Which Air Purifier Should I Get?
Is there a specific season for when air purifiers are needed? Your initial thought might be like mine...allergy season. While this could be true for one, it does not mean that it is true for the whole. With technology continually advancing and our purifiers now being able to specialize for different things, air purifiers could be used all year and for different specific reasons. Before looking online, consider these things.
Why do you want a purifier? This question will help identify what kind you want. There are purifiers for:
1. Allergies and Asthma: these have been designed to primarily remove dust mites, pollen, and many more indoor allergens. Myth: dust and pollen settle on the ground. Fact: these very active and float around in the air. Good allergy purifiers then have more filters to remove such particles.
a. Check out these two links: https://breathequality.com/best-air-purifiers-for-
allergies-and-asthma/ and https://www.healthline.com/health/air-purifier-for-asthma#air-purifier-and-asthma
2. Smoke: long-term exposure to smoke can be very damaging to your lungs and thus other aspects of your body. If you are in an area with constant fires or where cigarette smoke is present, get a specifically made purifier. These tend to have larger carbon filters.
a. Check out this link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2019/06/29/top-rated-air-purifiers-for-smoke/#210c33dc5902
3. Pets. these collect order, allergies, and hair. Love your pet and love the good air quality too.
a. Check out this link: https://breathequality.com/best-air-purifiers-for-pets/
What size room are you trying to clean. It is good to know that purifiers only really clean the room they are located in. If you want to clean your home, you will want to look into a purifier that connects to your current A/C. Without going into detail on what CADR is and how it applies to room size, follow this link and go to their graph. https://www.oransi.com/page/air-purifier-room-size-square-footage This will help you choose what size purifier you need. Having too small of a purifier will not effectively clean the air and will thus be pointless to have.
Filter Type. What filter do you want in your purifier? Most models out there today have a combination of the filters below.
HEPA Filters: a simple way to understand this is that air passes through the filter and particles then are trapped. They require more maintenance as you have to change the filter every 1-2 months.
Activated Carbon Filters: the carbon traps odors and gasses and thus removes it from the air.
UV lights: ultraviolet lights attempt to disinfect the air through germicidal irradiation. Easier put, UV light attempts to inactivate things like mold and bacteria, even some viruses. For more information here, follow this link: https://enviroklenz.com/uv-light-technology-air-purifiers/
One thing to be sure and note, is that air purifiers are not without fault. Some types, such as an ionizer purifier, has had critics claiming they give off dangerous levels of ozone. This is not only harmful to the environment, but to those who inhale in high enough doses. The effects can include chest pain, lung damage, coughing, and shortness of breath. So make sure to do you research prior to any purchase.
The purpose of this post was not intended to point you toward a specific filter, but I do want to include two purifiers that you should consider.
Blueair Blue Pure 211+
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073WJL99W?tag=dprmdexaplo-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1
Levoit Core 300