Table Of Content
Having less dust buildup minimizes the need for frequent dusting and cleaning, saving homeowners time and effort. As a result, living spaces tend to be cleaner and more visually appealing, making a home more inviting and comfortable. Homeowners will want to note that adequate and regular cleaning is necessary for electronic filters to function effectively. Bundling filter cleaning with other HVAC maintenance services, like coil cleaning, can offer convenience and potential cost savings. They are very effective at removing very small particles and odors, but may be less effective at removing larger particles. Therefore, they’re often used in conjunction with other filters to increase efficiency.
How Much Does a Whole-House Reverse Osmosis System Cost to Install?
She also covers smart home products too, so is the best point of contact for any household advice! She has tested and reviewed appliances for over 6 years, so she knows what to look for when finding the best. Her favorite thing to test has to be air purifiers, as the information provided and the difference between performances is extensive. The wrong positioning can hinder the performance of even the best air purifiers. Whichever room you place your air purifier in, you need to make sure it’s facing the open space, with no immediate obstacles in sight.
Air purifiers compared
The 200M has a square grille rather than a round one, but that’s the only major physical difference. If you prefer the 200M’s looks or you find it at a better price, we recommend it. Below are some key factors you need to consider before buying your whole house air purifier.
AprilAire Whole-House Air Purifiers
But with so many of us living in urban environments, there’s isn’t much nature around. So the best way to get clean air in your home is with a whole-house air purifier. Along with its high up-front cost, the Air Mini+ is also expensive to maintain, requiring a $90 replacement filter every six months. But on its medium setting, the Air Mini+ still draws more electricity than the far-more-capable Coway Mighty (our top pick among purifiers and a machine capable of keeping the air clean in a far larger space).
5 Best Air Purifier & Humidifiers of 2024, According to Experts - Good Housekeeping
5 Best Air Purifier & Humidifiers of 2024, According to Experts.
Posted: Thu, 08 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
More Air Purifiers to Consider
In a separate, similar test, we fed the purifiers continuously smoky air by burning incense sticks throughout the test. This test also included the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty, compared against a former large-space pick, the Blueair Blue Pure 211+. In that test, we learned we had to run the machines on high to maintain meaningful purification. Both models achieved this, cutting the particulates by half or more in 50 minutes. Smoke particles are right in the 0.3-micron size range—the hardest size to capture—that’s used as the HEPA test standard.
If none of the above is possible (or if it’s not enough), consider room air purifiers. It has a visually appealing design, which includes a multi-colored light ring which indicates the quality of the air. When you choose a genuine AprilAire Whole-House Air Purifier, you're choosing Healthy Air. You're also helping to both protect your HVAC systems from fewer service calls and to make them last. Genuine AprilAire Whole-House Air Purifiers are specifically engineered to work with your AprilAire Air Filter.
Are there any downsides to air purifiers?
Noise level aside, this purifier has three-stage filtration (including a HEPA filter), plus a digital interface that provides temperature and humidity updates in real-time. In addition, if you want it to run for a set time, you can time it to run for 1-12 hours before it shuts off automatically. Though this model is used to clean the air in rooms up to 1,500 square feet, there are other models that are designed for rooms that are 800, 1,200, and even 2,300 feet. If you want clean air at home, free from pollution and pollen, then one of the best air purifiers is what you need. When running, these devices will filter airborne contaminants from your air, venting clean air back into the room. That means an air purifier can help deodorize the space and clean your air.
Best for Dust
After considering all the above options, our budget pick is no doubt the Aprilaire 5000. For a reasonable price , you’re getting a long-lasting, high quality air purifier that has a MERV 16 rated air filter and ionizing cables capable of removing all the common household air pollutants over a 2,500 sq. Some, like our budget pick, the Kenmore 850e, have reusable filters that will need to be cleaned about as often as you would need to replace a filter on another model. "Note that there are no widely used performance rating systems for portable air cleaners or filters designed to remove gasses," says Tim Carroll, EPA spokesperson.
Although it comes with a filter indicator light, Blueair does recommend changing the Particle + Carbon filter once every six months (a filter subscription is available). It also comes with a washable fabric pre-filter for large debris that’s available in multiple colors, but we didn’t find it very effective at capturing pet hair. It also comes with a filter indicator light, though the manufacturer recommends changing the carbon and HEPA filters at least once every year. Our one complaint is that the unit's design is somewhat clunky and thus hard to keep discreet in a room of any size. By closing the windows, outside pollutants are kept out and won’t affect the effectiveness of the air purifier — helping to extend the life of the HEPA filter.
Electronic filters cost $600 to $1,000 installed and require a 120-volt electrical outlet. Typically, air filters are either built into the heating and cooling system (whole house filters) or are freestanding units that can be placed in individual rooms (portable filters with self-contained fans). It has been discovered that air quality indoors is worse than that of the outdoors. IT is therefore imperative for all who value the well-being of their family to acquire and install a whole-house air purification system. The quality of air indoors exacerbates allergic reactions and respiratory diseases. To prevent this from happening, the acquisition and use of whole-house air filtration systems are encouraged.
MERV 5 to 8 filters can trap particles such as hair spray, cement dust, fabric protectors, and mold spores. This measures how effective an air filter works to prevent dust and other particles from passing through into the air stream. They’re about 8 to 10 inches thick and have filtration media stacked in between. This makes them much more effective than flat filters as there is more material to stop particles. With a duct-based home air purifier, the air is purified after it has been heated or cooled but before it travels to the other rooms in the house. Whether you live in an area with many outdoor pollutants, such as a big city or by a busy road, or have allergies, a purifier significantly reduces the number of airborne contaminants in your home.
That’s by far the loudest of any purifier we’ve tested, and it would be absolutely unlivable in real-world use. I could hear its jet-like whine from 40 feet away, and it was on the other side of a heavy, acoustically sealed door. For reference, we set the limit of comfort at 50 decibels, and humans perceive a 10-decibel increase as roughly a doubling of loudness. So the Air Pro is effectively four times noisier than what we consider to be acceptable. Finally, because the 211i Max is likely to be used in a living room or other public space, it’s gratifying that Blueair put some real care into its appearance and upkeep.
However, with the highest level of HEPA filtration available (H14), it’s definitely worth the price, especially since the filter life is 3000 hours. Most of the models on my list, including my top pick of the Medify MA-112, only have 3 stages of filtration. Next to each product on this list, you may have noticed a Real Simple Selects seal of approval. Any product appearing alongside that seal has been vetted by our team—put through tests and graded on its performance to earn a spot on our list. Although we buy most of the products we test, sometimes we do get samples from companies if purchasing a product ourselves isn't an option. If that's the case, we test the product just like we test anything we buy, but we also disclose that we received it for free to be as transparent with you as possible.
For example, flat filters and extended media filters may not need any running costs but require lots of money to replace the filter every month or two. The Airmega 400 is among the most efficient HEPA air purifiers there is for your whole house. This unit comes with two industrial-grade HEPA filters to remove air contaminants. A whole house air purifier includes a high-quality HEPA filter with a MERV rating of 11 to 16. This MERV filter removes pollutants from the indoor air so that only clean, fresh air is supplied to the rooms of the home.
