Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier With True HEPA and Eco Mode

Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier With True HEPA and Eco Mode Review: Does It Live Up To Its Name?

Mighty. It’s a word that many people of a certain age may associate with a cartoon mouse. But air purifiers? Not so much. 

Unless you’re Coway, a Korean manufacturer of water and air purifiers. The company has nicknamed its AP-1512HH air purifier “The Mighty” because of its ability to filter and maintain the air in rooms up to 360 square feet even though it stands just over 18” tall. 

But does it stand up to its name? What features does the Mighty deliver, and how does it compare to other air purifiers around the same price point? After hours of researching air purifiers, we understand that you want a product that works, and works well, but also offers a few perks that make it a pleasure to own and operate. 

Read on to learn just how mighty the Coway AP-1512HH air purifier is! 

The Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Packs an Air Purifying Punch

First, Coway is justified with its name for this unit. This is indeed a pretty powerful air purifier, especially for its size. The Coway AP-1512HH Mighty is just a tad higher than one and a half feet tall and nearly as wide, yet it carries a commendable CADR rating of 240 which means it can handle rooms up to 360 square feet in size. While other air purifier manufacturers like to inflate the coverage size beyond what the CADR rating states it can handle, Coway’s claims are truthful. That’s not bad for an air purifier that retails for about $200, give or take a few dollars. 

This makes it perfect for most medium-sized rooms in your home from the living room to the bedrooms and kitchen. At less than 13 pounds, most people shouldn’t have a problem moving it from room to room or lifting it up onto countertops, tables, and other high surfaces.

Also contributing to this purifier’s moniker is its four-stage True HEPA filtration system. This includes a pre-filter that captures pet hairs and other large contaminants, a deodorization filter to stop smells, a HEPA filter to trap 99.97% of allergens as small as 0.3 microns, and a built-in Vital Ion (ionizer) which adds negative charges to filtered air (and which can be turned off.)

There are three fan speeds but no sleep mode, which is a setting many other air purifiers include. However, where the lowest fan setting only produces a barely audible 24 decibels of noise, consider this speed to be the one to help you catch your zzzzzs. You may also prefer speed two, which produces about the same decibel output as a white noise machine. 

A Design That Looks Familiar

Let’s talk about the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty’s eye-catching design for a moment. Look familiar? We wonder if Coway was inspired by Apple, because the unit itself looks like (to us, at least) a giant iPod Shuffle. Well, we are inspired by all things tech, after all. 

Unfortunately, the Mighty won’t play your favorite tunes. But we appreciate the lack of hard edges and a futuristic design that helps the product blend into the background no matter what room you place it in. Also, the unit is available in two colors, black or white (the latter is the cheaper option of the two.)

The function buttons reside on the top of the unit and are easy to read. And the filtered air comes out through the top of the purifier, so you can place it anywhere without dealing with annoying air blowing in your face.

A nice, friendly touch is that the Coway plays a musical like chime instead of the usual computerized beep when buttons are pressed. 

What Features Does the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty AIr Purifier Come With?

As far as features are concerned, you’ll find the usual ones built with your convenience in mind on the Coway Mighty. Here’s a rundown:

• Real-time air quality sensor: a series of lights (red means high pollution, blue means the air is clean, and purple indicates a medium level of contaminants) alert you to how dirty the air currently is and the product’s progress as it cleans it up. 

• Automatic mode: no worries about adjusting the fan speed yourself when the purifier is in automatic mode. It will adjust accordingly to clean the air, and also activate the eco mode once no pollution has been detected for 30 minutes. 

• Timer: The Coway’s timer allows the machine to run for one, four, or eight hours before automatically shutting off. This is always handy if you want to wake up to fresh air and not have to shut the machine off yourself before your alarm goes off, or if you want the machine to run while you’re out running errands or working and wish to home to pure air.
• Filter replacement indicator light: checks both pre-filter and HEPA filter respectively to let users be aware of when to wash or replace the filter.

• Display light shutoff mode: this feature wasn’t found on earlier versions of this model, but has been added for people who can’t sleep with a distracting blue LED power light. Parents may appreciate the option to leave the glow on when using in their kid’s room, as it acts as a soothing night light. 

A few perks seem to be missing. It would have been nice if the company had given the purifier a child lock feature to provide peace of mind to parents concerned about their kids viewing the unit as a toy, especially as several competing purifiers in the same price range include it. Also, there’s no remote control. 

Replacement filters run about $45 which is on par with the cost of competing air purifiers. You can buy yourself some time in between filter replacements by cleaning the pre-filter with a vacuum and gently scrubbing it in warm water with a dishwashing soap. 

What You Get In the Box:

• One air purifier
• One pre-filter
• One deodorizing filter
• One HEPA filter
• One user manual

The air purifier also comes with a three-year warranty. 

A Word About The Filters Before Using!

Some customers noted in reviews that one or more layers of the filter system were wrapped in plastic and already inside the unit when they removed the Coway Mighty from the box. You’ll need to open the filter door and make sure all filter layers have been removed from the plastic wrapping before operating the filter. 

Does the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier’s Eco Feature Really Reduce Energy Bills?

One of the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty air purifier’s most unique and curious features is its eco mode. It becomes activated when the machine is set on automatic mode. Once the air is cleaned and no pollution has been detected for 30 minutes, the machine’s fan will automatically shut off to conserve energy. Coway claims that this will help you save money on your electricity bill, but does it really make that much of a difference?

Probably not. When YouTube reviewers hooked their Coway model up to a wattage indicator, they demonstrated that the product barely uses any wattage as it is, especially when the fan is running at speeds one or two. Even when cranked up to speed three with the ionizer turned on, the Coway Mighty is only using 38 watts. This is even less than competing air purifiers which consume an average of 45 watts. 

The air purifier is also Energy Star certified, meaning it’s already designed so it doesn’t use a lot of juice. Perhaps that’s why we’ve yet to come across another air purifier—at least one in a comparable size with the same cleaning capacity—that claims to have this feature. It seems rather redundant and makes us suspicious that it could be a green marketing tactic. However, the eco mode feature does save you the hassle of having to physically get up to switch the air purifier off when the air is clean, especially as the product doesn’t come with a remote control or WiFi connectivity that would allow you to control it through a mobile device. So chalk this feature up to being one of convenience rather than one that’s going to save you a lot of money. 

Nine Out of Ten Amazon Reviewers Love The Coway Mighty

The Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier is well received by most customers: nine out of ten reviewers on Amazon give this air purifier a four or five star rating, with top marks being given to its energy efficiency, quiet noise level, and design. Several reviewers were so impressed with the fast filtering power that they ended up buying more than one unit. 

The chances are good that if you have a home with medium to large sized rooms but you don’t want a humongous filter taking up too much space (or putting too big of a charge on your card), you’ll approve of the Coway Mighty as well. And if you need a super quiet filter that won’t disrupt sleep and has a smooth, modern design, you should put this purifier on your shortlist as well. Pet owners and foodies will love that this filter removes fur and odors from the air. 

Most of the one-star reviews were given because the customer received a bad unit. It seems Coway may have been struggling with a quality control issue when the air purifier was first introduced, as there are several complaints about grinding noises and metal pieces shooting out through the top of the unit. Customer support may be an issue as well—several of the one-star reviews say Coway refused to replace their purifier or repair it. 

However, it’s important to note that these negative reviews were left in 2018 and 2019. It seems Coway has worked out any quality assurance kinks. There are many glowing reviews from customers who have owned the product for a few years and can attest to its long-term durability. 

Who Should Buy The Coway AP1512HH Mighty With True HEPA and Eco Mode?

If you need an air purifier that can handle bigger rooms with ease without taking up too much space (and too much strength moving it), and you don’t want to spend more than $200, you should definitely consider the Coway AP1512HH Mighty. If leaving a low carbon footprint is important to you, you’ll love the guilt-free feeling of using an air purifier that sucks very little electricity and its eco mode feature that automatically shuts the unit off to preserve energy. 

The Coway Mighty is also barely audible at its lowest fan setting, assuring you and your kids of undisturbed sleep. 

Small Size, Big Power

There’s nothing mousy about his mighty air purifier: the Coway Mighty is worthy of its title, especially when you consider that many smaller air purifiers in stores can only filter smaller rooms. This machine takes up very little space. 

While its cleansing power is hard to top, if you have slightly smaller rooms we recommend you also take a look at the Hathaspace Smart True HEPA Air Purifier HSP001 air purifier. It retails for about $40 less than the Coway, yet comes with the same features plus a remote. It’s also one of the quietest air purifiers available and the manufacturer claims it can clean the air in a 350 square foot space. 

Either one should meet your needs nicely.