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

Airmega 300 review

The starters

Skip this section if you have gone through 300S review. A modern piece of artwork, Coway Airmega 300 shares the same dimension as its higher-end brother at 13.6 x 21.2 x 13.6 in and 21.4 lb weight. It also comes with the same dual integrated sides air inlet, two side handles for carrying, and top black panel control panel. At front, there is a circle air quality indicator that will show the surrounding room air quality status via four different colors. By default the ring indicator is in blue when indoor air quality is good, the color will shift to purple when indoor air quality drop to moderate, Pink when air quality is unhealthy, and Red when indoor air is very unhealthy. On the whole, build quality and fitting are right on top with no signs of ozone off-gassing. No problem getting this air purifier for long-haul.

Unlike 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 or disable the front air quality indicator light. The bottom two buttons (Pre Wash/ Max2) will only lit once 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, round light sensor that measures the surrounding light intensity. Once there is no light source detected in a room for more than 3 minutes, the Airmega machine will automatically switch to Sleep mode unless the air purifier is in 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 smaller, least prominent button control the fan speed or cycle between Sleep or Smart mode. One more neat trick that most people didn’t know, the pollution sensor’s sensitivity can be adjusted by pressing and holding to the Light + Air speed/ mode button. Press the Air speed/ mode button repeatedly until you selected your preferred sensitivity (1 fan bar = sensitive, 2 fan bar = normal, 3 fan bar = less sensitive). Overall, we have no issue operating the air cleaner even though it is slightly unorthodox from the conventional setup.

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

Airmega 300 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. At default 2 air charges per hour or half 628 sq. ft. coverage with faster 4 air charges per hour (great for asthmatic or hyper-sensitive allergenic person), the punchy airflow distribution is more than sufficient for large room size including bedroom or living hall (Smart mode). In Sleep mode, the air purifier chooses the lowest possible speed to reduce noise and power. In Smart mode, the air purifier automatically adjusts the fan speed based on its surrounding air quality. Pollution sensor is tweakable and sensitive to nearby pollutants. Follow the outstanding purifying trend, Coway Airmega 300 official clean air delivery rate (CADR) stands at 260 cfm for dust, pollen, and smoke. Higher than most air purifiers CADR in the market but fall short to 400/ 400S at around 100 cfm. You can safely count on Airmega air purifier in trapping large particles like dust, small allergens like mold, or smelly smoke from a fireplace.

What’s inside count

^ Airmega 300 filters/ technologies/ lifespan

Equipped with the same filter size and quality from its series, Coway Airmega 300 simple yet efficient 4-stage filtration is perfect for long-haul operation (see annual cost in later section). As air flows in from left and right, the dual pre-filter would cover each side of the air intake thus stopping any large airborne particles from proceeding. With smaller particles able to sneak pass the pre-filter, the always reliable Green True HEPA filter would trap allergens and microorganisms as small as to 0.3 microns at a 99.97% success rate. For chemical smoke and gases, you have the Activated Carbon filter always standing by. All that missing from the filtration list is an optional ionizer that despite its commonality, most people can live without.

Keep it down

As we touch on the airflow performance above, Coway Airmega 22 - 52 dB noise level is less intrusive compared with what the airflow would output, even though in normal circumstances you can barely tell the differences. 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), and the air purifier would accurately determine what should be the optimal fan speed.

At what cost

Coway Airmega 300 is the most "affordable" air purifier in the lineup but not so in its larger room size group. The premium pricing you paid will get you a complete air purifier specification with Max2 filters. White is the only color variant unless you opt for the 400 series. As for filter replacement cost, we are happy the bundled Max2 filter set (Green True HEPA filter + Activated Carbon filter) is reasonable and only require annual change.

Airmega 300 VS the challengers

Verdicts and ratings

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