This high-tech air purifier has helped my wife with hayfever this spring
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.
It's a wonderful time of year for getting outside and enjoying the flora and fauna that springs up in the spring. But for hay fever sufferers, it's not as fun.
And it hadn't been a fun season for my wife, either. She works from home, and her office is in our conservatory. That means in warm weather she has to open the windows - and opening the windows lets in the allergens.
I was certainly quite interested, then, when the nice people at Levoit offered to let me try one of their new smart air purifiers. I opted for the Core 200S, because it was a compact size, it's designed for roughly our size of room, and it has a smart control system through an app.
Setting it up was a doddle. We programmed in a schedule, which is the best option when it's being used in an office.
There is a sleep mode, and even a night light, so it'd be very useful in a bedroom, but it has no air quality sensor, so it can't be used in any sort of automatic mode.
That's actually quite forgivable for the price, because this can currently be bought for £81.29 on Amazon - and that's pretty cheap for a purifier with a HEPA filter.
The smart features are also good to see at this price point. It connects over WiFi, and you can use Alexa or Google to control it, which is handy. It's just as easy to load up the app, though.
The addition of a HEPA filter means the purifier can effectively remove dust, particulates, mould spores, and Volatile Organic Compounds through three stages.
According to the air quality sensors we have in our house, there has been a noticeable reduction of these, especially particulates. I've also noticed we haven't had to dust as often. And it's definitely been trapped in the filter.
The main improvement we were hoping for, though, was a reduction in the pollen. And my wife has reported that it's made a measurable difference.
Even in long stints in the conservatory with the windows open, she'd normally be knocking back antihistamines, but they've not been needed anywhere near as often, despite regular reports of a high pollen count.
The pollen season is still ongoing, and there are other types of pollen yet to be released into the air, so it remains to be seen how effective it will be through the summer months, but it's got off to a very promising start.
It's surprisingly quiet in operation, unless you use the most powerful mode and, even then, it's not an intrusive or annoying noise.
Levoit says the filter is good for six to eight months, but the app suggests it should do better than that, as it's hardly lost any percentage of its life in the few months we've been running it. Just remember to vacuum it regularly.
Overall, for the money, it's hard to pick fault with the Levoit Core 200S. It's a compact, smart, useful and clearly very effective air purifier.
If you have hay fever, and particularly if you suffer quite badly from it, this won't be a magic solution to all your problems - but it will make a difference. And you can't put a price on that.