Aroeve MK04 vs Blueair Blue Pure 411a Max

Welcome to Vacuum Wars’ latest episode of Air Purifier Wars. This week, we’re comparing two notable air purifier brands: Aroeve and Blueair. The comparison is the Aroeve MK04 vs Blueair Blue Pure 411a Max. We put both of these air purifiers through a full series of tests over several weeks, and the results were enlightening.

About the Aroeve MK04

Starting with the basics, the Aroeve MK04 is one of Amazon’s most popular air purifiers in the past couple of years.

Amazon

The MK04 leverages a HEPA filter to capture particulates, a carbon filter to eliminate odors, gases, and VOCs, and UVC light to purify the air optionally. The Aroeve MK04 is CARB certified and an official third-party certification from SGS which states it is proven to capture 99.9% of certain bacteria (test report GZES2112033704).

Our head-to-head matchup: Aroeve MK04 vs Blueair Blue Pure 411a Max. © Vacuum Wars

About the Blueair Blue Pure 411a Max

The Blue Pure 411a Max from Blueair is a newer air purifier model. The model it is replacing was also one of Amazon’s best-selling models online in recent years.

Amazon

The Blue Pure 411a Max also has a HEPA filter and carbon filter but forgoes UVC light for air purification. Blueair notes that the Blue Pure 411a Max is AHAM Verifide for Performance (CADR), Energy Star Certified, Ozone Safety Standards Certified by CARB, Quiet Mark Certified and Zero Ozone Verified (<5 ppb) by Intertek Sustainability.

Features

First, we’ll look at the features of both air purifiers. These are things that don’t necessarily help with air purification but are nice to have. Both the Blueair Blue Pure 411a Max and Aroeve MK04 have PM2.5 particle sensors, which detect the level of particles in the air and give a real-time air quality indication in the form of colored lights.

Air Quality Indicator — Both units feature visual air quality indicator lights. © Vacuum Wars

Because of these particle sensors, both of these air purifiers have an auto mode setting, which will automatically adjust the fan speed according to the levels of particulates in the air to clear the air more quickly when needed.

You can manually select fan speeds on these air purifiers too. The Blueair 411a Max has three settings, and the Aroeve MK04 has two. They both also have a night mode option, which operates the unit at lower noise and speed while you sleep.

Check out these popular head-to-head air purifier comparisons: Coway Airmega AP-1512HH vs Winix 5500-2 and GermGuardian AC4825E vs Levoit Core 300!

Other differences include that the Aroeve has an 8, 12, or 24-hour timer as well as a UVC light option. The UVC light is intended to supply a secondary elimination of harmful particles that have been caught on the filter, though we’ve not tried to verify this claim in our testing.

We also include their size in the feature category where smaller is always better, and here, the Aroeve is both shorter and has fewer cubic inches overall. One small feature on the Blueair that could be very helpful in some households is a child lock option, which is a simple two-button operation to keep its settings secure. So, for the features category, our winner is the Aroeve MK04.

Filter Quality

Moving on to filter quality, both of these air purifiers have HEPA filters with incorporated mesh activated carbon filters. HEPA filters catch indoor allergens like pollen, pet dander, mold, and bacteria, while carbon filters trap light household odors from pets, cooking, and smoke.

The Aroeve MK04 has a HEPA filtration rating of 0.3 microns, which is a good industry standard. However, the Blueair Blue Pure 411a Max is rated at 0.1 microns, so it will feasibly capture more small particles. Looking at the filters themselves, the Blueair has significantly more surface area than the Aroeve, meaning it will also last longer.

When we look at both the Blueair and Aroeve filter replacement schedule recommendations and the approximate filter replacement costs, we find that the Blueair will be less expensive by about a third over the course of a year’s use.

HEPA and VOC Filter — The Blue Pure 411a Max’s HEPA and carbon filter for VOCs. © Vacuum Wars

So, with our filtration score, the Blueair gains the points for having larger and higher quality filters, putting it and the Aroeve on an even playing field before we move on to our next round, the bench tests.

Airflow and Noise Tests

In our bench tests, we measured things like airflow and noise level, and here we saw that the Aroeve MK04 had noticeably more airflow than the Blueair 411a Max. This is likely due to the Aroeve having a larger 34-watt motor compared to Blueair’s 20-watt motor.

The differences in their motors might also play a factor in the results of our noise tests, where we found the Aroeve to be louder at both of its fan settings, one and two, then the Blueair measured at its highest level.

Measuring Noise with a Decibel Meter — Measuring noise with a decibel meter. © Vacuum Wars

We also do a real-world noise test for this review. However, at its low setting (level 1), the Aroeve was 60 decibels, which is actually too loud to even compete in this test. But the Blueair measured 48 decibels at its second setting while generating 30 CFM of airflow, which is pretty good overall.

Even though the Aroeve didn’t even qualify for our real-world noise test, in our standard scoring system, the Aroeve wins the points for the bench tests due to its high airflow.

Filtration Tests

Moving on to the filtration tests, in our fog test, we release 12 seconds of fog into a ventless room and run the air purifier on max power.

While both air purifiers were successful in clearing the fog back down to baseline measurements, the Aroeve was a little quicker at 83 minutes compared to 90 minutes with the Blueair. We expected the speed difference, given the differences in airflow that we saw earlier in this review.

Fog Particle Testing — Fog particle testing. © Vacuum Wars

For comparison, it takes about 150 minutes to return to the baseline in this room if there’s no air purifier running at all. Next, we test for the reduction of volatile organic compounds, also known as VOCs.

We test this by pumping exact amounts of incense smoke into a sealed refrigerator and measuring how much and how quickly the air purifier can reduce the VOCs in a five-minute test on max power.

Testing VOC Reduction — Testing VOC reduction. © Vacuum Wars

Here, the Blueair performed exceptionally well, with a reduction in VOCs that was almost four times more than the Aroeve MK04 accomplished in the same time. We could attribute this to the quality of the carbon filter we mentioned earlier.

If you want an air purifier for smoke, odor, and formaldehyde reduction, the Blueair Pure 411a Max’s high score will be particularly important to you.

So, for our filtration test category, the points go to the Blueair 411a Max for its impressive performance in reducing VOCs.