Blueair Blue Pure 511 review: A quiet, compact air purifier that’s easy to recommend

The Blueair Blue Pure 511 is about as compact and unobtrusive as air purifiers get. At just 34cm tall, it’s roughly the size of a small pedal bin. It’s also been designed to integrate into your living spaces, with a white top and a light grey fabric filter cover that practically blurs into the background. 

Best of all, it’s quiet and can be used without any hassle or fuss. It won’t tackle massive spaces or handle duties across a whole house, but it’s brilliant for cleaning the air and helping those with allergies in a small to mid-sized room.

Blueair Blue Pure 511 review: What do you get for the money?

The Blue Pure 511 costs £89 and is the smallest air purifier in Blueair’s current range, with a CADR (clean air delivery rate) for pollen, dust or smoke of 191m³/h. Blueair claims this should be enough to clean the air in a 38m² room roughly twice per hour.

It pairs a plastic and activated coconut shell particle filter with a washable fabric jacket that acts as a pre-filter, helping clean the air and prolong the main filter’s lifespan. As for features and controls, it keeps things simple with three fan settings, an on/off button and a single touch control that cycles through the Night, Everyday and Boost settings. 

As you might expect, Night has the fan running low and quiet but also dims the indicators to minimise any chance of disturbance. Boost runs the fan at its fastest and noisiest setting to remove any smoke, dust or other PM2.5 pollutants as quickly as possible. Everyday sits somewhere in between, making it the best choice if you want constant cleaning for a period.

All three settings must be engaged manually as the Blue Pure 511 has no automatic mode, timers or smart features. All the same, it’s incredibly simple to use, and the indicators, set in a ring on the top panel, let you know which settings you’re on right now. They also turn yellow to warn you when your filter is about to need replacing, and red when the filter is on its last legs.  

READ NEXT: Best portable air conditioner

Blueair Blue Pure 511 review: How well does it work?

Very well for a compact air purifier. For one thing, it’s incredibly quiet. Set to Night mode, it puts out around 28.1dB, which can be barely heard above ambient noise levels in most rooms of my home. In its medium setting, this goes up to a still very quiet 35.3dB, and it’s only at its maximum setting that it has any chance of getting annoying at 46.8dB. The Blue Pure 511 is Quiet Mark accredited and one of the quietest air purifiers we’ve tested.

It’s also pretty frugal when it comes to power consumption. In Night mode it uses a mere 1.2W and even maxed out it only gets to 13.2W. As such, it won’t add much to your energy bills unless you’re using it constantly.

Crucially, it’s effective for a small air purifier, dropping the PM2.5 levels from 254 particles per square metre to a safer and more comfortable 25 particles in 3mins 25secs, with the first 100 particles per square metre getting pulled in and filtered out within the first minute. It will take longer to have that impact in a larger space, but for a smaller lounge or bedroom, the Blue Pure 511 is great.

READ NEXT: Best dehumidifiers

Blueair Blue Pure 511 review: What could be improved?

As with the larger, more expensive Blue Max 3250i (£169), changing filters can be a pain, requiring you to remove the fabric jacket and the top of the filter, remove another section, and then switch out the filter. It’s not that bad with practice, though, and you only need to do it roughly every six months – and less frequently than that if you’re not running the purifier continuously.

Blueair Blue Pure 511 review: Should I buy it?

If you’re looking for a compact air purifier, this is one of the best around. It’s not as powerful as some rivals: the Levoit Core 300S and Princess Smart Air Purifier 280 can clear the air in a small room slightly faster.

However, those options are more expensive, and the Blue Pure 511 is better looking, significantly quieter when running at its maximum setting and simple to use, making it very easy to recommend.