What these purifiers actually cost to run, per the manufacturers' own sites

The formula

Annual filter cost = filter price × (12 ÷ replacement interval in months). Where a model uses more than one filter on different schedules, we sum each filter's own annual cost rather than using one blended number. Where the manufacturer states a range instead of a fixed interval, we publish the resulting cost as a range too — not the midpoint, and not the cheap end.

A note on tone before the table

This isn't a story about manufacturers hiding anything. In every case we could fully trace, the real interval was stated plainly on the manufacturer's own site — usually on a support or FAQ page rather than the main product page, which is exactly the kind of place a marketing-copy figure doesn't get double-checked against. PuroAir's FAQ, for instance, is completely consistent: 90 days, stated repeatedly, nowhere contradicted. The gap was in what got published about these numbers — including, for several of these models, what we ourselves published before this correction — not in what the manufacturers disclose.

The table

"Previously published here" reflects what PawAirHome itself showed before this correction — we haven't audited what other review or retail sites currently publish for these models, so we're not claiming this column represents the wider web, only our own prior numbers.

What actually went wrong — three different bugs, not one

• Wrong interval label (5 of 9 models): Vital 200S-P, Vital 100S-P, Blueair 211i Max, AirDoctor AD3500, and PuroAir 240 all had a stated replacement window that didn't match what the manufacturer's own site says — PuroAir's case (12–18 months published vs. 3 months stated) is by far the largest gap.
• Cost math that didn't match our own label (3 Levoit models): Vital 200S-P, Vital 100S-P, and Core Mini-P all showed an annual cost that only made arithmetic sense at roughly a 12-month replacement cadence, while the published interval label said 6–8 or 6–12 months.
• Plain stale price, interval already correct (Winix 5520, uahpet Slim): both had the right replacement interval, just an outdated filter price.

Only the Levoit Core 300-P needed no correction at all — its published interval and cost already matched levoit.com's own filter page.

Why we publish ranges instead of one number

Where a manufacturer states a range — Levoit's "6 to 12 months" for the Vital 100S-P and 200S-P, for instance — collapsing that to a single dollar figure means silently picking a point in that range. The previous version of this data picked the cheap end without saying so, which is the same class of error as publishing an optimistic filter life outright. We now publish the full range, and where a subscription price exists, we show it next to the retail price, not instead of it — subscription pricing is real, but it's a different commitment than a one-time purchase, and conflating the two hides which one you're actually comparing.

Keeping this current

Every price and interval above was checked directly on the manufacturer's own site on 2026-08-13. Filter pricing changes more often than almost anything else on this site — more often than CADR or certification status — so treat these numbers as directionally accurate and click through to the source link for the current price before budgeting around it. We re-check this table when a new model is added, and opportunistically when we're back on a manufacturer's site for another reason.

For the other independently-checked dataset on this site — CADR against AHAM Verifide, and ozone-safety classification against CARB — see the registry check. It's a different kind of verification: that page checks manufacturer claims against an independent third party. This page checks a manufacturer's own numbers against its own other numbers.