Shark NeverChange air purifier review

Living in the deepest country with barely a truck passing by, shopping for an air purifier for pollution-combating purposes has never been high on my radar. However, this summer has been spectacularly bad for my 10-year-old daughter Bonnie and I’s hay fever, so when I was offered the chance to review the Shark NeverCharge air purifier, I leaped at the opportunity. 

Shark makes some of the best vacuum cleaners and is a sister brand to Ninja, which makes some of the best air fryers. So, I was anticipating great things from this air purifier. Its simple, slick design certainly met all my expectations, and its excellent performance and techy features were also consistent with my past experiences testing SharkNinja products. 

Read on to discover whether the Shark NeverChange should be on your radar, and if it’s worthy of our best air purifiers hotlist. 

Shark NeverChange Air Purifier review: Price and availability

The Shark NeverChange (model HP152) air purifier has a recommended retail price of $249.99 on the brand’s own website, but at the time of writing Shark was offering a $50 discount, making it $199.99. It’s just as well the main filter is designed to last a long time because the replacement Anti-Allergen True HEPA Filter is $89.95. Ouch!

If you want the convenience of remote-control operation, it’ll set you back an extra $14.99 – seems a bit churlish that the remote isn’t included. The replacement odor neutralizer cartridges are $21.99 for two, and I predict most people won’t bother once the solo cartridge included runs out of smelliness.

Those with homes boasting bigger rooms (up to 1400sq ft), might prefer the Shark NeverChange Max, but it costs a fair whack more at $329.99. I tested the equivalent UK model, which retails at £249.99. Over here it is called the Shark NeverChange5 (HP150UK) and it is white, not gray like the US version, but otherwise it’s essentially the same beast in design and specification.

Shark NeverChange Air Purifier review: Design

The main USP of this model is its NeverChange filter, which will last up to five years (if used at max speed for 12 hours a day in a 300sq ft room). For air purifier veterans who are tired of constant filter purchasing, this will undoubtedly feel like a breath of fresh air (sorry).  Another cool point of difference and a great way to get more out of your air purifier is the built-in odor-neutralizing cartridges, which aim to make your purified home smell clean and fresh, too.

The Shark NeverChange air purifier isn’t tiny, but its compact design will sit neatly enough on countertops and sideboards. Just shy of 15 inches high, it has a similar look to an air fryer (those Ninja genes coming through?) and although I wouldn’t say it’s a thing of beauty, it certainly didn’t blight my décor. 

Arriving well-protected in eco-friendly packaging, getting set up was a breeze. The quick start guide was easy to follow. All I needed to do was turn it upside down and remove the HEPA filter from the base, take it out of its plastic bag and replace. The anti-odor cartridge was in a can, like tinned tuna, so I just popped the lid and inserted it into the top of the Shark NeverChange. 

After removing the protective sticker from the control panel, I found a suitable location in the corner of our open-plan kitchen (three inches away from walls and objects) and powered it up. Weighing in at 7.2lb, this isn’t a heavy appliance, but it would benefit from a carry handle for moving from room-to-room.

Shark NeverChange Air Purifier review: How it works

The instructions, which are downloadable via a QR Code, recommend using the Shark NeverChange on Auto Mode to “ensure clean air confidence” and for optimal filter life. In Auto Mode the fans speeds adjust automatically, speeding up when poorer air quality is detected and then powering back down when the problem has been resolved. 

If you leave it in Auto Mode, the Shark NeverChange will also turn off if the air status symbol has stayed at 100% for five minutes, which is good news for electricity use. Not that air purifiers are huge energy guzzlers – I don’t have precise stats for this model, but an air purifier of this size shouldn’t cost more than 15 cents a day to run.

The front display provides the air quality reading and has an LED color ring, which offers a clear visual guide to understanding air quality – blue is Good (85-100% means 0-25 particles have been detected), Fair is an orange ring (70-84%/26-80 particles) and Red is classified as Poor (0-69%, 81-430+ particles). 

The touch controls on the top are also pretty easy to follow. You can manually adjust the fan speed, with five settings that range from quiet to maximum. There’s an Air Info button that allows you to switch between the air purification display options. I generally left it on the main display screen that gives a percentage reading of the overall air quality. The other three displays show different readings according to particulate size – PM1 is ultra-fine allergens, PM2.5 is larger particles, including smoke, and PM10-sized particles such as dust and pollen. 

Other options on the control menu include setting a timer (up to 12 hours), adjusting the brightness and a Dust Filter Life button that tells you when to clean the two side filters. You can also activate a child lock, which would be useful if you were using it in a nursery, and you can turn off the audible beep when pressing buttons. I love this latter consideration because I am massively noise intolerant and hate the intrusion of bleepy tech in my life. 

The two mesh filters in the side protect the main HEPA filter from being prematurely clogged by bigger particulates, dog hair and dirt and it’s one of the reasons the filter in the Shark NeverChange can last for up to five years. According to Shark, this HEPA filter has a superior carbon layer that surpasses regulations and captures 99.98% of air particles, making it a great option for anyone who is really serious about the air quality in their home. 

Shark NeverChange Air Purifier review: Performance

Following Shark’s advice, I started by testing the NeverChange in the busiest room in our home, the kitchen-diner. Measuring 678sq ft, the space exceeds the 650sq ft max recommended room size for this model, so I decided to run it on the highest power setting for an hour or two just to get things going. 

When I first turned it on, the Shark NeverChange read 97%, then briefly went down to 92% before settling on 98% for a while. It took about an hour to reach 99-100%. I then switched to Auto Mode, where it mainly stayed in the high 90s, except if I was cooking. Despite having a very good (I thought) and powerful extractor fan that was bought to suit the room size, the Shark NeverChange always knew when I was cooking, both on the hob and air fryer, and would power up to Max to help clear the air. 

While I’m not worried about urban pollution in our home, it is surrounded by farmland, so dust and pollen are rife, especially during harvest, which, by fluke, was when I trialed the Shark NeverChange. I am definitely allergic to oil seed pollen (we have acres of the stuff all around us), and the doctor thinks Bonnie may also struggle with the many well-established fir trees in our garden, which produce a lot of pollen in spring and early summer. She generally wakes up with a streaming nose and itchy eyes at this time of year. 

For this reason, my next testing spot was her bedroom, which is roughly 175sq ft. Again, the reading was in the 90s (blue LED ring), which is good. It started at 93% but quickly ramped up to 97%, taking about two hours to reach 100%. In Auto Mode it mainly stays in the second power setting so, as she’s a light sleeper, I was pleased I have the option to power it right down to the lowest setting overnight. My decibel meter App recorded the lowest setting at 38 dB(a), which is commensurate with a ‘quiet rural area’. In the highest power setting it recorded 62 dB(a), which is similar to normal conversation and not terribly loud, but you wouldn’t want it on Max power overnight, unless you really had to.  You can also turn the LED displays off completely, which is great for eliminating blue light in the bedroom.

I left the Shark NeverChange in Bonnie’s bedroom for a week and although the air quality percentage never dropped below 93% (admittedly I didn’t watch it through the night), she did seem to wake up less snuffly and without the sneezing fits we’d become used to at breakfast. My husband was oblivious to the presence of the Shark NeverChange in her bedroom (despite reading with her every night!) but he commented that her allergies seemed to be much better lately, so it wasn’t just my imagination. 

My final testing session was in our snug, which is a windowless TV room with double glazed doors that open into the kitchen. Being small and windowless, and very often full of dogs (we had two of our own and another on holiday while testing), it’s not the most fragrant of rooms so I thought it would be a good way to assess the odor neutralizer function of the Shark NeverChange. I plugged it in, and left it on Auto Mode overnight and when I opened the door in the morning, I definitely noticed the air was fresher and smelt nice. Not amazing, it’s not like a fragrant bouquet of flowers or any discernible scent I could identify but the smell is pleasant enough, and certainly an improvement on the usual damp dog whiff in there. 

During the two weeks I trialled the Shark NeverChange, the only time the air quality dropped out of the Good, blue light ring, status was when cooking, and then it was only just in the orange. Then it would ramp up the power automatically until the blue status ring returned. 

My husband also wafted some burnt cardboard near it to emulate a smoking fire, and it went absolutely nuts – powering right up to Max and the air status immediately dropped to 0% and the red light ring glowed. It was a reassuring experiment to know that we would be protected from pollutants if there were ever wild fires in the area, or some kind of mad smog situation. Both unlikely scenarios but I’m thinking the Shark NeverChange may well prove useful when the farmer is spreading the fields around us in dung come Fall.  

I didn’t need to clean the two pull-out mesh filters during the testing period, but the process is a simple case of vacuuming them on the lowest setting. If they get very blocked, they should be washed under the tap and thoroughly dried before slotting back in. Apparently, the LED ring will pulse red when the filters need cleaning. The large HEPA filter inside the appliance cannot be cleaned but Shark recommends you vacuum inside where it sits (with the filter removed) every two months or so.

Shark NeverChange air purifier: Comparison

The Coway Airmega AP-1512HH is a little bigger and heavier but similar priced and our reviewer gave it a fairly glowing report. Both models have Auto/eco modes and a timer but the Coway’s filters are expensive and need to be replaced once a year so on-going costs are a consideration.

Although the Shark NeverChange does push out cool air when filtering, I wouldn’t go so far as to say it could be used to cool your home on a hot summer’s day. To be fair, this is hard to prove either way given that Britain’s summer has been so cold and wet. This review was written in July with the heating on! But if you do want cooling, perhaps consider an air purifier/fan combo like the Dreo Air Purifier Tower Fan MC710S or, if you have very deep pockets, the Dyson Purifier HP07, which also heats.

If I were buying an air purifier for our four-bedroom Victorian home, which is mainly open-plan downstairs, I’d be tempted to upgrade to the Shark NeverChange Max, as it boasts all the same features but can accommodate rooms twice the size. 

Shark NeverChange Air Purifier: Verdict

Technically the Shark NeverChange should be called the Shark RarelyChange as the main filter will eventually need to be replaced but up to five years is good innings by anyone’s count. 

Although I don’t live in a busy urban environment, I could still appreciate the benefits of this punchy little air purifier. I’m convinced it relieved my daughter’s allergy suffering, and it definitely made the room it was in noticeably fresher. If I did live in NYC, or anywhere that was seriously polluted, I’d probably want one for every room, rather than choose who got to breathe fresh air while they slept or lug it around the place day and night.