LEVOIT Vital 100S-P Review: a quiet, app-connected purifier that actually catches dust

I’ve been using the LEVOIT Vital 100S-P in a medium bedroom and then in an open living room for a few weeks. I bought it mainly for dust and pet dander, not because I’m obsessed with air quality numbers. I already had a couple of cheaper, non‑smart purifiers before, so I wasn’t starting from zero. What I wanted was simple: less dust on furniture, fewer sneezing fits during allergy season, and something that doesn’t sound like a hair dryer all day.

Right away, the first thing that stood out for me was the noise level. On the lowest speeds and in Sleep Mode, it’s honestly very quiet. You still hear a soft airflow if the room is silent, but it doesn’t bother sleep at all. When it ramps up to higher speeds in Auto Mode, you notice it, but it’s still much more tolerable than some older purifiers I’ve used that sounded like a fan on medium all the time.

The air quality sensor and color ring are not just a gimmick. You actually see it turn red or orange when you stir up dust cleaning, cooking, or using strong-smelling products, then drop back to blue once the room clears. I had the same experience as some Amazon reviewers: during a deep clean, the light stayed red for a while and the pre‑filter got visibly dirty within a day, which is both gross and reassuring at the same time.

It’s not perfect. The smart app is useful but a bit overkill if you just want to hit a button and forget about it. Filters also aren’t free, and LEVOIT clearly pushes you to buy their own replacements. But overall, for a mid‑range purifier that covers a decent area and stays pretty quiet, it gets the job done and feels more thought‑out than the basic units I used before.

On value, this purifier sits in that mid‑range where you’re paying more than for a generic no‑name unit, but less than the really high-end brands. For the price, you get: Wi‑Fi and app control, decent coverage for bedrooms and medium rooms, AHAM and CARB certification, a washable pre‑filter, and a pretty quiet operation. Considering that some older premium brands charge way more and then drop app support (like a few reviewers mentioned with Aeris/Winix), this feels like a more reasonable balance.

The ongoing cost is mainly replacement filters. If you stick to LEVOIT’s official filters, you’re paying a fair but not cheap price each time. On the upside, the pre‑filter being washable means you’re not throwing away a full filter every couple of months just because it’s coated in hair and big dust. If you’re in a very dusty or smoky environment, you’ll still go through filters faster, so the real cost depends on your home situation and how often you run it.

In terms of what you actually get day to day – less dust on furniture, faster clearing of smells, fewer allergy flare-ups for some people – I’d say it’s good value if you’re going to use it regularly. If you only plan to run a purifier occasionally, a cheaper, non‑smart model might make more sense. The smart features and scheduling are only worth paying for if you’ll actually use the app and automations.

Compared to cheaper, non‑certified purifiers I’ve tried, this one feels more reliable and better thought out. Compared to the very expensive brands, you obviously lose some build heft and maybe a bit of raw power, but for a normal home, it hits a nice middle ground. So, not a bargain basement steal, but fair for what it offers, especially if you catch it on sale like many buyers did.

Design-wise, the Vital 100S-P is pretty straightforward. It’s a rectangular white unit, about 16 inches tall, around 12.6 inches deep, and just over 6 inches wide. So it’s not tiny like a desktop purifier, but it’s also not a huge tower. It fits fine next to a nightstand, under a window, or against a wall in the living room without looking awkward. It’s light enough (around 8.6 lbs) that you can move it from room to room with one hand if needed.

The front panel comes off easily to access the filter. The U‑shaped air inlet on the front is wide enough to catch a lot of dust and fur, and the outlet is on the top, blowing clean air upwards. This layout works well because it doesn’t blast cold air directly at you, but you can still feel the airflow if you stand above it on higher speeds. The top has simple touch buttons for power, fan speed, mode, and Wi‑Fi, plus the colored air quality indicator that goes from blue (good) to red (bad).

I liked that there’s no overdesigned glossy plastic or fake metal. It’s just a matte white body that blends into most rooms. It’s not a decor piece, but it doesn’t look cheap or out of place either. The compact footprint is a plus if you live in a small apartment and don’t want a giant pillar in the middle of the room. That said, it still needs some space around it on the sides and front to pull in air, so you can’t shove it tight into a corner or behind furniture and expect it to work well.

One thing that could be better is cable management. The power cable is just a standard cord with no built-in cable wrap, so if the outlet is close, you end up with some slack on the floor. Not a big deal, but compared to some other brands that integrate a small cable channel or clip, it feels a bit basic. Overall, the design is practical and low-profile, more focused on function than style, which personally I’m fine with for something that mostly sits and hums quietly in the background.

In terms of comfort, the noise level is the main thing most people care about, and here it does well. On Sleep Mode or the lowest fan setting, it’s a soft, low hum that blends into background noise. LEVOIT claims 23 dB, and while I’m not measuring it with lab gear, it’s definitely in the “barely noticeable” range if you have any other noise in the house (fridge, distant traffic, etc.). I’ve slept with it about a meter from my head and didn’t find it annoying.

On medium and high, you do hear it clearly – it’s a steady fan sound, not whiny or rattly. For watching TV, medium is still fine, but on high you’ll likely notice it unless the volume is up. The upside is that it rarely stays on high for long unless the air is really bad. In Auto Mode, it usually kicks up, clears the air, then drops back down after a while. For people who like white noise, medium at night could actually be nice; for those who want silence, Sleep Mode is the way to go.

The light detection feature is a nice touch. When the room is dark, it dims the display and keeps the fan at quieter speeds. You don’t get a bright blue LED shining in your face all night, which I’ve had with older purifiers and it’s annoying. If you are very sensitive to any light, you might still want to angle it or partially hide the top, but for me, with the lights off, it’s barely visible.

Physically, it doesn’t blow cold air directly at you in a harsh way because the outlet is on top. On higher speeds you can feel a breeze if you stand over it, but it doesn’t dry out your eyes or anything when you’re lying in bed nearby. Overall, in everyday use, it’s comfortable to live with. You can keep it running all day without feeling like you’re in a wind tunnel or a server room, which is kind of the point of a home purifier.

On build quality, it feels decent but not premium. The plastic casing has a bit of flex if you push on it, but nothing alarming. The front cover clips on securely and doesn’t feel like it will break every time you open it to check the filter. The buttons on top are responsive, and after several weeks of daily use and moving it between rooms a few times, I haven’t had any rattles or weird noises develop.

The big durability question with air purifiers is filters and maintenance. The washable pre‑filter is a big plus. After just a week in a room with a pet, it already had a visible layer of hair and dust. You can either vacuum it or rinse it, let it dry, and put it back. That means the main HEPA and carbon part doesn’t clog up as fast, which should extend the replacement interval. The main filter itself is not the cheapest thing in the world, but it’s in line with other decent brands. LEVOIT strongly pushes you to use their official filter (Vital 100S-RF), and I’d stick to that, because off-brand filters can be hit or miss on fit and performance.

The app’s filter life indicator is handy. It shows a percentage instead of just a dumb timer, so you can see roughly how much life is left and not replace it too early. Of course, that’s still based on hours of use and fan speed more than actual particle load, but it’s better than nothing. Running it 24/7 on Auto will obviously use up filters faster than only running it a few hours a day.

Given the 2‑year warranty and the general feel of the unit, I’d say it’s built to last a few years of daily use if you keep up with cleaning the pre‑filter and replacing the main filter when needed. It’s not a tank like some heavy-duty office purifiers, but for home use, it feels solid enough. The main long-term cost is just filters, so factor that in; the machine itself doesn’t show obvious weak points after regular handling.

Performance is where this thing is actually pretty solid. In a 170 ft² bedroom, running it on Auto 24/7, I noticed less dust building up on shelves and the nightstand after about a week. It doesn’t make dust magically disappear, but compared to having no purifier in that room before, the difference was clear when wiping surfaces. Also, my mild morning congestion was reduced – not gone, but better – which for me is usually related to dust and pollen.

The air quality sensor seems sensitive enough to pick up real changes, not just random swings. When I vacuum, shake out bedding, or clean surfaces, the light jumps to orange or red and the fan ramps up. It usually takes 20–40 minutes to go back to blue after a heavy dust session. Same thing when cooking: even with the kitchen a room away, frying or using spices will trigger it after a few minutes, and you can hear it speed up. That lines up with some reviewers saying theirs even reacted from across the house.

On smells and fumes, it does a decent job. I tested it with nail polish, food smells, and a bit of cigarette smoke from a balcony door left open. In all cases, the smell faded faster with the purifier running on high than without – usually in the range of 5–20 minutes, depending on how strong it was. It’s not magic if the source is constant, but for occasional smells it helps. For pet owners, it does help with litter box odor and general “pet smell” in a room, especially if you pair it with regular cleaning.

In a larger open room (around 400–450 ft²), it still improves the air, but you can tell it’s working closer to its limit. Dust and smells are reduced, but not as noticeably as in the smaller bedroom. For big open-concept spaces, I’d either move it closer to where you sit or run it on a higher speed more often. Overall, for bedrooms, offices, and medium rooms, the performance is strong for the price; for very large areas, it’s more of a helpful boost than a full solution.

On paper, the Vital 100S-P is positioned as a purifier for larger rooms. LEVOIT claims it can handle up to 1073 ft² once per hour, and about 222 ft² at 4.8 air changes per hour (that’s the AHAM-verified rating). In normal language: if you put it in a typical bedroom or office around 150–250 ft², it cycles the air several times an hour, which is what you want if you care about allergies or dust. In a bigger open area, it still helps, but you shouldn’t expect miracles in a huge open-plan space with high ceilings.

It uses a 3‑stage filtration system: a washable pre‑filter for larger stuff like hair and lint, a main HEPA‑grade filter for fine particles (pollen, dust, dander), and an activated carbon layer for smells and VOCs. The spec says 99.97% for 0.1–0.3 µm particles, which is in line with most HEPA-style purifiers in this price range. You can swap the default filter for special ones: Toxin Absorber, Smoke Remover, or Pet Allergy, depending on what’s bothering you most.

There’s Wi‑Fi and app control through VeSync, with support for Alexa and Google Assistant. You can see air quality, set schedules, change modes (Auto, Sleep, Pet), and check filter life. Noise is rated as low as 23 dB in the quietest mode, and power draw tops out around 42 W, which is fine if you run it all day. It’s also AHAM and CARB certified, so at least the numbers are not just made up for marketing.

In practice, most of these specs line up with how it behaves. It’s strong enough for a bedroom or small living room, it reacts to changes in air quality, and it doesn’t blow your eardrums out. Where you need to be realistic is the coverage: that "up to 1073 ft²" line is at only one air change per hour, which is more of a gentle background clean than serious allergy-level filtration. Still, for an average apartment or house room, the spec sheet matches what you feel in daily use.