Shark Clean Sense Air Purifier Max, HP202, Black

Why it's worth it

Shark's tower is built around fan power and very fine particle capture, and it covers up to 1,200 square feet at one air change per hour. If your problem is hair and dander drifting through a big open room rather than litter box smell, it's a strong choice.

The filtration spec here is unusually aggressive. Shark rates its sealed anti-allergen filter at 99.98 percent capture of particles between 0.1 and 0.2 microns, a tighter band than the 0.3-micron threshold that defines true HEPA. Dander fragments and the fine dust that carries them fall well inside that range. If allergies are the reason you're shopping, that's the number to look at.

The sealed design is the quiet advantage. A purifier performs only as well as its worst leak, and air that sneaks past the edge of a filter never gets cleaned. Shark's Nanoseal construction is aimed at exactly that gap. Pair it with a fast fan across four speeds and you turn over a large living room quickly, which is what you want when the dog shakes off by the back door.

From our review of 5 pet air purifiers

What we like

• +The filtration spec here is unusually aggressive
• +The sealed design is the quiet advantage
• +You can see it work, which sounds like a gimmick but changes how you use it

What to know

• –The gap is odor. Shark's listing describes particle capture in detail and says nothing about a dedicated activated carbon layer,…
• –The 1,200-square-foot rating is the one-air-change-per-hour number again, so treat it as an outer limit rather than a target room