Blueair – Blue Pure 211+ Auto 550 Sq. Ft. HEPASilent Air Purifier – White

This air purifier is a little spendy, but it’s an investment in your health. Since COVID started, I know that I’ve spent considerably more time indoors. I also live in an apartment complex that allows pets. There’s lots of dust and weird smells that make their way around the building. That’s where this air purifier shines. My hallway can smell like food, dog, garbage, you name it. The moment I open my door after a long day and step into my unit that smells like nothing is incredible. Blue Air has a really good reputation and their products are easy to use. For this particular unit, I took it out of the box, put the prefilter on, removed a single sticker, plugged it in, and one tap later I was in business. With five pre-filter colors, you should be able to get the purifier to match any room’s aesthetic. I like the particle sensor that gives you a good estimate of how the air in your home is doing. When running on low, this thing is nearly silent. The only thing I don’t really love about this is the filter cost – $70 every 6 months or $140 a year. That being said, given how well this purifier works, I think the upkeep cost is well worth it.

The Blueair Pure 211+ Auto has impressed me both in styling and performance. In its first 48 hours of use, I’ve seen and felt the impact it has made to the air I breathe.
With the pandemic still lingering, I’ve had a lot of time to transform my 500 square foot garage into another inhabitable spot in our home. A man cave, if you will. Here is where I perform my work-from-home duties, watch TV and play video games. The trouble with the garage is it’s not quite as insulated nor sealed as the rest of the home, so particulate matter and dust roams freely. I notice daily because my keyboard is covered in it by the time I begin my day.
The 211+ Auto changed that overnight! On the first night, I ran it full blast to get the air in a nominal state before switching to auto. Within a half hour I can already smell the difference; the air was removed of garage smells and it was very pleasant to inhale the fresh air. I couldn’t believe it. Waking up to see that the keyboard had much less dust on it was a happy sight to see.
The next day I decided to take it up a notch for the sake of experimentation. With the garage door closed, I took my leaf blower and proceeded to cloud the garage air with many months old dust and dirt that has settled on cabinets, crevices and everything in between. It was terrible! Immediately, the 211+ Auto signaled that the air was full of pollutants with the red light. About 20 minutes later, it had changed to amber to signal an improvement in air quality and shortly after, nominal blue. It took about 30 minutes total to change from dust storm to clear. The dust haze was gone and the air was fresh again. That’s fantastic. This thing has been engineered to clean your air effectively, yet move huge amounts of air. The dust that ended up settling back on the floor and other places…well…that’s on me to clean up.
Using the 211+ Auto is very simple with a single button up top with 3 lights to form a circle. Each light represents low, medium and high speed settings, and all lit means automatic speed setting using the particle detector for speed metering. I plan to use it in auto as it is the best combination of clean air maintenance and quiet operation. Medium and high settings can definitely be heard, but it’s not terrible, in my opinion. A small LED in front of the unit informs you of air quality status and only illuminates in amber or red in the presence of higher levels of particulate matter.
Aesthetics-wise, the Blueair Pure 211+ Auto can complement any room (or garage) by changing the pre-filter to color-match its surroundings. In my garage, I have blue and gray nitro floor tiles and the gray pre filter that comes with my 211+ Auto matches it perfectly. The pre-filter is machine washable as well.
Maintenance is case by case, but for most it will be every 6 months to replace the internal filter. For my garage, I’ll probably have to replace the filter 3 times a year, but for me it is totally worth the cost.
The Blueair app cannot be used in conjunction with the 211+ Auto, but you can get outdoor air quality information about your specific location (PM2.5, PM10, CO and SO2). It would have been a nice touch to add this capability to this unit since they do have other units that support wifi connectivity. You can also manage your filter replacement subscriptions in the app as well, but honestly the app doesn’t add a whole lot of value if I cannot monitor/control my air purifier remotely. This is really not a deal breaker at all as it automatically adjusts itself to the air quality so I don’t have to know its status and make the adjustments manually. Just turn it on to auto and make sure to keep the power running at home.
As I continue to run it daily, I often seen quick moments of the light indicator switching to amber and back to blue. It’s really a comforting sight to see that it was recognizing the air quality and making automatic speed adjustments to clean the air. And it looks good too.

>> Overview
The Blueair Blue Pure 211+ Auto (note the “Auto”, don’t be confused to the older Blue Pure 211+ version), is an outstanding air filter, suitable for large rooms, or as it is in our case, for a couple of connected rooms (no doors). We are able to breath fresher and cleaner air every day. After cooking, vacuuming, or while having people around, it doesn’t take long for the Blue Pure 211+ Auto to do its job and provide fresh and clean air.
– Pros: Provides fresh air, Auto mode very quiet and effective, particle air sensor and light indicator, easy to operate.
– Cons: a little bulky, takes somewhat too much space, no timer.
>> Package and Setup
I was surprised to see how well protected the contents in the package were, with foam covering the whole device. Contents in the package are: the Blue Pure 211+ Auto itself, one pre-filter fabric and short manual. Nothing out of the ordinary to setup and have it running. The only nuance was installing the pre-filter fabric, to cover the lower part of the device. The pre-filter is elastic so it is just a matter to stretch it and slide it to the proper location.
>> Placement
We struggled a little to get the right place for the Blue Pure 211+ Auto. It is a little bulky and my wife didn’t really like that it was “that” visible at first. I prefer functionality to esthetics, but I had to agree on this one with my wife, so we had to find a place where it wouldn’t get in the way but where it could still be somewhat centrally located. Ideally its best place seems against the wall and perhaps near to a corner (I don’t think you’d want it to be in the middle of the room, though), but you’ll need to be careful not obstructing the air quality sensor that is in the back. We finally decided to place it near the entrance to the Kitchen from the main living room, next to one standing desk we setup for work during this pandemic. The air filter is still visible with some visitors thinking it is some sort of subwoofer, but it doesn’t obstruct much, and as far as we can tell, it seems to cover the whole bottom floor of the house.
>> Air quality
The Blue Pure 211+ Auto is said to be for a large room, but we had it setup so that it covers the whole bottom floor consisting of two living room areas connected to a central kitchen (no doors), without counting the guest bathroom (has its own fan system) and the garage, for around 600ft square coverage. We agree in the family that it is keeping the whole bottom floor of the house fresh, easily getting rid of the smells from/in the kitchen. We have found that leaving the device in Auto mode seems the most convenient and worry-free mode, when it detects air quality deteriorating, it will speed up and get cleaner air sooner, then going back to silently filtering air without much effort. It has three speeds that you can choose for faster air filtering. It doesn’t come with a timer though, so you’d have to be mindful to turn it off or lower the speed (in our case we just leave it at auto for the whole day).
>> Smell
We have another air filter in the upper rooms (a different brand), and that one smells like some synthetic material, but as far as we could tell the Blue Pure 211+ Auto doesn’t (I think people will have different opinions in this regard).
>> Pre-filter
It comes with a cloth, advertised as a pre-filter, to cover the lower half of the device. Having this is a must, otherwise the device looks awful, the white color and the “naked” bottom part is a real eye sore. The fabric feels a little cheap and when moving the device it feels like it is coming apart, but after its final placement, the device looks somewhat cool.
>> Portability
Given that it is corded and a little bulky, I don’t think the intention was to make this device portable. Moving the device around feels like its parts would come apart, especially the pre-filter (cloth) feels like it will come off the device. My opinion is that if you are looking for something easy to move around, get something half its size and wireless if available. However, if you are able to find a strategic place to cover large areas, then you don’t really need to move this device around anyways.

I was a little skeptical about air purifiers until I began to research them and discovered how bad the air quality can get inside a home. I got a uHoo air quality tester last year and noticed some higher levels of TVOC’s and NO2 than I would have liked. I got the Blue Pure 211+ and put it in our largest bedroom, which happens to house 2 litter pans. The purifier isn’t too large and with the pre filter that wraps around the unit, it looks nice and fits with any décor.
I ran the purifier in auto mode, and it was very quiet. When you walk into the room it sounds like a computer is running as you can hear the faint noise of the fan. It’s not bothersome or annoyingly loud, but it is louder on higher settings. We found the lower or auto setting was adequate for us and with the amount of air the unit can purify over time we leave it on auto. There is a light on the unit, but it does more than just tell you the unit is on. It also lets you know what the particulate level is. Overall, it’s a nice, well-made unit.
Another consideration you will want to investigate are filters. The filters for this unit use active charcoal, which helps with odors and NO2 levels among other things so it was something we wanted but there is a cost associated with them that will need to be accounted for down the road when replacements are needed.

After 4 days I noticed that even with the litter pans in the room the air smelled better. I also took before and after readings with the air quality sensor and attached them to my review. There was a slight improvement in TVOC levels and NO2 levels. Overall, we are very impressed with the purifier. It’s quiet and gave us a noticeable difference in the air quality inside the house. Not only is the difference noticeable with our noses, but the air quality sensor backs it up. Coupled with the fact the unit gets high marks from Consumer Reports, you have a great air purifier.