How to choose an air purifier
November truly is a mixed bag of a month. On the one hand, weâre now free to frolic with friends and family and get our retail fix in stores. On the other hand, the air is made almost entirely out of pollen, weâre hitting bushfire and thunderstorm asthma season, and thereâs that pesky pandemic still haunting us at every turn. With all those things comes the importance of clean airflow, and thus air purifiers. So, do you need one, what are the important things to look for, and what should you do with it?
Firstly, you need an air purifier if you have allergies or asthma, live with someone who is unwell with an airborne virus you donât want to catch, you cook a lot, and/or live in an area near a busy road or a lot of smoke.
Purifiers need to be well-sealed, good at pushing air around and powerful enough for your space.
The Victorian government recently purchased more than 50,000 purifiers to put in school classrooms to reduce the COVID burden and transmission in those settings. Shop, restaurant and beauty salon owners should also consider getting a good purifier to reduce the risk for staff and customers.
Air purifiers are designed to remove ridiculously tiny particulate matter from the air, with PM2.5 (2.5 microns) being the most dangerous. The WHO recently revised its Global Air Quality Guides and suggest limiting exposure to just 5 micrograms per cubic metre, down from their previous suggestion of 10. A recent study suggested that changing the safe limit in America from 12 down to 10 would save around 200,000 lives a year, so air pollution isnât a trivial thing.
The problem with capturing such tiny particles is that if theyâre small enough to pass through our lungs and into our blood, the purifier is going to need to be extremely well sealed to stop it from just becoming a PM2.5 dispenser. It also needs to be able to efficiently move the clean air around the room.
The absolute bare minimum thing you need in an air purifier is a HEPA filter. Beyond that, a powerful fan is extremely important (for the circulation) and Iâd recommend a carbon filter for gasses, smells and VOCs. When choosing which size model you need, itâs better to always round up. Each model should show you the size of the room itâs designed for in square metres, and the clean air delivery rate (CADR) in cubic metres; for CADR, bigger numbers are better. As well as having a strong fan speed, itâs nice if the purifier also has a variety of speeds, including an extra-quiet night time mode, if you plan on using it all the time.
Iâve been using four different purifiers for the last couple of years, and three of them have really impressed me.
I would not recommend a Philips purifier, as every one Iâve used has had a filter sensor error and died an irritating death shockingly quickly.
The Dyson Hot + Cool Link Formaldehyde does an extremely good job of purifying a space of up to 81 square metres equally (rather than just the area around the purifier), while also heating or fanning. Being able to check the particulate counts and gas levels in the app or on the screen is very helpful, and itâs sealed and tested well beyond the industry standard.
Samsungâs AX90T is the one the government has bought for Australian schools, and Iâve been really impressed by the smaller AX5500. It does a great job relaying information and cleaning the air, while using slightly less power than the Dyson. It also connects into the SmartThings app, which is a bonus for people using a variety of Samsung devices.
The TruSens Z-3000 is the newest one Iâve tried. Its HEPA-type filter isnât quite as good as a true HEPA filter, but it gets most of the job done. What makes it still worth looking at is the addition of a UV lamp which kills bacteria that get caught on the filter, preventing it from breeding and travelling, as well as an air quality sensor pod. The sensor pod can be kept up to 15 metres away from the purifier and tell it when to kick in. That way the purifier knows when the air near you is bad, rather than just knowing when the air near itself is bad.
The TruSens, Samsung and Dyson purifiers have been tested on viruses similar to COVID and were shown to kill the vast majority of the particles once theyâve been sucked in. Given that the virus has to get to the purifier to be killed, however, itâs still not a replacement for a mask and good hygiene, just an extra tool in the kit.
Of course, just having and turning on the purifier isnât all you have to do; remember to clean and replace the filters when instructed.
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