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Nov 04, 2024

I Tested the Mila Air Purifier for Nine Months—Here's My Review

My apartment has never been cleaner. Every item on this page was hand-picked by a House Beautiful editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. As a tech-intrigued shopping

My apartment has never been cleaner.

Every item on this page was hand-picked by a House Beautiful editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

As a tech-intrigued shopping editor with various severe allergies, I gladly accepted a Mila air purifier when the brand offered to send me one at the beginning of 2024. I had never owned one before, but after the orange haze from the Canadian wildfires blew all the way into New York City (where I live), I was more than down to add an air purifier to my space. At the time, all I knew about the Mila was that it was quite big (about the size of a small end table) and that people loved it. Exactly four days after the order was placed, the box arrived at my door, and I’ll admit, I was pretty excited to use it.

It is easy to set up (more on that later on), and it makes a noticeably clean difference in my apartment. Whether you have allergies, a newborn, pets, or paranoia about climate change-induced shifts in the air quality, you need the Mila air purifier. Unlike the tiny ones no bigger than a water bottle, which can't clean a big space as well, this one works because it is so big. It has a large filter to capture dust and a powerful fan to suck in any potential allergens. The Mila can cover spaces up to 1,000 square feet, so keep reading if you want to make your home a little cleaner.

As their name implies, air purifiers clean the air in its immediate surrounding area. Each purifier is built to clear the air within a specific range, so if you have one purifier in a three-story house, you'll notice that the machine isn't cleaning the whole home's air. Mila's radius, for instance, is 1,000 square feet. So, if you live in a house with many rooms, you may want to get air purifiers for the ones you spend the most time in. Though devices vary in size and function, they all have a similar purpose: they use both an internal filter and fan to pull in potentially dangerous particles from the surrounding air and pump clean air back into the room.

Yes. For starters, there aren't a lot of attractive air purifiers out there, in my opinion. They tend to look highly industrial, which can ruin the vibe of a carefully curated room. Not to mention, the most effective ones are never the cute, tiny options that you can stick on your desk; they're usually quite large. The Mila is pretty big (about the size of an end table), but it's dressed in an elegant white cover with perforated holes and stands on natural wood legs. As for the piece itself, there's only one model and seven types of HEPA filters, none of which you can actually see because they're working their magic from behind the door. Each filter offers a different function based on your environmental needs.

For anyone who doesn't want (or can't have) such a big device in the middle of their space, you'll be happy to know that Mila launched a much smaller version, appropriately dubbed The Mini, which ships in November. If you're looking for a holiday present, we think you may have found it.

Each filter offers a different function based on your environmental needs. Before picking my filter (as seen above in blue), I thought about what I deal with in my apartment: cooking smells from both my neighbors across the hall and street (my window faces a small courtyard where my neighbors often grill), constant dust, and whatever pollutants exist outside.

I went for the Basic Breather filter because I figured I could use it during the colder months when my seasonal allergies aren't so horrible. It's also great for anyone who likes the idea of inhaling clean air, but doesn't have any specific health concerns. I also opted for The Big Sneeze filter, since I have debilitating allergies. When the seasons start to change, I can barely see or breathe, and this filter is designed specifically for people like me. It retails for $69 and can trap everything from dust to pollen, so that you don't wake up with puffy, itchy eyes; or a scratchy throat. Mila also makes filters for new parents, pet owners, and more that you can browse through on its website.

When your Mila arrives, it comes in one giant box with one filter already inside the machine. Any additional filters you ordered will ship separately. Take out the machine and place it wherever it looks and works best in your home. Next, snap off the front door, gently slide out the filter, remove the plastic wrapping, and pop it back in with the door in place.

Then, plug the air purifier into an outlet. You'll immediately hear the fan going to town, which is good. It just means that Mila is calibrating, which it tells you on the circular touchscreen on the top of the machine. If you plan on using the app, you'll never really use the touchscreen, but it always tells you what mode it's in, any elevated pollution levels, and if you should close or open your windows.

Once Mila is settled, go ahead and download the app. It will ask you a few questions, including whether or not you have any pets, how many people you share your home with, where your home is (urban or rural), and if there are any modes you know you want to utilize, including bubble boy, turndown service, and energy save. All of this and more is available in the app's control center. Here, you can also set a child lock on the machine so your little ones won't accidentally turn it off or fuss with the settings. The best part? If it's in your bedroom, you can schedule the white noise to click on when you sleep.

After about five minutes, Mila will finish calibrating and get to work—you'll hear it.

For me, yes. Everything—pepper, dust, pollen, and about a million other things—makes me sneeze and cough. I noticed that I hardly have allergy flare-ups since getting and using my Mila nearly a year ago. What I love most about it are the aforementioned special features. The app lets you customize modes and settings and informs you of any changes in your space's AQI. It doesn't just tell you that your home is more polluted than what is considered healthy; it tells you which specific particles, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter (PM1), are circulating at dangerous levels. Then, within seconds, I can hear the fan on full blast, pulling dirty air in and spewing clean air back out. It's amazing.

As you can see from the photos below, the difference is astounding. The photo on the left is the AQI levels when I first installed the Mila and the one on the right is the next day.

I notice that when my AQI levels rise, it's because I'm cooking, lighting a candle, or working out nearby. The app also warns me when AQI levels are expected to rise in my neighborhood and goes into what it calls "bubble boy mode" when the levels in my room also go up. The fan is loud, but I like it because that means it's working. There's also an opt-in "turndown service" feature, which activates an hour before your scheduled bedtime. Mine is 10 p.m., so turndown service, a function that gives your space a deep clean to reduce nighttime allergies, begins promptly at 9 p.m. There's a whole host of cleverly named functions you can play around with and opt into or out of on the app.

No, you don't need to, but it's much less time-consuming and generally easier to operate your Mila on the app than on the touchscreen, which is about the size of a coaster. The app is also much more in-depth when explaining what pollutants are present, what AQI levels are healthy, and which are dangerous.

For instance, the humidity levels in my apartment change drastically daily. According to Mila, anything in the 45 percent to 55 percent RH level is good; mine is sometimes in that range and sometimes as low as 19 percent. The app explains what happens when levels surpass 55 percent (this can promote mold, mildew, fungi, bacteria, and virus growth). Luckily, mine has not reached this level, but we'll see what happens in the summer. I may need to invest in a dehumidifier.

When you click on the app, each type of pollutant and air measurement is detailed (see the screenshot below) so that you can understand what's happening with the air you're breathing in and out all day. I find this information insightful, and it's only available through the app.

I received my Mila air purifier and two filters back in March 2024. I first used the original filter, which I had in place for a whopping six months. When I took it out, it was literally gray (it was originally blue) and covered in soot, dust, and other debris, which, I guess, was in the air around my apartment. I was repulsed but also pretty impressed by how well this thing works. Once I removed the original filter, I popped in The Big Sneeze, which looks exactly like the original but is made with a few more layers of filtered material. It’s only been in for three months, but I just checked on it, and while there is some debris caught in there, it’s not nearly as much as there was in the original filter. Perhaps it will look different in another three months! Overall, the Mila functions precisely as it did on day one, so this is not a gadget that breaks down quickly.

The short answer is absolutely. Mila is something I never would have realized I needed until I actually lived with it for nine months. Now that I have it, I will never live without an air purifier again. This one is designed for people who may not have a basic knowledge of air pollutants, what they are, or why they're bad, so Mila identifies them, explains them, and then gets rid of them. All I have to do is plug it in, program it, and let it do the work. Having this machine has been an absolute game-changer in my NYC apartment. With climate change in full force these days, I expect all the negative effects that come with it to affect me more. The Mila makes me feel like I can literally breathe easier in the face of a highly polluted world.

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