Do Air Purifiers Really Work to Get Rid of Cat Odor

Yes, a purifier with a thick activated carbon filter cuts airborne cat odor, but it won't fix the litter box that makes it. For a bedroom or living room, including one with a litter box, get the Levoit Vital; if the box sits in a small closed room and needs more carbon than a mid-size unit holds, get the AllerAir 5000.

Best Air Purifier for Cat Litter Smell

The best air freshener for eliminating cat litter smell is none: a freshener covers the smell, and carbon works on the gas itself. Pick by where the smell is, and pick for the amount of carbon. Activated carbon works best when a large amount of material is used, and gas filters have no performance rating to lean on.

Match what you see in your home:

• The box sits in a closet, bathroom or laundry room, and the smell leaks out of that room: get the AllerAir 5000.
• You smell it in a bedroom or living room up to about 390 sq ft, and you see fur on the floor: get the Levoit Vital.
• The smell fills an open living area larger than about 400 sq ft: get the Levoit Core with light sensor, which Levoit sizes at 606 sq ft at 4.8 air changes per hour.
• The room is dusty as well as smelly, and you want a readout of how dusty: get the Coway Airmega Mighty MegaScan.
• The sharp, sour smell returns after you refresh the litter, or it sits in the carpet by the box: no purifier fixes that, so clean the spot and swap the soiled litter first. Bacteria convert odorless urea into ammonia, and carbon is not especially effective against ammonia, so the source has to go. Then run one of the units above for what is left.
• The smell is musty and you see damp stains or mold: no purifier fixes that either. The key to mold control is moisture control, so dry the area and clean up the growth. Call a remediation professional for a patch larger than about 10 sq ft or any significant water damage.

Sizes assume 8 ft ceilings. If yours are higher, or the room opens into another one, take the next size up.

Skip ozone generators and any ionizer or plasma unit sold to destroy odors: no agency of the federal government has approved ozone generators for occupied spaces, and ozone is a lung irritant. Skip the Blueair Blue Pure 311i Max too. It has no pelleted activated carbon, which makes it pretty useless for VOCs, and its ionization makes small amounts of ozone that you can't switch off.

Best Air Purifier for Cat Odors

The air purifier that is best for reducing cat odor in a bedroom or living room is the Levoit Vital, which also makes it the best air purifier for cats at that size. It has three stages: a washable pre-filter, a HEPA filter rated for 99.97 percent of 0.3-micron particles, and an activated carbon filter, and Levoit sizes it at 388 sq ft at 4.8 air changes per hour. A washable pre-filter suits pet homes. Next to the Levoit Core 400S, the Vital showed slightly better odor performance, especially in the kitchen.

Don't shop odor by CADR. The CADR rating system is for particles only, so a high number says nothing about smell. Carbon amount is what to compare.

To stop your house from smelling of cats, clean the source first. Filtration is a supplement to source control and ventilation, so clean the box and open a window while you do. Then put the Vital in the room you spend the most time in and keep it clear of curtains. Run it on the highest speed you can live with, because higher fan speeds and longer run times increase the air filtered.

Replace the carbon filter on schedule. Carbon can't hold smell indefinitely, and a dirty, overloaded filter won't work well. That is the whole routine for an air purifier for cat smell: clean box, unit in the right room, fresh carbon. Readers who want a general pick for the whole home, not one tuned for odor, will find the best air purifier a better fit.

Best Air Purifier for Pet Smells

The most powerful pet odor eliminator here is the AllerAir 5000, because odor control follows the amount of carbon and this unit carries 24 lb of it in a 3 inch bed. Its manual says it changes the air in 1,200 sq ft every 15 minutes. Get it when several cats, a dog or a box in a small room call for more carbon than a mid-size unit holds.

The best air purifier for pet hair is one with a washable pre-filter, and the Levoit Vital has one. If dust is the second problem, we'd get the Coway Airmega Mighty MegaScan as the best air purifier for pets and dust. Its laser sensor detects PM1, PM2.5 and PM10, so you see the dust, and it pairs a washable pre-filter with carbon and HEPA². It cleared a 728 cubic ft test room of incense smoke in 23 minutes at Turbo. Coway removed the ionizer from this model.

No purifier removes hair that has already landed. It can't remove allergens already settled on carpets, bedding, furniture or upholstery, so vacuum and wash those. A purifier filters airborne particles and odors; an allergy or asthma problem needs a doctor. Readers whose main problem is fur more than smell will find the best air purifier for pet hair more useful than this page.