Air Purifiers: How to pick one?

Do air purifiers work, short answer, yes they do and they can be very efficient. When it comes to purchasing one though, things start to seem complicated. So let’s breakdown what we are looking for when choosing an air purifier. First, do we want a particulate filter (HEPA) or a Gas/VOC filter (Carbon). For most people, a HEPA filter can make a big difference, depending on your location or hobbies you may need a VOC filter. Ideally, we should be filtering against both although activated carbon filters can greatly increase price. If you are in North Idaho and looking for VOC Testing click here.

Once we know what type of air purifier we need we can move to the next process which is size. We have a smaller home and our strategy is to have one purifier that is large enough to do our entire living space with a second air purifier in our bedroom. I think it is important to commit an air purifier to the bedroom, since while sleeping we spend more time in the bedroom than anywhere else in the house. Every air purifier should be rated to a square footage, take into account barriers that it may encounter, like layout, different floors, closed doors, the fact that square footage is not the same as cubic footage, etc. I would err on the side of caution and say bigger is better to get you the most amount of air changes per hour as possible.

Word of caution, “HEPA-Like” filters are not the same as “HEPA”. A real HEPA filter should filter down to at least 0.3 microns. Air purifiers also are not a great substitute for poor cleaning, not replacing HVAC filters, or not addressing bad mold/VOC issues.

So we hope this helped with your confidence in purchasing an air purifier, there are a lot of reputable brands on the market today that make quality filters. We recommend looking at reviews and taking your time before investing in the next step to improving your air.

We are not sponsored by or affiliated with either of these of companies but the 2 air purifiers we currently use are from.

IQ AIR - https://www.iqair.com/us/

and

COWAY - https://cowaymega.com/