Coway Airmega 400 Review: Flair without the Wi-Fi hassle!

Last updated on March 17th, 2020

The starters

A mirror to 400S, you can barely tell Coway Airmega 400 apart from its series. The “smart” exterior seamlessly blends in the air intake, it looks futuristic even from a far point. At 14.8 x 22.8 x 14.8 in dimension and 24.7 lb weight, it is not super bulky considering the 4 legs stand comes as standard. Same build materials as the Wi-Fi version so every part is solidly fitted with no uneven gap for air bypass. Up front, you will find a bright, LED air quality indicator that will show real-time indoor air quality. When air quality is good, the ring will change to Blue color. Purple when air quality is moderate. Pink when air quality is unhealthy. Red when air quality is very unhealthy. Air inlet is located on both sides of the air purifier along with the handy gripping handle.

Big, round buttons with indicator light, the controls are spread across both sides of the top panel. On the left corner, you will find a Timer, Light, Pre Wash, and Max2 change button with a round light sensor. Timer button will cycle between 1, 4, 8 hours of pre-set setting. The light button will turn on or off the front air quality indicator light. Like 400S, both Pre Wash and Max2 Change button will show the pre-filter Lifetime cleaning cycle at 5 levels: 100%, 80%, 60%, 49%, 20%, and 0%. To reset the Pre Wash and Max2 bar, press and hold the respective button for 2-3 seconds. The light sensor works by detecting the warmth of the surrounding light. When everything is dark for 3 minutes, sleep mode will activate automatically. Moving to the right corner, there are only two functions. The big Power button and a swipeable Air speed/ mode. The power button will turn on the air purifier. Pressing and hold the power button again for 2-3 seconds will turn it off. The Air speed/ Sleep mode selection is slightly quirky to use. Either tap the curve bar on desired speed/ mode accordingly or swipe up or down for a similar result. Lastly, there is one hidden function that most people didn’t know it exists. The pollution sensor’s sensitivity can be adjusted by holding the Light button + Smart bar. Select one of the air speed from speed 1 = sensitive, speed 2 = normal, speed 3 = less sensitive.

Again, here is the recap of the air purifier spec sheet. Starting with the 4 stage filtration, 3 fan speed, timer, Smart mode (Auto/ Sleep/ Eco). Monitoring tools include 2 separate pre-filter/ HEPA filter indicator and AQ indicator. Finally, 30 days money back guarantee, and 5 years warranty comes standard.

Airflow, speed, and CADR

Despite the lack of Wi-Fi function, Airmega 400 never skim on airflow performance. Expect the same airflow delivery and applicable area with the S variant. At a maximum of 1560 sq. ft. with 2 air charges or 780 sq. ft. with 4 air charges, the air purifier produces plentiful of airflow output. Adding an adjustable pollution sensor, Default Smart mode is there for autonomous purifying. Sleep mode will reduce noise and speed intended for night use. Speaking of night use, 400 can be used in bedroom or even living hall as it has the capacity for large room size.CADR is equally powerful as the airflow delivery rate. At an overall of 350 cfm, all three dust, pollen, smoke, pollen passes our minimum benchmark. Combining the versatile Max2 filtration, the air purifier outpaces most competitor models CADR.

What’s inside count

Airmega 400 filtration consist of dual Pre-filter, True HEPA filter, and Carbon filter. How the 4-stage filtration works is pretty straightforward. When air are sucked through either side of the air inlet, the Pre-filter will block out as many large particles as possible. This gives the Green True HEPA more freedom space for capturing micron size particles (0.3 microns). The freed Green HEPA filter would then focus on allergens without being burden by dust and hair. On the other end, Activated Carbon filter would solely focus on smoke and gas pollutants. Filter size and quality are up there but do note that this would be the end of the filtration line. No Ionizer or UV-light in the whole purification process.

Keep it down

Noise level starts at 22 dB at low speed, and end at 52 dB at max speed. No the quietest air purifier around but is perfectly usable even in a bedroom. Given the air cleaner is Energy Star rated, expect a reasonable power usage of 6 watts to a maximum of 66 watts. For better energy management, Smart mode aka Auto/ Sleep/ Eco mode is here. Auto mode will ensure the machine conserve energy by running in optimum speed. Eco mode will stop the fan from spinning when there is fresh air in a room for at least 10 minutes.

At what cost

Coway Airmega 400 air purifier is the non-Wi-Fi version as oppose to the Wi-Fi ready 400S. As such, pricing will be cheaper but do not expect the margin to be huge given the spec is identical. What you can expect is the same pricing for both white or graphite color variant. Expensive the air purifier may be, it does have a slight advantage in the filter change section. The Max2 filter set (HEPA + carbon) is modestly priced and only needs one change annually. So, is 400 value for your money? Yes, but there are cheaper options that provide greater price per performance ratio.

Airmega 400 VS the challengers

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