Knowing how to choose the perfect air purifier for your home is something you may find really helpful these days. With all the pandemics, wildfires, and allergens floating around, the air quality became more and more questionable. So, unfortunately, the one vital thing that Mother Nature gave us is now in need of improvement.
According to the EPA, the air inside your home is usually between 2 and 5 times dirtier than the air outside. In some instances, it can be as much as a hundred times dirtier. Therefore, air purifiers are a must if you live in an area that has high levels of pollution. Urban areas, homes around smelly places like landfills and industrial areas, and even many suburban areas could all use an air purifier to clean up the air and make it a bit safer to breathe.
Why Do We Need an Air Purifier for Home?
The house we live in is our safe space, the place where we and our loved ones share most of our time and some of our best memories. Home is the place that smells just perfect, where even the most tragic mess is actually in order. Who doesn’t feel safe in his or her own home? Maybe the ones that know that “Most of the things that cause health problems (regarding the air quality) are odorless,” says Dr. Nicholas BuSaba, associate professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School. “So, in many cases, there’s nothing to alert you to the problem.” You can chill on your couch, inhaling all those harmful allergens around you even now, and not know it.
The symptoms these allergens can trigger are respiratory problems (including asthma flare-ups), fatigue and sleepiness, or even digestive issues. However, all of these can be easily avoided by purchasing an air purifier for your home. Air purifiers are fundamentally simple devices that can improve your life by reducing airborne allergens, such as pollen and mold spores, and capturing bacteria, viruses, and smoke from wildfires and other sources. And you just need to push some buttons or even use a phone app.
How to Choose a Suitable Air Purifier for Home?
Knowing the air purifier’s benefits is not enough, though. You should do a little research about the market and get to know your home and needs before purchasing this magical device. Well, that’s our purpose here today. We’ll give you some of the most essential points you should consider before buying an air purifier for your home.
Choosing an Air Purifier for Home Considering Room Size
To help you find out if a certain air purifier will work for your home, most manufacturers list a maximum or recommended room size, and some will even mention how many air exchanges the space needs per hour. You can see such examples in my latest article, Best Winix Air Purifiers in 2024.
That’s a good starting guideline, but we recommend you also look for Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) ratings for smoke, dust, and pollen. CADR ratings are independent of room size, and they refer to how quickly the air purifier removes 100% of a given pollutant from a cubic foot of air per minute. The higher the rating, the larger the space an air purifier can clean or the more times per hour it can change the air.
How Much Does A Good Air Purifier Cost?
The average air purifier that works well and will last for years will cost between 50 and 200 dollars. Air purifiers in this price range will be able to do their job in most rooms and under most conditions. Of course, there are more expensive air purifiers on the market, but their additional cost refers to the design, wi-fi connectivity, brand history, etc.
Also, you should consider the recurrent cost of filter replacements. Keep in mind that filters must be replaced (or cleaned) every 6 to 12 months if they are pleated and every three months for activated carbon filters. However, many units have an indicator light that lets you know when to change the filter. The costs of filters vary widely; for large air purifiers, they range from $20 to more than $100. Lastly, filters with odor-removing carbon can cost as much as $50. So, before making the initial purchase of an air purifier for your home, also consider the future costs.
How to Choose an Air Purifier Considering the Noise Level
Well, here’s a really important factor that affects many purchase decisions when it comes to air purifiers for someone’s home: We’d all love to have cleaner air in our household, but not at the price of our peace and quiet. So, brands complied with this request by trying to design purifiers that are as silent as possible.
So, you should judge an air purifier not just by how well it performs but also by how well you’ll be able to live with it. Keep in mind that these devices should always be running (or almost all the time). Therefore, most ideally, they should also be quiet.
You can look for these details on the brand’s website or in the feature section on Amazon. Also, you can find a model’s decibel levels on its packaging. A last piece of advice is to look into the noise levels at both high- and low-speed settings. For instance, a noise rating of around 50 decibels is roughly equal to the hum of a refrigerator in your home.
What Is the Best Air Purifier for Your Home?
Finding the right air purifier for your home and family can be a frustrating experience, especially if you don’t know your needs and budget. Knowing what you desire and need in an air purifier is a key factor in deciding which purification device is best for your household. Also, following our advice and instructions above makes the process even easier.
Air purifiers come in many shapes and sizes, but their goal is to clean the air. Some do that with electronic plates, some with ozone, some with air sanitizers, and some with ions. However, most air purifiers that you will come across will have solid, tactile filters that you can feel and touch. The best of these are called HEPA filters.
Moreover, don’t forget to consider an air purifier’s size. Some air purifiers are designed to service an entire house (like the Coway Airmega ProX), some are designed for just a single room (like the Levoit Air Purifier), and some are designed to be portable (like the Levoit Core Mini) personal air purifiers.
Finally, there you have it, guys. Here are the main factors you should consider before purchasing an air purifier for your home: Of course, there are a lot more, but that remains your research to do. Let us all know how that went and what air purifier you chose for your home.