Air Purifier Review

Air irritants, allergens and other airborne particles are one of the biggest reasons asthma has increased so dramatically in children over the last 20 years. According to the Environmental Health Agency, Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors, surrounded by dust mites, pet dander and other common household air pollutants.

According to your family’s needs, an air purifier may be the answer to reducing indoor air irritants and cleaning your home’s air. We researched room-specific air purifiers, but you can also purchase air filters that can be installed into your home’s ventilation system. Read more about the different kinds of filters in our articles on air purifiers.

Air Purifiers: What to Look For

The best air purifiers are those that quietly and effectively lower the airborne particle count in your home with several air changes per hour and a high Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR). We’ve found the best air purifiers on the market and compared them based on functionality, safety, features, and help and support. The best air purifiers we found are the Blueair 450E, RabbitAir BioGS and the Winix WAC5500.

Functionality
An air purifier’s functional qualities are by far the most important entity on our rating scale. It doesn’t matter if the product is beautiful to look at and has every fancy gadget available – if it doesn’t function, it isn’t worth buying. Look for an air purifier that can clean an area of at least 300 sq. ft. and has an average airflow rate of 150 cubic feet per minute. You’ll want a purifier that can run in auto mode or be manually controlled. We also like the unit to filter through the air, coined an “air change,” at least four times an hour. For maximum efficiency, a pre-filter and a filter-reset option are must-haves.

Safety
While many air purifiers claim to effectively clean your home’s air, claims are not equivalent to actual certifications and documented research. Don’t ever take a product’s claim seriously unless the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) has certified it and it has Energy Star verification. Both of these certifications are backed by the Environmental Protection Agency – the Energy Star verification was actually created by the EPA.

AHAM assigns air purifiers a Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) number for tobacco smoke, dust and pollen. Look for an air purifier with a rating of at least 125 in all categories – the higher the CADR rating, the better. An ETL Listed Mark is another proof of compliance with North American safety regulations and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Meeting HEPA standards is standard in all products verified by AHAM and Energy Star, but if a purifier isn’t certified, it can still be a true HEPA filter. We also recommend purchasing an air purifier with ozone-free technology. Many purifiers create ozone as a result of removing odors from the air – up to 10 times the acceptable standard of an indoor appliance. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) and other groups like the AHAM and EPA strongly discourage the use of an ozone generator in your home.

Features
Convenience is key when selecting an air purifier. Most of the features don’t make an air scrubber any more effective at cleaning your home’s air, but they do add in the products' ease of use. Our favorites have washable filters to minimize the cost of replacement filters, and a filter monitor to help alert you when the filter needs to be changed or cleaned.

Noise levels among air filters vary greatly, but all are much more silent, and effective, when they're run on the lowest setting for a longer period of time. To this end, a timer is a must-have feature. With a timer, you can set the air filter to run two, four or eight hours in the future, making it easy to set the filter to run while you are asleep or out of the house. A remote control is another handy feature we love.

Help & Support
Operating an air purifier shouldn’t be too difficult, but it is still ideal to have support from the manufacturer in case something does go wrong. The best air purifiers have at least a one-year warranty and online technical support. Online support includes FAQs, downloadable user manuals, online chat and direct contact information.

Although keeping your home clean and free from dust is the best solution to keeping air pollutants at a minimum, an air purifier may be your family’s answer to combating those ever-present airborne irritants.

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