The best home air purifier for your home will be the one you choose after considering several criteria.
Your final choice may not be the best home air purifier for your friends or neighbors because this buying decision is based personal preference and lifestyle.
Price is obviously an important factor when you buy any appliance for your home. For the smart shopper, the goal is always to buy the best quality product possible while also staying within your budget.
Fortunately, when it comes to air cleaners, the best home air purifier doesn’t have to be the most expensive. The highest priced products are usually specialized units meant to target specific consumer or business needs.
Why do You Need an Air Purifier?
The first thing to consider is why you have decided to purchase an air purification system in the first place. This is a critical step as there is a great variety of pricing options, filtration systems, unit sizes and maintenance requirements.
Fresher Smelling Air
If the air in your home just doesn’t smell fresh and clean, an air purifier may be a great solution to the problem. In climates where central heat and air conditioning are used for months on end, the constantly recycled air may take on a musty odor.
This can be caused by mold and mildew inside the vent system in your home or may be a buildup of dust and particles that are normally found in a family home.
If fresh air is all you need, an air purifier that uses an ionizer will add a fresh smell to the air in you room. Though many ionic air purifiers are widely advertised at cheap prices, you need a unit with the ability to process the room’s air. The best home air purifier for you may be one of the HEPA filter units with an additional ion generator.
Odors
Perhaps when you enter your home it’s not stale air you notice – but smelly air. Stale cigarette smoke, pets and cooking odors can linger in the air for days. The result can be a home that smells dirty even when it isn’t. You may not notice the odors until you’ve been outside or away from home for a few hours.
The best air purifier for you will include an activated charcoal filter. This may be a secondary filter on a unit that features HEPA like filtration. The HEPA filter removes the particulates from the air and the carbon absorbs odors. Within a few minutes after you plug in your air cleaner, your entire room will have a fresh smell and the odors will disappear.
Asthma and Allergies
If you or a family member suffers from asthma or allergic reactions, the best home air purifier goes far beyond making your home smell better. True HEPA filters remove 99.97% of the particulates in the air cycled them and will capture particles of dust and pollens, molds and mildew as small 0.3 micron in size.
If health concerns provide the motivation for finding the best home air purifier, you will be happily surprised by the wide variety of sizes and brands available to choose from.
A true HEPA filter is a must for your needs. In addition you need a unit with a fan that efficiently cycles the air in the room. A filter can only clean the air that passes through it so the design and reliability of the air movement system is important to you.
Choose from air cleaners produced by long time companies. You may see a great deal on the home shopping network but that may not provide the best product for someone whose health depends on clean air.
Maintenance Requirements and Costs
If you want the best home air purifier to ease asthma and allergy problems, the true HEPA filter is necessary. Improvements in materials and technology have extended the filter life. A few years ago true HEPA needed replacement twice a year.
Now, one new filter each year is usually sufficient. The best home air purifier available has a 5 year true HEPA filter. This is made possible because pre-filter are used to catch the large particulates. This allows the HEPA filter to last longer as it is not filling with the large dust and danger in the air.
Of course, if you have pre-filters on your air cleaning unit, those filters need to be cleaned or replaced on occasion. Some filter can be easily cleaned with a vacuum cleaner or simply rinsed with water and dried.
HEPA like filters are not as effective at capturing particulates but can work well for home use except for those with health problem to address. The filters are made of a paper-like material. They are less costly to purchase than true HEPA replacement filters but will not last as long.
Carbon filters on some units have a simple replaceable filter pads that are inexpensive and easy to change. If you are willing to pay the cost of replacement filters, check the air purifiers to see how difficult it is to access the filter. Most units require little maintenance beyond the occasional filter change but this is a factor you need to be informed of before you buy.
Simpler ionizers in low cost air purifiers have plates rather than filters. The plate may need to be cleaned of on occasion but no other maintenance is needed.
The problem with such a unit is lack of a fan to pull air in or to disburse cleaned air can make such a unit almost useless. The power needed to operate the best home air purifier is minimal. Most units used the power needed to light a 100 watt light bulb.
Special Features – Bells and Whistles
Everything seems to come with a remote control today and air purifiers are no different. The lower end of the price spectrum feature mechanical controls. For most of us, it is not a problem to turn the unit on and off.
However, if you place your air cleaning unit on top of a bookcase or hide it in the corner behind a table, turning it off and on can be a chore. The same is true if you have disabilities that make it difficult for you to bend or kneel down to reach the controls.
Mid-range priced air purifiers today feature digital displays and remote controls. With a remote you can adjust the fan speed for noise or to process faster when more people are in the room.
Some have timed shutoffs while others have displays showing the quality of room’s air. One good feature is a light that alerts you when the filter needs to be cleaned or changed.
Summary
When you look for an air cleaner, consider your personal needs first. Once you know what you want the air cleaner to accomplish it is easier to find the right model for your home.
You don’t have to pay a huge amount of money to buy a good quality product but units that are very cheaply priced are often not efficient in cleaning the air. The bells and whistles added for styling of the cabinet and for fancy controls may appeal to you but you will pay for those options.
Talk to friends and read consumer comments only to help you judge the quality of an air purifier and the customer service of the company that sells it. If you do the homework and but the best home air purifier, you will be rewarded with fresh, clean air when you enter your front door.
