How to Choose an Air Purifier | The Complete Buying Guide

When you think about buying an air purifier, the stimulus could be anything from an allergy to stale smell or some information on the internet about the bad air quality in rooms and houses. There are various articles and pieces of information on the internet that claim to provide all you need to know before buying an air purifier for your home.

But they miss some important points and pieces of information that cannot be neglected for an air purifier’s purchases. We will tell you about the most important air purifier features and processes, which you must not overlook while purchasing an air purifier. We will discuss the types, functions, needs, rating processes, cost, effectiveness, and efficiency of the air purifiers for your varying needs. You will learn all you need to make the right decision.

How to Choose an Air Purifier

If you think that only the air outside your home is polluted and unsafe for you and your family members to breathe, you are absolutely wrong. Studies and research have shown the frightening results that the air inside your houses and in rooms sometimes becomes five times more pollutant than the harmful air in the industrial areas.

There are various reasons for the air inside the building to get mode dangerous and hazardous for the people inside. The basic and important reason behind this eye-opening result is the construction and structure of the buildings. Most of the buildings are constructed in a way that they don’t get sunshine and airflow to the minimum required level, and in this way, the germs and bacteria grow more rapidly in such an environment.

Your furniture, paint and even your regular household items add to the air’s pollution and harmfulness inside your homes and offices. The studies and their findings are more frightening because people spend most of the time inside their houses, offices, and such buildings. We don’t spend much time in the open due to various reasons, and it has become extremely necessary for people to buy air purifiers in their rooms and bedrooms.

It doesn’t imply that you should leave your home at once and move out to some rain forest or desert for a healthy life. Rather you can improve air quality in your home and every room inside for a better lifestyle. An air purifier is just the product that kills most of the bacteria, harmful chemicals and takes out the dirt and dander air-born particles. This product decreases the risk of respiratory and skin-related diseases, and you get the chance to live a more free and healthy life in your home.

What to look for when buying an air purifier?

There are various considerations for your purchase regarding an air purifier. But the most important ones are written below:

Cost of maintenance

If the air inside the house requires you to choose a HEPA filter or carbon filter, you must keep in mind that you will have to replace the filters periodically to keep them running. The filter is made in such a way that it attracts all the dust particles and other pollutants. But eventually, all the material will clog the filter, and you will have to replace the filter. The filter cost ranges from $20 to $55 as per the design and requirement of the design.

If you choose an ionic filter it will you won’t have to change the filter occasionally. Only washing the filter is enough to make it as good as new, and it will restore the productivity to the former level.

Noise Level

If you have a HEPA or carbon filter in your air purifier, it will require a continuously running fan to attract all the pollutants and clean the room’s air. The fan will force the air to pass through the filter, and you will get clean and stale-free air as a result.

And the fan always produces some noise. If you slow down the speed, the noise level will also reduce. Most of the time, there are different speed settings for the fan in air purifiers that reduce the noise level as per your demand.

You cannot place a rowdy air purifier in your bedroom because of the loud noise. If you cannot tolerate the quietest HEPA or carbon filter air purifier, the ionic filter air purifier is just the right product for you to place beside the bed since there is no fan and filter to make noise and disturb your sleep.

Energy Consumption

These devices run on electricity, and you need to keep them turned on all the time for making the air purifier—the best option for you to choose a product with an energy star rating. The energy star rating is surety for you that the product will not cost much compared to the other devices.

Manufacturer Reputation

You can go for any product online that claims to purify the air without getting information about the manufacturer. But this will only result in the loss of money, dissatisfaction, and a cheap product that will not improve the quality of air inside the room.

When you go for reputed manufacture, you are increasing the chances that this product is a quality product that will fulfill all the promises. You will get the productivity to the maximum level as the manufacturer claim while selling the product.

Do I need an air purifier?

 You need an air purifier if you live in a home. There are pollutants, Animal dander, allergens, and many harmful air-born particles to harm the people’s health inside the facility. If you want to live a healthy life without the fear of getting sick, you need one for yourself.

The following are some significant reasons for you to buy the product.

Chemicals

If you are intolerant to chemicals, the air purifiers with MCS technology need you to place them in your home.

Allergies

People with allergies cannot live a normal and healthy life without the presence of a HEPA filter air purifier in the building.

Asthma

An air purifier to decrease the favorable environment for asthma and other respiratory issues is necessary for people with some respiratory issues.

Pets

When you have a pet or pets living with you in the same house, you need an air purifier to remove animal dander, hair, and smell from the environment.

What Kind of Air Purifier Should You Buy?

The answer to the question depends on the needs and requirements of the environment in your home. If you have some air-borne molecules and particles in the area inside the building, a HEPA or carbon filter is the right kind for you to choose.

But when you want to remove fine particles, you will need an ionic air filter that will take out all the air-born molecules with negative ions.

But the most important thing to consider the type of air purifier is to look for whether this product will go along with your lifestyle or not.

Air purifier function?

An air purifier is a product that performs various functions to make your life better. The basic operation this product performs is to purify the air. 

But along with the basic operation, there are various functions that these products perform. These functions can be combined as more than one or separated as only a single extra function in these products.

Following is the list of various functions that are added to air purifiers for better productivity and improved performance:

• Allergies
• Asthma
• Smoke
• Pets
• Chemical Sensitivities

Types of Air Purifiers

Ultraviolet

Hospitals use UV bulbs to purify the air and kill the germs in patient rooms, and an air purifier with UV light uses the same technology to clean the air inside your house and kill the germs, pathogens, and harmful bacteria.

HEPA

This purifier type uses a fan and filter to attract and trap all the air-born particles and clean the air. This product removes all the allergens and irritant particles that are harmful to your health and can cause asthma or other respiratory issues.

Activated Carbon

When you want to remove smoke and odor inside the room along with gasses and fumes, this type of air purifier is the best choice for you to buy and place in your home. People who have sensitivity issues from odors and smoke love the performance of the product in their home.

Ionic

There isn’t any motor or fan in this product to catch and trap the particles. Rather this type of air purifier utilizes the negative ion technology to attract and trap all the air-born particles and make them fell on the floor to vacuum them for good form the area. These purifiers are less costly to maintain.

Electronic

This product combines HEPA and ionic technology to trap all the air-born molecules, pollutants, germs, and pollens. This filter works with your HVAC system to pass the air from the HEPA filter and make it free from all the particles till .3 macrons, and for the remaining particles, the ionic filter is enough to trap them all and give you nothing but the cleaned and purified air.

 Air Purifiers Benefits 

The most important and vital benefit of the product is to purify the air. And various benefits make people buy these products and get maximum out of the product:

• Asthma patients get more relief, and they have to suffer less when there is an air purifier around.
• The odors and harmful chemical smells become unbearable for people, and the air purifier will remove these pungent and annoying agents and make the environment fresh and clean for them.
• All the pollens and air-borne particles get trapped and removed from the air for a better life.
• This product helps you sleep better and more in the absence of all the allergens and pollens.

What size air purifier do I need?

The product’s size depends on your requirement and the function you want your air purifier to perform.

Small: This is your personal air purifier that you can place in the room with 300 square feet max.

Medium: The air purifier is great and provides maximum productivity for the room with 300 to 700 square feet.

Large: for rooms larger than 700 and range to 1200 square feet, this size is the best for maximum productivity.

Does every room need an air purifier?

You don’t need a separate air purifier for every room in the house if all the rooms are not occupied by people all the time. The small house will require two small air purifiers for bedrooms and a medium one for the lounge.

The larger house should go for some larger air purifiers installed alongside their HVAC system for maximum performance and productivity. If you want to choose some other option, then you need an air purifier for every room in the house where people spend some substantial time of their lives.

What Features Do I Need on My Air Purifier?

When you have learned about the type and size of the air purifier and now have some idea about the product you want, you need to understand and learn about the following features: your purifier for maximum performance and purity of the air in your home.

• Energy star rating
• EPA approved
• Money saver
• Caster wheels
• Handles for mobility
• Filter change indicators.
• Energy efficient
• Better connectivity with your smart devices
• Air quality indicator
• Real-time updates
• Remote controls
• Multiple speed

Where Should I Put My Air Purifier?

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist or an aerodynamics engineer to understand the simple logic behind the air purifier’s working and placement. Product placement is the most important factor that affects the performance and productivity of the product. If you are using an air purifier in your bedroom and it doesn’t make much noise, the best place will be near you around the bed for better air free from germs and bacteria.

You need to understand the working of the filter and technology your air purifier uses to clean and purify the air.

HEPA filter uses and running fan to attract and trap all the airborne particles, allergens, and pollens to trap them on the filter and provide you clean and fresh air. If there is some obstruction in the way of the filter like the furniture or some wall, you won’t get the maximum out of the product. A corner or some obstructed area is not the right place for such an air purifier.

The ionic air purifier uses a different technology, traps the particles with ions, and works 360 degrees for maximum performance and cleaning. If you place it near the furniture or wall, you are reducing the performance, and it will take more time to clean the air from harmful agents.

6 Things to Consider When Buying an Air Purifier

Energy consumption

There are various s air purifiers that use more energy and provide the same amount of productivity and clean air rating as the product with less energy consumption. When you are using a HEPA or ionic filter, you will have to provide continuous electricity for air purification.

An air purifier with more energy consumption will add more burden to your pocket. This is why it is always imperative to buy a product with an energy star rating. This rating is the guarantee that the product is not heavy in your pocket.

Cost of maintenance

Once you have chosen the product with an energy star rating now, it is time to look for another most important feature and consideration. The air purifier which uses a HEPA filter will make you change the filter after every three to six months according to the design and pollution in your home. The fan will attract all the particles and will choke the filter eventually. You will have to buy the new one to keep your air purifier working. On the other hand, an ionic filter will not require you to change the filter frequently. A simple water bath will be enough to make it new once again.

Noise rating

Various air purifiers use fan technology to purify the air in the facility. The fan will make annoying noise to disturb your sleep and comfort as some air purifiers emit 16 to 20 dB sound that is bearable in most situations. But if you find a product that emits more than 40 dB sound, never go for it as it will only add discomfort to the people’s lives inside the building.

Always go for the product with low DB. and maximum productivity to trap and remove all the air’s harmful agents.

Room size

Your room size will define the requirement regarding the size of the air purifier. If you are looking for a product to purify the air in your room with less than 250 square feet or around, you should go for a small-sized air purifier. The larger the room will be, the larger the size you will need to place the purifier to clean the air and keep the people’s lives safe in the building and make them stay healthy in the building.

If you place a smaller product in a larger room, you will only waste money and electricity on it and get mostly nothing in return.

Warranty

When you buy an air purifier, you don’t think of changing or replacing it with a new one within months or two. This product will stay by your side for years, that’s why you need some product manufactured by some reputed owners that offer warranty of different parts and the product. Going for the product with some extended warranty will always keep you free from trouble and discomfort in the longer run.

Air Purifiers Performance and Limitations

Air purifiers remove all the allergens and bacteria from the air along with the pollutants and harmful gases. But various agent sand particles remain there to harm our health and risk our lives. Organic compounds, fumes, different viruses, and various smokes remain intact even if you use the most robust air filter type. But this doesn’t imply that these devices don’t work at all.

Which air purifier features should you avoid?

We have you told about various features and important considerations which you must look for in an air purifier to buy it for your health and safety. Here are some features which you shouldn’t look for in the air purifier. If, by any chance, you find these features in a product, never buy that model, or you will have to bear the loss and other issues regarding the performance of the product and various health issues.

If you find a product that emits ozone, this is the cue to leave it and look for something else that doesn’t do it at all.

The ozone emitting models use the terms like active or super oxygen to attract customers. This is nothing but another name of the ozone emitting feature.

Activated carbon filters tend to purify the air from all the harmful agents, but some substantial amount of activated carbon in some larger filter must be activated. A smaller filter with less carbon is of no use for you.

Related Post : How Effectively Air Purifiers Cool Your Living Room?

FAQs for buying an air purifier:

Conclusion

We have mentioned all the important aspects, features, and considerations that will help you make the right decision for the right product. All of the information we have mentioned are based upon facts and figures, and they will help you understand your needs, requirements, and what type and size of air purifier you need for a healthy life in your own home. Without an air purifier, there are high chances that you will have to suffer various respiratory and skin-related diseases.

You don’t need sci-fi devices and probes to understand the need for an air purifier in your home.  But you definitely need to take things seriously and follow all the instructions and information mentioned above. You will ensure the people’s health and safety inside the house for a safer, germs, and pollutant-free environment.