How to Choose an Air Purifier; A Step-by-Step Guide
Stuck at home during the pandemic? An efficient air purifier may help you keep your home’s environment fresh by wiping out harmful viruses and bacteria from the environment.
And, there are a variety of air purifiers available in the market. But most brands offer only vague explanations about the efficiency of their products or make freakish health claims.
The truth is that air purifiers aren’t a magic bullet to enhance the air quality of your home, but the right air purifier may still help you breathe a little better. And, it becomes difficult for anyone to choose the right air purifier for their home. But you don’t need to worry. Here, we have provided an absolute guide to help you pick the right air purifier according to your needs and budget.
Table of Contents
Are Air Purifiers Really Effective?
Removing the pollutants and ventilating the room with fresh outdoor air is one of the best ways to enhance indoor air quality. But you may consider using a portable air purifier when these methods are not enough or unfeasible.
Furthermore, portable air purifiers are intended to purify the air in one room. They cannot be used to purify the air in the entire house, like a complete system attached with the home’s heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system. Air purifiers can reduce indoor pollution to an extent as there are a few limits to what they can do.
What Types of Pollutants are Filtered by Air Purifiers?
Some air purifiers can help you filter out certain types of pollutants than others. For example, if you want to filter out cigarette smoke, you may need a different device than someone whose main concern is to prevent dust and other pollutants from entering their house. The working of most Air Purifiers is usually the same across the board. However, some of these are capable of catching the dust and dander better than smoke, while others catch smoke better than dust.
Additionally, you may need an Air Purifier with an activated carbon filter if odors are a concern.
What are the Types of Air Purifiers?
Air Purifiers employ different technologies for tackling indoor pollution. Here, we have compiled a list of the common types of Air Purifiers:
- Mechanical Filters: Air Purifiers with mechanical filters use fans that allow the air to pass through a dense web of fine fibers, trapping the particles. HEPA filters have a very fine mesh, and they are certified to collect 99.97% particles of a certain size. Moreover, these filters are effective in removing larger particles as well, which includes dust, pollen, along with a few pollen-mold spores. But Mechanical Filters may not help in removing gases or odors. Also, they are quite expensive to maintain.
- Activated Carbon Filters: Instead of catching the particles like mechanical filters, these filters use activated carbon to absorb some odor-causing molecules from the air. Activated Carbon Filters can also tackle some gases, but they often fail against Ammonia, Formaldehyde, and Nitrogen Oxide as these air purifiers can’t combat particles.
- Ozone Generators: This type of Air Purifiers generates ozone, a molecule that reacts with different pollutants and changes their chemical composition. This can lead to perilous indoor air quality, and we don’t recommend using these Air Purifiers. However, its makers often claim that Ozone Generators emit a safe limit of ozone. But several studies found that they quickly exceeded the FDA’s ozone limit of 0.05 PPM (Parts Per Million) for medical devices.
- Electronic Air Purifiers: Electronic Air Purifiers use Electrostatic Precipitators and Ionizers to charge particles in the air. As a result, particles stick to plates of the device or nearby surfaces by a magnetic-like attraction.
- Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation: These Air Purifiers effectively remove viruses, bacteria, and fungal spores from the air through UV lamps. However, UV radiation may not be enough for some bacteria and mold spores. So, the UV light must be powerful enough, and the exposure must last long enough to kill these bacteria and mold spores.
What Does CADR Rating of an Air Purifier Mean?
CADR stands for Clean Air Delivery Rate, and most Air Purifiers are labeled with this number. This metric was developed by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM). It allows consumers to understand the effectiveness of a device at filtering several particles in a room.
The higher the CADR number, the more particles can be removed by an Air Purifier. While some Air Purifiers have a single CADR number, others may have multiple CADR numbers for dust, smoke, tiny particles, large particles, and pollen.
According Environment Protection Agency (EPA), these are the recommended CADR ratings by room size:
Area (square feet) | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 |
Minimum CDAR | 60 | 130 | 195 | 260 | 325 | 390 |
How Much Noise Do Air Purifiers Make?
Many Air Purifiers come with an internal fan that pulls air through a series of filters. On low settings, these fans are usually silent, while others may produce a humming sound as you turn them up.
If you are looking for an Air Purifier for your bedroom, you will surely want a comparatively quiet device, even at higher speeds. The range of noise levels is mentioned in decibels in the Air Purifier’s specs. There are some Air Purifiers rated as low as 17 dB, and some can reach noise levels up to 60 dB or more.
How Portable are Air Purifiers?
The size and weight of Air Purifiers Vary largely from device to device. Some are lighter and more mobile than others. Some are so small that you can easily place them on a desk or shelf and move from room to room. In contrast, the bigger and heavier Air Purifiers are usually kept stationary, though some of them can be portable. So, if you want to use an air purifier in multiple rooms throughout the day, then you should look for a smaller device or one that rolls.
What are the Maintenance Costs for an Air Purifier?
If you have a tight budget, the up-front costs of your Air Purifier can matter. Never assume that you don’t need to pay extra for an Air Purifier once you have set it up in your home. You need to replace the filters on a regular basis recurrently.
The cost of filter replacement may vary from device to device. Some Air Purifiers come with expensive filters that last for years, while others come with cheap filters that you may need to replace frequently. Moreover, some prefilters are washable, but the HEPA filters are disposable and need to be completely changed.
So, before buying an Air Purifier, you must calculate the estimated maintenance cost per year.
What to Consider While Purchasing an Air Purifier?
You need to consider these things before you buy an Air Purifier:
- HEPA Filter: HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air Filter) has the ability to filter out very small particles. Several studies are conducted on this type of filter, and it is often considered as the gold standard for air purification. So, it is recommended to prioritize buying the Air Purifiers containing a HEPA Filter.
- Size: It is essential to use an Air Purifier containing an appropriately-sized filter. This is because a small filter might fail to filter the air adequately, and a large filter can be a sort of overkill and just a wastage of electricity.
- Ease of Use and Cost of Filter Replacement: You need to regularly replace the filters of an Air Purifier to ensure that it’s working properly. While purchasing an Air Purifier, you must consider the filter replacement schedule, the ease of replacing it, and how much does it cost.
- Ozone Production: As discussed earlier, some ear purifiers generate ozone to purify the indoor air. But ozone can be harmful to you and your family as it can damage your lungs, and relatively low amounts of ozone can cause chest pain, coughing, or even difficulty in breathing. Moreover, it can be especially problematic for people with critical respiratory diseases like asthma.
- Noise Level: If you are allergic, then you may want to run your Air Purifier throughout the day. So, noise can become a potential problem for you. Checking the sound ratings of an air purifier will help you get a better idea of the noise levels you can expect from an Air Purifier. However, one of the quietest Air Purifiers will have a sound rating of 20-40 dB. Whereas the loudest ones can have a sound rating of as much as 50-70 dB or even more.
- 30 dB is about the same noise level as a whispered conversation.
- 50 dB is similar to a normal conversation or moderate rainfall.
- 70 dB is as loud as running a vacuum or sitting in rush-hour traffic.
- Energy Consumption: If you don’t care about your Air Purifier’s energy consumption, you may land into unpleasant surprises on your electricity bills. So, if you want to keep energy costs low, then you should look for a device that uses less than 100 watts of power in its highest setting.
What are the Additional Features Offered by Air Purifiers?
Some Air Purifiers offers a few additional features such as:
- Filter-replacement indicator
- Dimming and display shut-off options
- Programmable timer
- Remote control unit
- Smart functions such as digital assistant and app integration
These additional features add a sense of convenience to an Air Purifier. But it’s never worth it to pay significantly more to get them. Some Air Purifiers all these features and are reasonably priced. But it is recommended to prioritize other major factors as far as the budget is concerned.
How Can You Get the Best Results from Your Air Purifier?
You just need to follow these simple steps to get the most out of your Air Purifier:
- Clean or Replace the Filters Regularly: You need to replace the filter or clean them once every 6 to 12 months for pleated filters. And, carbon filters should be replaced every three months.
- Place it Wisely: If you have only Air Purifier at your home, then it’s better to place it in a room where you spend most of your time. Furthermore, you must ensure that you place the Air Purifier in a spot where nothing can interrupt the airflow.
- Keep the Air Purifier Running 24/7: It is recommended to keep your Air Purifier running throughout the day and keep the doors and windows closed when it is on. You can consider running the device on the high setting when you’re not in the room and turning it down to low when you are in the room or nearby. You can even purchase an Air Purifier certified for a larger area. This will allow you to get better results while running the device at a low speed.
What are Some of the Best Air Purifier Brands?
- Blueair: Blueair is a reputed international brand that makes one of the best Air Purifiers in the world. The company was founded in 1996, and it is based in Sweden. The price of Blueair Air Purifiers usually ranges from $100 to $2,400.
- Dyson: Dyson is a popular British technology company that was founded in 1993. They make several electronic appliances such as vacuum cleaners, hand dryers, lights, heaters, hairdryers, air purifiers, styling tools, and so on. Dyson Air Purifiers usually cost between $300 to $700.
- GermGuardian: GermGuardian is involved in developing and selling the products for mass retailers. You can easily find GermGuardian Air Purifiers online as well as in-stores in most countries. Its price can range from $50 to $500.
- Holmes: Holmes is another popular company that sells its products to mass retailers such as Amazon, Home Depot, Walmart, Target, Sears, and so on. A Holmes Air Purifier can cost anywhere between $15 to $160.
- Honeywell: Honeywell is a reputed brand that sells its products in various countries around the world. Furthermore, it’s a mass-market brand available at mass merchants. And Honeywell Air Purifiers are usually priced between $60-$260.
Concluding Thoughts
So, this was a complete guide for choosing the right Air Purifier for your home. In the end, we can say that there’s no single Air Purifier that’s perfect for everyone.
Furthermore, you should first check the CDAR rating and filter types when you are shopping for an Air Purifier. This will help you get an idea about the effectiveness of the Air Purifier for your specific needs. Then you should look for the secondary features such as portability and noise levels.
Lastly, make sure that its energy costs and maintenance costs fit under your budget.
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