

For all the benefits of an air purifier for pet odors without any of the noise, go with Partu. With 3-speed fan settings ranging from 25 to 48 dB, the Partu works hard and stays remarkably quiet. The filtration system is 3-stage, with pre, HEPA, and activated carbon filtering particles as small 0.3 micron. With Partu, you also have anion on your side, neutralizing pollutants like dust. The fan speeds can be selected based on actual air quality and the size of the space, also saving energy. 

Otherwise, there’s an optional multicolor night light, and an indicator reminding you it’s time to change the filter. The purifier helps relieve sinus pressure, according to some users, and helps many get a better night’s sleep. One consumer used it in a small studio apartment with allergy symptoms due to dog and cat dander says symptoms cleared up within two days.

Pet dander is a leading allergen. To help address issues with pet dander, we recommend GermGuardian. The True HEPA filter handles capture dander down to 0.3 microns. At the same time, the UV-C light works alongside Titanium Dioxide to kill germs. With three available speeds, the GermGuardian is also super quiet on low. There’s both an indicator light when it’s time to change the filter and a UV bulb. The lightweight purifier is best used in medium to large rooms, with a sleek design and easy-to-use controls. The UV-C light is optional.

Germ guardian helped cut down on inhaler use, as stated by one satisfied consumer. In a 4,000 square-foot house with two cats, it effectively cut all litter box odors. This also helped dusting become a once-a-month chore. Another user with litter box issues says Germ Guardian completely and effectively removed the odor, cutting down on hair, and the general dustiness in the room. One allergy sufferer called it a godsend.

In addition to being our pick for the best air purifier for pet allergies, the Alen Breathesmart Classic could also take home the best air purifier for large spaces. Effective in rooms up to 800 square feet, the True HEPA filter Medical Grade H13 True HEPA layer gets particles down to 0.1 micron—that’s tiny! And though you’ll pay up for the 45i, it has four fan speeds, more than most air purifiers. It also comes in a nice range of color choices, including espresso, maple, and oak.

The 45i is also Energy Star compliant. Though the product description quotes 800 square feet, many users report good results in rooms up to 1,000 square feet. There’s a filter change indicator, and the average filter life is about 12 months. According to one consumer review, the ionizer feature helped a pet lovebird breathe easier and begin molting (pet birds are susceptible to air quality).

For serious pet odor, hair and dander issues, don’t stop at just a 3-stage filter. Head straight to Winix HR900, our choice as the purifier with the best air filter for pet odor. With 5-stages, the HR900 offers a washable pre-filter, a washable advanced odor control carbon filter, a fine mesh filter, True HEPA, and plasma wave technology. This combo attacks odors, allergens, and other pollutants on the molecular level, making the HR900, without a doubt, the HR900 is also the best air purifier for pet smells in our ranking.

The purifier is also AHAM certified in rooms up to 300 square feet, with triple smart sensors, an auto-mode, and an LED air quality indicator. Sleep mode keeps the unit working quietly and efficiently at night, and the HR900 switches back to auto-mode when the sun comes up — pretty cool!

Our findings were backed up by reports the purifier is effective in spaces up to twice as large as claimed in the production description. Customers say it effectively captures dander, hair, and fur while eliminating odors in homes with multiple pets. In a home with four dogs, in fact, (including notorious shedders like Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds), the Winix did the job, even on a rainy day.

If you love long-haired dogs and cats, you know what a problem per hair can be. For quick relief, the best air purifier for pet hair is the Classic 480i from Blueair. What makes the purifier so effective for pet hair is the HepaSilent electrostatic charge attracting particles like free-flying fur. There’s also mechanical filtration, dual protection filters with activated coconut carbon (smells great!), and air quality sensors. The unit is also WiFi-enabled and Alex compatible. Since we know sustainability is always a priority, all filters are recyclable.

Certified in rooms of about 400 square feet, consumers call the 480i a solid performer. It cleaned the air in a large family room and kitchen with excellent remote control and online diagnostics. The 480i gives the air a fresh clean smell, due in part to the coconut carbon, we imagine. This smells too sweet for some, so keep that in mind. The general consensus, however, calls the 480i the “gold standard” of air cleaners.

Those who own small pets know small stature doesn’t always equal small smells. After extensive research, we settled on the Whirlpool Whispure as the best air purifier to remove pet odors from all your tiny, furry friends. With a True HEPA and active carbon filter, the Whispure is good in rooms up to about 500 square feet. There’s also a 4-speed fan: low, medium, high, and turbo, user-friendly controls, and an 8-hour timer. After that time has elapsed, the unit switches off automatically into sleep mode.

We felt confident recommending Whispure when we read it helped cut down on allergy symptoms after just one night. One reviewer says the purifier helped both him and his dog breathe better. Another commented it’s especially effective for pet dander. For small pets specifically, we learned the Whispure did the trick in a room with 15 (yeah, that’s right, 15!) small birds, reducing white bird dander while keeping the air smelling fresh and clean.

For an air purifier with the latest in smart tech, we recommend the APH260 from Airthereal. What sets the APH260 apart in terms of tech are the smart controls, which automatically measures the air quality and adjusts the settings based on the ambient environment, with noticeable results in less than 10 minutes. With a 7-step filtration system, the APH260 also earned its spot for the additional layers like nano mineral, a cold catalyst filter, a photocatalyst filter, and a molecular sieve.

Otherwise, there’s a sleep mode, and all filters are replaceable, with a filter replacement alert. Although the product description says best when used in rooms of about 355 square feet, some consumers had good results in spaces as large as 700 square feet. To minimize negative health consequences, anion can be controlled with the push of a button, breaking down bacteria with the use of UV light. One consumer living with COPD found the APH260 particularly effective when cutting down pet dander, more so than any other air filter she’d tried. Best of all, the fan sounds like spring rain, she said. Very relaxing.

Our Process

For this guide on air purifiers for pet odors, our team spent 5 hours researching the most popular options from over 50 brands and manufacturers big and small. We then read about two hundred user reviews (both positive and negative) to discover what shoppers thought about each purifier. After comparing this data, we narrowed our list down to the top 10 air purifiers for pet odors on the market. You can count on this research to guide you to a mindful purchasing decision.

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