6 Types of Air Purifiers and Filters That You Need to Know

What Types of Air Purifiers and Filters there are?

There isn’t proper information about types of Air Purifiers and Filters. It is vital to know and understand this before purchasing an Air Purifier or a device that is using this set of filters.

Many of the manufacturers don’t even provide proper and explainable technical specifications and guides.

→In order to sell more products the need to know information is even removed out of the box by some marketers. It is ridiculous. We are talking about people’s wellbeing here.

For starters,

I did research and i sum it up all in one infographic.

The information in this infographics contains different types of filters and air purifiers. And it is mostly known. But we also added their Pros and Cons. We also did thorough research and added information that they don’t want you to know.

Even though the HEPA filter helps with the dust mites, the first model of the *censored* Air Purifiers I have purchased didn’t have the UV feature. It would have helped a lot if I knew this sooner. -John

HEPA Filtration

HEPA stands for High-Efficiency Particulate Air. It is one of the most common and effective filters for contaminants.

How does HEPA types of Air purifies and Filters work?

It all leads down to three steps:

An Air purifier in a way vakuums the dirty Air from its environment
That polluted air Passes through a HEPA filter, which filters the air from airborne pollutants
The Clean air is exhaled back into the room

Is this HEPA Air purifier safe?

Yes. HEPA filter types of Air Purifiers and filters are the safest you can get. And this is what you should aim for. Just make sure it is a High-Quality True-HEPA filter.

Note: Even though the True-HEPA filter it might be a marketing term, there is still a difference between quality of the HEPA Filters.

Can you wash a HEPA filter?

Always check your product if a HEPA filter is washable. Even though this saves you money, I strongly advise against it. There are trapped contaminants that can make the air quality even worse, or reduce the effectiveness of the air purifier. The trapped contaminants can’t survive if that environment is dry.

However if the air entering the filter has moist, or the filter isn’t dry enough then they can breed.

Additional Advice:

Always purchase air purifier with High-Quality True-HEPA filter.
Some HEPA filters are quite expensive. This is very smart marketing move by the manufacturer. They actually make the Air Purifier very affordable(let’s say $200), but they charge you half the price for the Filters($100). Always keep this in mind when purchasing an air purifier.
Vacuum frequently.
A combination with additional filtering like UV, Carbon offers one of the best air filtrations.
HEPA types of Air Purifiers and Filters are the safest for you and your family. Research every additional type of filter with care.

Activated Carbon Filters

What you need to know:

Source: Wikipedia

Is Air Purifier with Activated Carbon Filter Safe to use?

Before I purchased my air purifier I did thorough research on air purifiers with carbon. Since I have allergies, I was researching forums, talking to people that have similar conditions like mine. In between my research, I find out that some users reported eye itching, red eyes when they used this kind of purifiers.

Also, others noticed a weird smell.

This means the quality of the carbon itself or how it is made: matters. The model and the company that has made it matters too. Read reviews carefully. Especially those with 2-3 stars. They offer the most valuable information.

Even though the cases of this happening are very rare, later I found out that it happens to people that are allergic to several environmental factors.

Keep in mind: I haven’t found exact evidence that provse this. All of the information is gathered from several sources and it is from first-hand users.

Additional Advice:

Try it out. See if it gonna work for you. The effectiveness of this type of filter is worth the try. Some Air Purifiers doesn’t even have these kinds of negative reviews.

Ionic Filter, Air Ionizer

The types of Air Purifiers that uses Ionic Filters, or Air Ionizer’s works like this:

Steam of Negative Ion is released into the Air
Airborne Particles attach to these Negative Ions, making them Negatively Charged
Negatively Charged Particles are attracted to Positive Charged Particles.
As the attraction process occurs, contaminants and pollutants are collected from the air.
This results in the Charged particles to become heavy and fall on the ground or to some nearby surface.

It is highly recommended to vacuum often if you are using this kind of Air Purifier or Air Ionizer.

Note: Ozone is produced as an undesirable byproduct of these Air Cleaners. There have been a number of ozone studies that have shown that ozone is very bad to human health.

Also for additional information check this article on Air Ioniser (Note: On Wikipedia it says: Ioniser, Auto-corrects this to: Ionizer)

Conclusion:

We personally avoid these. There are better and safer options to be chosen for purifying your air.

(UVGI) UV Light Purifying Technique

UVGI Technique works great combined with HEPA filter. The UV Lamp alone as the ability to destroy micro-organisms (germs, bacteria, mold).

The process of HEPA and UV filtering in an Air Purifier results on two simple steps:

The HEPA filter captures most contaminants.
This allows the UV Lamp to be more efficient on remaining viruses and bacteria.

This helps in preventing illness and disease.

Note: The downside of this is that the bulb itself is less effective over time. However, a smart integration and usage within the air purifier itself, increase the lifespan of the UV Lamp on some air purifiers.

Categories of Air Purifiers and Cleaners

Below there are two different, yet more general types of home and office Air Purifiers. It is important to know the difference before you decide to purchase one that suits your environment.

Portable Air Purifiers

This most general type of Air Purifiers that is used more and more lately. Also because several of filtering techniques can be implemented in order to be very effective. They can come with various advantages, and disadvantages.

Here is what you need to know:

Usability:

They can come in various sizes. Good to fit even in a bag.
You can move them from one area to another. To the place where you spent your time.
There are smaller that can be used while traveling, to filter the air in your car
You can use them on your vacation, destinations, hotels to filter the air
They can come with different set of filters. This depends on the model and the manufacturer.

Pros:

They can be very effective at cleaning the air you breathe.
The value of these is worth the price.
They can help with allergies.

Cons:

They require maintenance
The filter replacement can be expensive
Can be noisy
Electrical consumption (depends on models)
They can be large
Some models might not be aesthetically pleasing
Less efficient if you place them anywhere you want. So keep in mind that air purifier location matters

Whole-House Air Purifier

The Whole-House System affects the whole house.

For more details on how does it look and how does it work, check out this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx3gv1ratUU

Now it is very practical indeed, but its expensive to set up, and you need a technician to do it. Also, it adds up to the monthly electricity bill

It is great for general use.

Because of the low Air Exchange rate per hour, it might not help much with the allergies. However, if you dust free your house, clean occasionally, and have less furniture it might be a great deal for you.

The only downside is that most of these Whole House Air Purifiers produce ozone as a by-product. And we learned so far that ozone can be dangerous for your lungs.