Air Purifier Reviews – Choose The Right Air Purifier
Air purifiers are big business. Just in the US, more than $350 million is spent yearly on ‘air cleaners’ or air purifiers to cleanse the air breathed in homes and offices. Many suffer with allergies or asthma symptoms and the desire for clean air in our often overly dirty environment is paramount.
There are a number of things that can be done to reduce air pollutants in the home before investing in an air purifier. To help reduce airborne debris, first begin with:
- Frequent vacuuming
- No smoking indoors
- Reduce indoor flames such as candles and wood-burning fires
- Using exhaust fans in kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms
- Don’t store pesticides, solvents, or other strong chemicals indoors
Electrostatic precipitator air purifiers electrically charge offending particles and collect them on a filter or opposite-charged metal plate. This produces some ozone as a byproduct of the electrostatic process. Other air cleaning processes include ionizer technology which also produces some ozone in while in use.
There are also models that specifically produce large amounts of ozone by their design. Some concerns are that ozone at ground level can irritate asthma sufferers where ozone way up in the atmosphere protects the Earth.
The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers voluntarily certifies most room air purifier models. The AHAM provides guidance for selecting appropriate room size and a measure for ‘cleaning speed’ via a maximum clean-air delivery rate (CADR). It’s recommend for improved cleaning to select a model that’s designed for an area larger than the actual dimensions of the room or house. This will also help with the air purifier’s efficiency as well as for quieter operations.
Types Of Air Purifiers
Air purifiers basically come in two designs: Room models and Whole-House models. Portability of a room model means it can be transported to other areas of the house for use. This can be a big cost saving feature as it can be utilized in the family room or other frequent used room in the house during the day and be moved into the bedroom at night.
Whole-house air purifiers are not portable as they are built into the home’s duct work. Whole-house air purifiers benefit ALL rooms in the house and use the forced-air heating and cooling system to circulate the purified air.
Room Air Purifiers
If your home does not have forced-air furnace or cooling features, then a room air purifier is really your only option. (And they are much cheaper than a whole-house unit!) Portable air purifier units weigh in around 10-20 pounds and can be situated on the floor, table or countertop. A handle is typically included to aid in moving them from room to room.
Room air cleaner units may employ a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. A HEPA filter captures ultrafine airborne particles. These filters will require annual replacement unless you invest in a model that has a cleanable HEPA filter.
Some air cleaner models are categorized as dedicated ozone generators. Where electrostatic precipitators discharge a little bit of ozone while in use, a dedicated ozone generator, as the name implies, emit relatively large amounts of ozone by design. The manufacturers’ claim that this ozone produces is effective in reducing allergens such as dust, smoke, pollen, germs, and mold. (NOTE: ConsumerReports.Org does NOT recommend purchasing a dedicated ozone generator especially for those already suffering with respiratory problems.)
Whole-House Air Purifiers
Whole-house air cleaning has many advantages – if – your home has forced-air heating. These units must be professionally installed and are more costly to purchase as well. Whole-house purifiers need to be installed into your ductwork and may also need to be wired into the electrical system of the house.
Since they do effectively clean the entire house, they are great for removing airborne dust and smoke particles. Filters for whole-house units vary from the cleanable type to the replacement type.
Another alternative to purifying the air in your home is with a different kind of filter — a whole-house air filter. These simply replace the standard furnace filter already in use.
This inexpensive options helps screen out pollutant particles although much less effectively than a whole house unit. These whole-house air filers come in a variety of types such as the conventional fiberglass filters or charged and pleated models. (The ‘charged’ models are not electrically powered if the name the tote sounds like they are!)
These filters must be replaced every 1-3 months and with a price around $10-$20, depending on size and efficiency of the filter.
Air Purifier Reviews
ConsumerReports.org put a number of portable and whole-house air purifiers to the test and provided their findings on the effectiveness of each unit. Here are the top rated air purifiers in each category.
In all fairness, it should be noted that CR is NOT a big proponent of air purifier systems. It seems they don’t ‘cotton’ with many grandiose claims made by the manufactures.
In the Room Air Purifier category, CR gave the highest score and a Recommend Buy to Whirlpool Whispure AP45030S.
Testing showed that this Whirlpool air purifier was “Very Good” at removing dust and smoke at the ‘high’ speed setting and “Good” at removing those irritants at lower speeds. The Whirlpool Whispure AP45030S room air purifier costs around $230.
Coming in a close second in the room air purifier category is the Kenmore (Sears) Progressive 83202. This model also was rated “Very Good” at removing dust and smoke at the ‘high’ speed setting and “Good” at removing dust and smoke on low speed. This Kenmore air cleaner is priced in the $270 range.
Rounding out the Top Three is the Hunter Permalife 30547. This Hunter model only scored one point less than the Kenmore model and costs around $270.
In the whole-house air purifier category, ConsumerReports.org gave the nod to Lennox Healthy Climate HC16 for the professionally installed filter system. This Lennox model was rated “Excellent” in dust removal and “Very Good” in smoke removal. The cost is around $350.
(Lennox was the only model tested in the Filter System category)
For the professionally-installed Electrostatic Precipitators there were more players. The top rated model was Trane Clean Effects 2. This model, as with most models in the whole-house air purifier category did “Excellent” for smoke and dust removal. And it should since it costs around $1000 to install.
The unit that came in second was considerably less expensive, with an installation cost of around $450 and that was the Aprilaire 5000. The Aprilaire model was only a point or two off from the Trane model.
Rounding out the Top Three in the Whole-House category was Carrier Infinity Air Purifier GAPA. This Carrier unit scored a couple points less than the Aprilaire but the investment for professional investment is about $1135.
For those looking for a cheap and easy method that will help (although limitedly) with air purification is the replacement filters. CR tested a bunch of these filters with the top three as follows:
- 3M Filtrete 1700
- 3M Filtrete Ultra Allergen Reduction
- True Blue RP8202014
The 3M Filtrete 1700 was the clear winner of the replacement filter category but none of the models tested did better than “Very Good” at dust removal. All filters tested did “Fair” to “Poor” for smoke removal.
Although ConsumerReports.org is not a big fan of air purifiers, user comments on the top-rated models are genuinely positive. Air Purifier reviews supplied by owners felt air cleaners DO make a difference and they claim improved health functions and obtaining a better night’s sleep.