Levoit LV-H132 Review

Though the Levoit LV-H132 is a fairly well-designed machine, we struggled to come up with a situation where it would be the first purifier we reached for.

Performance Comparison

After we ran our gantlet of tests, the Levoit LV-H132's overall performance turned out to be right around average. That's not to say it didn't have some aspects in which it excelled. You can read about those below.

Air Cleaning Performance

This is the main area where we feel the Levoit LV-H132 is lacking. When we filled our 150 square testing room with smoke it took the LV-H132 thirty minutes to remove 77% of the airborne particles, and after an hour it had achieved a reduction of 94%. For comparison, the top performing Coway removed over 99% of particles in just half an hour. The similarly priced GermGuardian AC4300BPTCA was also able to remove over 99% of the particles, though it did take the full hour to do so. The similarly quiet PureZone was also slightly better, reducing airborne particulate by 96% over an hour.

The LV-H132 has just enough power for small rooms, but will likely struggle in larger ones.

What this means is that the LV-H132 is really only cut out for smaller rooms of around 100 square feet. If your bedroom is on the smaller side this machine may work for you, but either the GermGuardian AC4300BPTCA or the PureZone would do a better job and cost about the same.

Noise

This is the LV-H132's strong suit. We found the noise it produced to be nearly imperceptible when on its lowest setting. In medium and high it can produce a noticeable hum, but it has a white noise kind of frequency that is somewhat similar to the sound of a normal fan.

While we love this lack of cacophonous noise, the PureZone is similarly quiet, and slightly more powerful than the LV-H132. Therefore that would be our top recommendation for those that both have a small bedroom and want a purifier that won't offend their ears.

The LV-H132 is nearly silent on low, and generates only a low hum on higher settings.

User Friendliness

The LV-H132 is completely bare bones. It has a very simple set of controls with a power button, a bottom to select between the 3 fan speeds, a button to turn the included LED nightlight on and off, and a light that indicates when the filter should be changed. While this is really all you need, it is sometimes nice to have a few special features like a remote control and an automatic off timer.

The LV-H132 is small and light. At just 6.5 pounds it is easy to move around, though the cylindrical shape sometimes feels a bit difficult to grip.

The LV-H132's simple controls and optional night light.

Operating Cost

This is another area where the LV-H132 excels. It lists for $90, replacement filter cost just $15, and it uses just 0.015kWh of electricity per hour. This works out to an estimated lifetime cost of just $279 (for this calculation we assumed a 5-year lifespan). This was one of the cheaper estimated lifetime costs that we calculated.

Value

While the LV-H132 is fairly inexpensive at $90, we don't feel it is a particularly good value. For just $10 more you can get the PureZone, which is just as quiet and noticeably better at removing airborne particulates. If you don't care about fan noise, the GermGuardian AC4825 is also just $10 more and significant;y more powerful. For most people shopping in this price range we would suggest one of those 2 models over the LV-H132.

Conclusion