Coway Airmega 300 Review: Is this cheapest Airmega air purifier any good?

Last updated on March 17th, 2020

Airmega 300 review

The starters

Skip this section if you have gone through 300S review. A modern piece of artwork, Airmega 300 shares the exact dimension as other Airmega models. At 13.6 x 21.2 x 13.6 in and 21.4 lb weight including the legs, it is considerably bulky. You have the dual integrated sides air inlet, two side handles, and top black control panel. At front, there is a circle air quality indicator that will display in four different colors. By default, the ring indicator is in blue when indoor air quality is good. The color will shift to purple when air quality drop to moderate, Pink when is unhealthy, and Red when is very unhealthy. On the whole, build quality and fitting are right on top with no signs of ozone or off-gassing. No problem getting this air purifier for the long-haul.

Most air purifier that has a centrally aligned control panel. Coway Airmega 300 controls are segregated to 2 sections. On the left part, you will find a Timer button, Light button, Pre Wash button, and Max2 change button. Timer button comes with 1, 4, 8 hours pre-set setting that will cycle between them on click. “Lightbulb” Light button will either enable/ disable the front air quality indicator light. The bottom two buttons (Pre Wash/ Max2) will only lit when the filters require change (Max 2) or clean (Pre Wash). To reset either of the filter indicator light, press and hold the buttons for 2-3 seconds. There is also a small light sensor that measures the surrounding light intensity. It will automatically switch to Sleep mode when there is no light source in a room for more than 3 minutes. You can deactivate the Sleep mode by setting it to manual mode (non-Smart mode). As for the right part of the controls, you will find two main buttons that manage the entire operation. The prominent one is the power button which turns on or off (hold for 2-3 seconds) the air purifier. The less prominent button control the fan speed or cycle between Sleep or Smart mode.

One neat trick that most people didn’t know, the pollution sensor’s sensitivity can be tuned. To start, press and hold the Light + Air speed/ mode button. Once active, press the Air speed/ mode button repeatedly until you selected the preferred sensitivity. 1 fan bar = Sensitive, 2 fan bar = Normal, 3 fan bar = Less sensitive.

To recap, standard features in 300 include a 4 stage filtration, 3 fan speed, and “Smart” Auto, Sleep, Eco mode. AQ indicator, built-in timer (1, 4, 8), and separate pre-filter/ HEPA filter indicator that based on run time. End with 30 days money back guarantee and 5 years warranty.

Airflow, speed, and CADR

Coway Airmega 300 is the lower end in the group; its 1,256 sq. ft. purifying coverage performance is anything but that. By default, the 2 air changes per hour purifying is great for everyday use. An asthmatic or hyper-sensitive allergenic person can up it to 4 that reduce coverage to half (628 sq. ft.) for faster purifying. The punchy airflow distribution is sufficient even for large room size e.g. living hall. In Sleep mode, the air purifier chooses the lowest possible speed to reduce noise and power. In Smart mode, the air purifier will adjust the fan speed according to nearby pollutants. Following the purifying trend, CADR stands high at 260 cfm for dust, pollen, and smoke. Better than most air purifiers CADR in the market but fall short to 400/ 400S at around 100 cfm. You can safely count on Airmega 300 in trapping household allergens and smoke.

What’s inside count

Equipped with the same filter quality from its series, Airmega 300 4-stage filtration is very dependable. As air flows in from left and right, the dual pre-filter would cover both sides of the air intake. Dust, hair, and other large particles would be trapped while on the way in. With smaller particles sneaked pass the pre-filter, the "genuine" Green True HEPA filter is ready and waiting. Any allergens or microorganisms as small as 0.3 microns will be halt from proceeding. For chemical smoke and gases, you have the reliable Activated Carbon filter standing by. All that missing from the filtration list is an optional ionizer. Despite its commonality, most people can live without it.

Keep it down

As we touched on the airflow performance above, the 22 - 52 dB noise level is less intrusive with what it would output. In normal circumstances, you can barely tell the differences compared with other models. At lowest speed, it is perfectly fine for night time use or set it to Auto/ Sleep mode for autonomous operation. 6 -57 W power consumption is up there as industry standard thus this is not the most economical air cleaner in town. If you plan to use it 24x7, always leave it in cost-saving Smart mode (Auto/ Sleep/ Eco). The air purifier would determine what should be the optimal fan speed.

At what cost

Coway Airmega 300 is the most "affordable" air purifier in its lineup but not so in the larger room size group. The premium price tag will get you a well-equipped air purifier specification. White is the only color variant unless you opt for the higher 400 series. As for maintenance cost, we are happy with the bundled Max2 filter set price VS longevity. On normal use, both Green True HEPA + Activated Carbon filter only require annual change.

Airmega 300 VS the challengers

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