Home » Air Quality » Shark HE601 Air Purifier 6 Review

Shark HE601 Air Purifier 6 Review

The Shark HE601 isn’t like most air purifiers. It sports more fans than most, making it capable of cleaning a wider area than its compact size would indicate. If you’re looking for an air purifier that’s as convenient as it is reliable, this is it.

Check out our review of the Shark HE601 to see whether it’s the right air purifier for your home.

Shark HE601 Air Purifier Review
Shark HE601

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500-800-Square-Foot Coverage

One of the first things we noticed about the Shark HE601 is its compact design. Measuring just 17 x 9 x 32 inches, it’s amazing to think that such a tiny air purifier offers between 500 and 800 square feet of purifying coverage. This coverage range makes the HE601 the perfect device for cleaning the air in living rooms, kitchens, hobby rooms, garage workshops, and home offices.

While there are no CADR ratings available for the HE601, it’s safe to assume that the multi-tier filtration setup works beautifully at trapping all common indoor pollutants and allergens.

Plus, Shark claims that this is an excellent air purifier for pet owners, so removing odors and snatching airborne pet hair is a given.

Shark HE601 Air Purifier 6 True HEPA, Large Areas, Advanced Lock, Clean Sense IQ, Ultra Quiet, captures 99.97% of dust, Dander, allergens, viruses, Smoke, Household Odors to 0.3 microns, 6 Fan, White
Shark HE601

6 Fans for Maximum Airflow

What sets the HE601 worlds apart from other similarly sized air purifiers is the number of fans built into the unit. If you remove the air purifier’s shell, you’ll find six micro fans that work together to draw air and airborne particles in before passing them through multiple fine-mesh filters.

So, what benefit does having more than one fan have? Apart from providing maximum airflow, both inward and out, the six-fan setup also produces much less noise than a single XL fan. Those who want to clean the air without jolting sleeping babies and pets awake should consider the huge upside of this pet-friendly air purifier.

Multi-Tier Filtration System

While not a lot of information is given about the HE601’s filtration system, what we know for certain is that it’s packing Shark’s very own multi-tier filter that contains a HEPA filter, which is designed to trap particles as small as 0.3 microns with 99.97% efficiency. It’s similar to an H13 HEPA Filter in many ways, so it’s fair to assume that the filter can negatively impact the CADR ratings.

Shark HE601 Air Purifier
Shark HE601

What’s great about the HE601 is that it comes with a highly accurate filter indicator that shows how many hours of use you’ll get from the filter. Right out of the box, the HE601 should show around 4,400 hours of use from the stock filter, which roughly translates to over six months of 24/7 usage.

Advanced Odor Protection

The HE601 comes with a built-in protective layer on the filter that captures and neutralized odor molecules. There’s no information on how the HE601 does it, but it’s pretty much guaranteed that it uses a standard activated carbon filter to trap odors and VOCs.

Presumably, the activated carbon filter needs replacement at the same time as the HEPA filter—once every six months or so. The filter indicator light should give you a good idea of when to swap it out for a fresh one.

Shark HE601 Air Purifier 6 Intro Video

Real-Time Feedback

Perhaps what’s most interesting about the Shark HE601 is how it offers feedback in real-time. It does this with the help of smart air-quality sensors, called Clean Sense IQ, that constantly measure the level of indoor pollution before automatically turning the six fans on to clean the air.

Shark Air Purifier
Shark HE601

The digital readout displays the estimated runtime needed to clean the air. This feature isn’t all that needed since the Clean Sense IQ does all of the controlling for you, but it’s definitely a nice addition for a smart purifier.

No Child Lock, No App Support

Now that we know what the HE601 is capable of, let’s talk about what it cannot do. First and foremost, it doesn’t have a child lock feature, so children and pets can change the fan speed settings at any time by playing with the touch-activated control panel.

Be sure to keep the HE601 out of reach of children as much as possible.

Secondly, despite being a “smart” air purifier, the only way you can control the device is by manually playing with the control panel or using the included remote controller.

It doesn’t offer app or voice support, which is quite a disappointment considering how intelligent Shark markets the HE601. The remote control doesn’t offer real-time feedback either, so you’ll have to check on the appliance from time to time.

SharkNinja HE601 Air Purifier Review
Shark HE601

So, Should I Get the Shark HE601?

Considering everything the Shark HE601 has and doesn’t have, it’s fair to say that it’s an excellent far-reaching air purifier with a wide range of smart features.

However, the lack of app and voice support can be a huge drawback, especially considering the device’s price tag. That said, if you can get by with the remote controller, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Shark HE601 Air Purifier 6 True HEPA Cleans...
  • 6-FAN AIRFLOW: Six high-speed micro-fans work together to evenly distribute airflow across...
  • ULTRA-FAST MEETS ULTRA-QUIET: With multiple smaller fans, you get a remarkably quiet...

Air Recommended Air Purifiers

Our Pick Perfect for bedrooms, playrooms, and living rooms, the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH is one of the best-performing, most durable, and most economical purifiers we’ve tested.

Most Popular The Levoit Core 300 air purifier has some strong suits, but in our opinion it falls short of carving out a meaningful niche for itself. Its ideal use would be in a small bedroom occupied by someone who is sensitive to noise.

Also Great With high end air cleaning performance and a whisper quiet fan, the Winix 5500-2 is the perfect combination of power and finesse. It cleared airborne particulates out of our smokey testing room faster than any other model.

Best of the Best If you have a large space you want to remove irritants from, We recommend the Airmega 400S. All of Coway air purifiers do an excellent job of attacking indoor pollutants, and we highly recommend any of them. The 400S is designed to accommodate large room sizes.

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Last Update: 2024-03-18 | Affiliate links/Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About the author

Hi I’m Alex, founder of HouseholdMe.com and I’d like to say thank you for dropping by. Like most of you, the first thing I look at before buying something online is reviews or buying guides. By reading what other people say will help me gauge whether or not a product is good or not.  I am trying to help people find answers, solve problems, and get inspired.

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