What You Need To Do
Discover which home air purifiers give the performance you need.
Together, we’ll compare these five types of air purifiers:
- Filter Based Air Purifiers
- HEPA Air Purifiers
- Ionic Air Purifiers
- Gas and Odor Air Purifiers
- Ozone Air Purifiers
Understanding these air purifier technologies permits you to reject poor performers so you can focus on the right air purifier for you.
I’ll show you how…
Are you confused by too many home air purifier choices?
It’s good to have a choice, but not if you’re unable to choose confidently.
I know this frustration well. I face MCS, allergy and asthma daily in my family. Finding the right home air purifier was an absolute necessity.
I proved to myself that HEPA air purifiers were best for my personal needs. If you also contend with mild to severe breathing problems, I believe you’ll find a HEPA air purifier helps you the most.
You’ll discover why by comparing the different types of home air purifiers.
Let’s Compare Home Air Purifiers
Filter Based Air Purifiers – Use Caution
Filter based home air purifiers may use simple foam or fiber pads, pleated paper or even HEPA filter media.
Because a fan forces air through them, these air purifiers have the small drawback of noise. However, they can clean large amounts of air quickly.
Unfortunately, while they may clean large amounts of air they may not clean to the standard you desire. Why is this true?
Because efficiency is often no greater than 50%. Most manufacturers do not reveal filter efficiencies. Home air purifiers using unverified filters may be completely unable to collect the particles that concern you. Even larger particles like pollen may not be removed effectively.
Short filter replacement schedules are also common. One of the greatest scams in the market is to sell a cheap air purifier and then bilk the customer later with high priced replacement filters.
HEPA Filter Air Purifiers – Verified, Guaranteed Performance
Only HEPA air filters meet a verifiable performance standard. HEPA filters must remove 99.97% of particles 0.3 micron in size.
A common misconception is that HEPA filters perform less well with smaller particles. In reality, HEPA efficiency is higher with smaller particle sizes.
This may seem to defy logic, but what many are unaware of is a law of particle motion called Brownian diffusion. This effect prevents particles smaller than 0.3 micron from escaping the HEPA filter. This enables removal not only of allergens and irritants but even many bacteria and viruses.
Because HEPA filters are superior many manufacturers try to boost your confidence in their products by advertising so-called HEPA Type filters. These often fall far short of the HEPA standard, so use caution when considering home air purifiers that don’t use true HEPA filters.
The cost of replacement HEPA filters may seem high compared to other filters. However, replacement may be once every two to five years. Thus the actual cost for exceptionally clean air is low by comparison.
HEPA air purifiers provide the best filtration of large volumes of air.
Ionic Air Purifiers – Not Recommended
Ionic air purifiers use electric charges to remove allergens and irritants. They have no effect on gases and odors.
With collector plates collection efficiency tends to be no greater than 80%. Studies show efficiency reduces to as little as 20% in as few as three days because of plate loading.
Without collector plates charged particles may cling to any surface. This is called “black wall effect”. The EPA warns these charged particles may deposit in the lungs. This makes such air cleaners a possible health threat.
Regular cleaning of collector plates is a must for continued performance. Many owners complain it is difficult cleaning closely spaced collectors.
These types of air purifiers are often praised for being silent. With little air being moved and thus cleaned you might ask for whom is this silence golden, you or the marketers pushing the idea of a silent air purifier?
Ionic air purifiers produce ozone which is lung damaging and elevates sensitivity to allergens and irritants. Never expose asthmatic persons to it.
Gas and Odor Air Purifiers – Good Additional Protection
Gas phase filters remove odors and chemicals but not particles.
The most effective gas filtration technology is activated carbon. It removes up to 60% of its own weight in chemicals.
A deep bed of activated carbon is best. That is why high quality air purifiers include many pounds of activated carbon.
Thin activated carbon pads are practically worthless. They cannot supply the “dwell time” needed for pollutants to remain in contact with the carbon. Without sufficient dwell time few pollutants are removed.
Rather than a competing technology, gas filtration is considered complementary to HEPA air purification. Combined with HEPA air filters it creates the most effective home air purifiers available.
Ozone Air Purifiers – Reject Completely
Proponents of ozone air purifiers claim ozone oxidizes pollutants, reducing them to water and carbon dioxide. In the real world such textbook reactions rarely happen. Instead, numerous byproducts are created.
These byproducts can be more dangerous than the original pollutants.
Ozone cannot distinguish what is and is not a pollutant. It reacts with almost anything it contacts, degrading materials and creating additional pollutants.
Supporters claim ozone kills bacteria but deny it kills cells in your airway. They reject all scientific evidence and warnings that ozone is harmful.
Sellers of ozone air purifiers are perpetrating a fraud. They get away with it in the US because no agency has authority to regulate these products.
An ozone air purifier is ineffective and exposes you to danger.
Conclusions About Home Air Purifiers
Choosing an air purifier is a serious undertaking. Please take the time to carefully research the right home air purifier for your needs.
I highly recommend these five air purifier manufacturers in particular:
- Austin Air
- Allerair
- BlueAir
- IQAir
- NQ Clarifier
Now that you know more about the types of air purifiers, does HEPA seem to offer you the performance you need for real health benefits? I’d like to invite you to explore our next step – Why the best air purifier demands HEPA filtration.