In the pursuit of cleaner air for your family or workspace, you may have come across Medify Air MA-15 Purifier.
Medify aims to provide high-quality filtration in multiple sizes and with various features that fit your needs — and the MA-15 is one of these options.
With our Medify Air MA-15 review, we’ll help shed some light on one of the best-selling mid-range purifiers on the market and help you decide whether this unit is right for you.
Our Medify Air MA-15 Review
When it comes to choosing the ideal air purifier for your home or office, it’s essential that you know as much as possible about the device you’re trusting with your air quality.
We bought and reviewed Medify Air MA-15 to test the qualities and features of this unit, so you don’t have to.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
Filtration Quality
High-quality filtration is one of the most important aspects of any air purifier. If your device doesn’t address the allergens, pollutants, and odors that you’re suffering from, it won’t achieve the desired result.
The Medify Air MA-15 uses a 3-layer filtration system that allows it to comprehensively address a wide range of particulates. In fact, it has two of these filters that are in use simultaneously on each side of the machine, which helps to filter more air more reliably.
The outermost layer consists of a pre-filter that traps larger particles like hair, dust, and other airborne pollutants that can be seen with the naked eye.
This preventative filtration helps protect the inner layers from unnecessary debris so that they can do their job more effectively for longer —approximately 2,500 hours.
The inner layer is the heart of the MA-15 air purifier — a medical-grade HEPA filter.
An H13 (and the more advanced H14) filter is commonly used in doctor’s offices, hospitals, and sanitary environments that require reliable air purification and the removal of microscopic air pollutants so that patients with respiratory issues can breathe easily.
H13 filters address 99.97% of particles as small as 0.1 microns, meaning they’ll remove pollen, dust mites, mold spores, certain bacteria and viruses, and many other household pollutants.
The last and outermost layer of the MA-15’s filter is an activated carbon layer that helps to address the few pollutants that the H13 filter cannot.
Activated carbon adsorbs volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like formaldehyde, ozone, odors, and other gasses that can pass through the HEPA filter’s fibers.
This filtration allows the Medify Air MA-15 to address pet odors, smoke odors, ozone from ionizers, and much more for an all-in-one air quality improvement.
Using this unit, we can say that its dual H13 filters are as good as it gets in this price range, so you can be confident in its ability to improve your air quality.
Coverage Area and Performance
In addition to the quality of filtration, another essential aspect of your air purifier is its effective range and rate of filtration.
You want to be certain that your choice can support the room size that you’ll use it in and change the air often enough to maintain high air quality at all times, which will be shown in the unit’s CADR and ACH ratings.
Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) measures how quickly the air purifier can filter air, represented in Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM).
It revolves around the strength, speed, and size of the fan used to pull air through the filter.
A higher CADR means that more air can be moved at a time which leads to a better range of coverage and greater Air Changes per Hour (ACH).
Medify Air’s coverage area is 330 square feet at 2 ACH, or 132 square feet at our recommended 5 ACH (every 12 minutes) when on high.
It perfectly supported our office and small living area.
One thing we’ll say is it’s not a multi-room or large-room unit if you’re planning to use it to address sensitive allergies.
The MA-15’s 88 CFM is great for the size of the unit, which is helped by the dual-filtration system that allows it to move more air at once.
However, lower speeds suffer from significantly worse CADR (15 CFM at speed 1 and 38 CFM at speed 2). The coverage range gets cut by 80% and 55%, respectively.
If you want to see major results, we suggest you use speed 3 for most situations.
The Medify Air MA-15 air purifier works well for a room that’s 10 by 12 if your goal is reducing allergic reactions.
At speed 1, you won’t want to exceed 65 square feet, and speed 2 should only be used for rooms below 150 square feet, though they won’t be overly effective in either use case.
If you need to support a larger room, you may want to consider Medify Air’s larger units, like the Medify MA-25 with 135 CFM or even the MA-50 with 294 CFM — over 4 times the CADR.
Noise Levels
Depending on where you plan to use your air purifier, the noise level it produces may play a role in your buying decision.
The Medify Air MA-15 air purifier has 3 different fan speeds you can choose from that impact both its effectiveness and noise level.
At the lowest level, it produces approximately 35dB of sound, which is a bit louder than a whisper.
But based on our experience, due to the ineffective CADR of the lower fan speeds, you’re not going to be able to use it on speed 1 or 2 all too often.
In many cases, you’re going to experience the 51dB noise level of the highest fan speed, which can be compared to steady rainfall.
It’s not likely to overpower the sound of your television or penetrate your headphones, but it’s loud enough that you’ll know your MA-15 is running. It’s a plus for us, though, as it provides a relaxing white noise while sleeping.
Price
In our extensive research on air purifiers, we’ve found that most residential models fall in the $75 to $200 range, depending on factors like size, filtration method, filter quality, and added features.
The Medify Air MA-15 can generally be found between $100 and $140 depending on any sales or promotions that are going on.
This places it firmly in the mid-tier price range — and it’s a contender for the top spot in categories like CADR, power consumption, and filter quality.
Power Consumption
Since most people run their air purifiers all day to help maintain air quality, the energy efficiency of the Medify Air MA-15 is important to help keep power bills low.
This unit uses 18 watts of energy at the highest setting, which means that at the US average power cost of $0.14 per kilowatt hour, you could run it for 24 hours per day for a year and spend about $22. Not too bad!
But honestly, that’s not the primary cost of owning the MA-15 — filter replacements are.
Maintenance Costs
Just like printers and ink, the initial purchase price of the MA-15 air purifier is not the major expense you’ll incur.
The 3-stage HEPA filters that Medify Air’s MA-15 air purifier uses are incredibly effective, but they also require replacement every 3-4 months or 2,500 hours.
With 2 filters per unit, you’re looking at purchasing 6-8 filters per year which can quickly double or even triple the cost of the unit in just a year if you’re buying genuine Medify Air filters.
Fortunately, if you adhere to their recommended replacement cycle and use genuine filters, your MA-15 air purifier has a lifetime warranty which can help add some value.
Size and Portability
The Medify Air MA-15 air purifier is a smaller model that stands at just over a foot tall and 8 inches wide while only weighing approximately 6 pounds.
It can easily be moved around your home and placed wherever you need it (or where the noise doesn’t bother you), but it does need to be plugged into a power source at all times to operate.
Added Features
Looking for a little something extra to sweeten the deal on the MA-15?
This unit features a timer that allows you to set 2, 4, 6, or 8-hour timers for use when you’re not able to adjust it manually.
Its night mode feature also helps to minimize the light it puts out so that it can be placed in a bedroom overnight.
Other features include a childproof lock that allows you to place it wherever you want to without having your settings messed with and a filter replacement notification so that you can ensure your unit is in top-tier condition and working to improve your air quality.
Unfortunately, it lacks some of the more useful features like an air quality sensor and automatic fan adjustment based on the air quality, so you’ll need to be attentive to achieve the best results.
FAQs about Medify Air MA-15
Does The Medify Air MA-15 Filter Smoke?
Yes, the MA-15 will help to address both the smoke particles and odor caused by smoking.
The HEPA filter removes the smoke from the air, while the activated carbon filter addresses the odor and volatile organic compounds released through burning.
Will the Medify Air MA-15 Remove Pet Odors?
Yes, you can use the Medify Air MA-15 to remove pet odors thanks to the adsorbent-activated carbon layer included in the 3-stage filter.
How Much Space Can The Medify Air MA-15 Support?
The MA-15 is rated to support rooms up to 330 square feet with 2 air changes per hour (one every 30 minutes), but at the recommended 5 ACH (every 12 minutes), the room size shouldn’t exceed 132 square feet.
Does the Medify Air MA-15 Produce Ozone?
No, the Medify Air MA-15 does not produce ozone.
Its HEPA filter uses mechanical filtration to remove airborne particles and odors from the air without the use of UV-C or ionization, so it can safely be used indoors.
In fact, the included activated carbon filter will actually remove ozone from the air instead of contributing to it.
How Many Air Changes Per Hour Do I Need?
While many air purifiers will quote their effective range as the area that can be changed every 30 minutes, the more effective target air changes per hour to aim for is 5.
To find the new effective range, simply double the figure provided to achieve an ACH of 1, and then divide by the number of air changes you’d like per hour.
Medify Air MA-15 Review: Our Final Verdict
Overall, our Medify Air MA-15 review has shown that this model is a reliable and effective mid-tier option to consider for most rooms around the house or in your office.
It’s ideal for use in rooms that are less than 150 square feet but can extend to a range of up to 330 square feet if your air quality requirements aren’t too high.
Dual H13 filters help to bolster its CADR of 88 CFM on the highest setting, but with the lower speeds lacking the CADR to be effective, you don’t have much control over the noise levels, which may be inhibitive for use in certain rooms or situations at 51dB.
The MA-15 is also expensive to maintain when using genuine Medify Air filters, but the electricity costs are minimal, so you can run it constantly without worrying about an inflated power bill.
So if you’re looking for a reliable air purifier that provides effective filtration with a side effect of white noise generation, consider this Medify Air MA-15 air purifier review and invest in the MA-15.