Levoit Vital 100S-P Review for Rooms Up to About 220 Square Feet

Levoit rates the Vital 100S-P at a clean air delivery rate of 143 CFM and prints two room sizes beside it: 1,066 square feet at one air change per hour and 222 square feet at 4.8 air changes per hour. The larger number is arithmetic, not a recommendation. One air change an hour means the machine takes an hour to pass a volume of air equal to the room through its filter once. Levoit's own manual treats the smaller figure as the working limit, warning in its troubleshooting table that cleaning takes longer in a larger room.

HouseFresh's measurement backs up the smaller figure. In a 728 cubic foot room filled with incense smoke, its Vital 100S reached zero PM1 in 40 minutes at top speed, from which the site estimates a PM1 CADR of 148 CFM. That is within a few CFM of Levoit's rating.

The figure that matters for a bedroom is the one below top speed. At speed 2 the site estimates 97 CFM, enough for about five air changes an hour in 145 square feet. So a typical 12 by 12 foot bedroom can run on a speed you can sleep through, and a room near the rated limit needs speed 3 or turbo to hit the same rate.

HouseFresh also compared it with other small purifiers in its price bracket. The only one that cleaned faster in that group, the Blueair Blue Pure 511i Max, uses bipolar ionization to do it.

The Vital 100S-P uses one combined main filter with a particle layer on one face and activated carbon on the other, behind a washable pre-filter. Levoit sells four versions of the main filter for this model: the original, a pet allergy filter, a smoke remover and a toxin absorber. Whichever you buy, the carbon and the particle media come out together, so a home with strong odors may replace the filter before its particle layer is spent.

Read the product page carefully and the word HEPA appears in one place. Levoit writes that its original filter "is HEPA-grade while operating in Sleep Mode, as tested by an independent lab." The manual avoids the term altogether and says the main filter has the standard HEPA efficiency figure for particles between 0.1 and 0.3 microns, again citing an unnamed independent lab. Sleep Mode is the slowest fan setting, and at higher speeds Levoit makes no HEPA claim.

The background is a 2023 case. After Dyson challenged Levoit's True HEPA claims for the EverestAir, Core 300 and Core 300S, BBB National Programs reported on August 15, 2023 that Vesync, the company behind the Levoit brand, had voluntarily and permanently discontinued the challenged claims while not conceding they were misleading. The Vital line was not named in that case, but HouseFresh reports that Levoit removed HEPA mentions from the Vital 100S marketing as well.

Whether that matters for your air is a separate question. A filter that does not meet the HEPA standard at every fan speed still removes fine particles over repeated passes, and HouseFresh's smoke test measures the whole machine, filter included. If you need a filter certified to a HEPA class for a medical reason, this is not documented as one.

HouseFresh measured the Vital 100S from 3 feet at 37.5 dBA on speed 1, 42.6 dBA on speed 2, 48.7 dBA on speed 3 and 53.8 dBA on turbo, and reported it as quieter at full speed than small purifiers from Coway, Winix and Blueair with similar output. Levoit quotes 23 to 52 dB without saying where or how it measured, so the two ranges should not be set against each other. For the question of why a purifier's quiet number and its coverage number never describe the same fan speed, see our guide to air purifier noise.

Sleep Mode runs below speed 1 and turns the display off after six seconds. The more useful bedroom feature is Light Detection, which ships switched off. With it on, a dark room turns the display off and stops Auto Mode and Pet Mode from using high or turbo, so the purifier cannot ramp up loudly at night. Pet Mode, which cycles 15 minutes on high and 60 on medium, is held to medium in the dark by the same rule. The trade is that the display cannot be kept lit in a dark room while the sensor is on.

The control panel sits on the top, with Sleep, fan speed, Auto, power, display lock, timer and display buttons, and the timer offers 2, 4 or 8 hours on the unit and 1 to 24 hours in the app.

Auto Mode reads an infrared dust sensor that Levoit calls AirSight, and sets the fan from sleep speed to high according to a four-color ring on the panel. Auto Mode never uses turbo. The sensor sits behind a small hatch on the side, and the manual asks you to clean its lens with a damp cotton swab at least every two months, more often in dusty homes. HouseFresh points out that this is an optical sensor rather than a laser particle counter, which is why the cleaning matters.

The sensor sees particles only. The manual says so directly: it "can only detect particles in the air, not smells." For cooking odors or a litter box, the app's Efficient Auto Mode runs turbo for long enough to change the air in a room size you enter once, then hands back to the sensor. A Quiet Auto Mode caps the fan at medium.

The VeSync app adds remote control, schedules, four weeks of air quality history, a filter life percentage and pre-filter cleaning reminders. Voice control through Alexa or Google Assistant needs a VeSync account, and guest access will not do. Setup also needs Bluetooth and location permission on the phone. The HouseFresh review rates the app highly but complains about the number of in-app adverts for other Levoit products. Unplugging the purifier cuts it off from the app, and the manual notes that timers are not remembered after a power cut.

The Vital 100S-P runs from an external 24 V adapter, which is in the box. HouseFresh measured 1.6 W in standby, 3.2 W in Sleep Mode, 5.0 W on speed 1, 8.7 W on speed 2 and 27.3 W on turbo, and calls it one of the most frugal Levoit purifiers it has tested. Run around the clock on speed 2, that is a little over 76 kWh a year (8.7 W x 24 h x 365 days).

Filters cost more than power. The manual puts the main filter's life at about 9 to 12 months and lights the check-filter indicator after roughly 9 months, while the app estimates remaining life from air quality and use, assuming 12 hours a day. HouseFresh's annual cost estimate, which assumes a new filter every six months and 24-hour turbo use, puts filters at almost twice the electricity. The washable pre-filter needs a vacuum or rinse every 2 to 4 weeks, and more often with a shedding pet.

The two-year limited warranty in the manual covers the original buyer only, and Levoit says it does not apply to units bought from unauthorized sellers. If a marketplace listing is sold by a third party, check that the seller is an authorized Levoit dealer before paying.