Aprilaire are known for creating high quality whole house air purifiers. The first air cleaner to be released was the 5000 Aprilaire electronic air cleaner which hit the market in July 2000. Now the 5000 model is joined by the 2000 and 4000 range of media air cleaners.

Whole House cleaners are purifiers that are attached to your house furnace system and require a HVAC technician to install them.

Here are some quick plus points of the 5000 Aprilaire Air Cleaner

• The manufacture says that the house air cleaner can deal with at least 95% of air particles that are bigger than 0.35 microns.  In comparison, some house furnace air cleaners usually only have a 70% efficiency at blocking particle less than 0.35 microns.
• According to the claims of Aprilaire – the system uses an electronic media filter that will require changing only once a year. This was found to be true by an independent LMS test which puts the Aprilaire at the front of its competitors in this regard.

Test Data Versus Other Whole House Air Cleaners

In an independent test results the Aprilaire was rated second in its ability to remove air particles in comparison with the Carrier Infinity, Trane CleanEffects and the Honeywell F300.  The Aprilaire air cleaner was found to remove at least 90% of all air particles bigger than 0.3 microns.

How Does  Aprilaire Air Cleaner Work?

Unlike a lot of whole house purifiers, the Aprilaire uses a 2 stage process of electronic ionization matched with a micro-fibre filter. The electronic stage charges the surrounding particles which are then picked up by the small fibre filter.

Deals on Air Purifiers:

In comparison most of the residential air cleaners use just one technology such as the Honeywell Fx00 range which use only electronic filters. The benefit of using two technologies is that the electronic unit will make it easier for the filter to pick up particles. As particles are charged they are made heavier which means that it will be easier for them to be caught in the filter.

Most electronic air cleaners will require cleaning regularly but with a combined system it seems that you will only have to replace the media system every year. The cost of 2 of these Aprilaire 5000 filter media cost just under $60 on Amazon.com (which is cheap!)

What About The Problems?

Cleaning 90% of particles bigger than 0.35 microns is good but this is only 10% of the air particles in the air! You need a purifier that can stop 95% of particles bigger than 0.03 microns.

Whole house air cleaners sound like the perfect solution but there are many faults with the concept. In brief a whole house air purifier will only clean where the main airflows exist. You can read more about this problem by reading this article: Do Whole House Air Purifiers Work?

Conclusion

As the independent results show the Aprilaire range of air cleaners are some of best whole house air purifiers on the market.

The problem is due to the fact that  this unit is a whole house air purifier. Time and again these house cleaners fail to live up to expectations.

Whilst the Aprilaire air cleaners are the best out of the bunch i would still not recommend them. At a cost of $600, you will get more clean air for your dollar if you choose a portable air purifier.

Honeywell Electronic air cleaners include the F50, F50F, F300, F300A, F300E range of furnace based whole house purifiers. These electronic whole house air cleaners work by connecting your homes central heating furnace/system.

Download the Honeywell manual here: http://customer.honeywell.com/techlit/pdf/PackedLit/69-0756.pdf

The Honeywell range of electronic air cleaners comes with a 2 stage filter system which cleans the air from your furnace outlet.

1. The first stage is a pre-filter that removes most of the big particles such as lint, dust and pet dander. If you don’t an choose a air cleaner that comes with a pre-filter then you will put too much strain on the main unit. The main filter system should only be used to remove very tiny particles from 0.03 microns to 0.3 microns.

2. The Main filter system of the Honeywell electronic purifiers uses ionization technology to charge the surrounding particles. Honeywell states that their air cleaner will charge all particles that are bigger than 0.3 microns. Once each particle is charged then the Honeywell air cleaner will use charged oppositely charged plates to attract these particles and clean them from the air.

The Benefits of The Honeywell Electronic Air Cleaner

• As the system uses an ionization technology then you will not have to pay for new filters or replace them.
• According to the manual you will only have to wash the filter cells every 6-12 months. To be honest I doubt this a lot and will talk about this later!
• The manual states the electronic air cleaner will remove 99% of airborne particles however it does not say the size of these particles.
• Honeywell provide a 10 year guarantee for the coil and a 5 year guarantee for the rest of the air cleaner.

The Downside of the Honeywell Electronic Air Cleaner

• Ionization technology will attract dust and give it weight but without suitable secondary filters such as a HEPA they can not all be removed from the air.
• This Honeywell air cleaner only uses ionization so it will be inefficient at picking up the very smallest of air pollutant particles such as bacteria and viruses. 90% of air particles are bigger than 0.3 microns but the Honeywell range of whole house purifier are only able to pick up particles bigger than 0.3 microns.
• We have found that ionization purifiers become very inefficient as their filter cells become dirty. We often recommend cleaning them at least once a week rather than the stated 6 months by Honeywell.
• Whole house air cleaners are notoriously bad at cleaning your homes air. The problem comes down to air always following the path of least resistance. We wrote an article that explains this in more detail: Do Whole House Air Purifiers Work?

Conclusion: We can’t really recommend you buy any of these electronic air cleaners and would recommend you check out our list of air purifiers that actually clean your air.

In short, not really!

Whole house air purifiers work by filtering the air from your central heating system/furnace system. The idea is that the device cleans the air as it passes through your house heating/cooling system and allows this clean air to pass into your home.

Many different types of filters are used in these systems such as:

• HEPA
• Electrostatic precipitators
• Self-Charging electrostatic air filters
• Ultra-violet light systems
• Portable ozone-ionizer air purifiers

The problem however with these systems is that the whole concept is flawed. Here are some of the main reasons why house air purifiers are not recommended.

1. When Shared Across Your House The Power Is Low

Whilst these whole house blower systems have powerful airflow ratings (often 1000 cubic feet per minute) when this is shared across the whole house you get about the same power as a small fan when you check the airflow from your room duct.

2. Air From Your Central System Does Not Flow In An Equal Way

All air will look for the a path that has least resistance. Cold air will always choose to go downwards whilst hot air will rise. This creates a problem similar to that of a river. Whilst in the area where the flow of the river is strong, all silt and small rocks pass through quickly and the water is clear. Where the flow of the river is slow such as the edge of a bend, the silt and rock get deposited.

With a whole house purifier there are areas where the flow of air is not strong such as in corners of rooms and behind obstacles. The lack of airflow in these areas will lead to a build up of dust and other problem particles.

It’s estimated that an average full house purifier will only clean about 30% of the air in the whole house.

3. Problem Using Real HEPA Filters

Residential HVAC blowers do not have the power to successfully push air through a normal HEPA filter. A real HEPA filter will create a large amount of static pressure which means they can’t not be used in most whole house systems. Therefore nearly every HEPA based whole house cleaner uses a bypassing system to vent. This bypassing system means that you will be letting the fine particles pass through that cause allergies and other problem illnesses.

In some cases you can use a real HEPA filter but this requires a fan to be pushing the air through the system and will be required to run 24/7. This extra fan will pile on the dollars to your homes electricity bill.

Conclusion

If you still really want to use a whole house purifier then we recommend that you get your HVAC system including ducts professionally cleaned as well as upgrading the furnace filter. Depending on the age of your house, the costs can really start to balloon when you try to get a whole house air cleaner to work well.

If you been on this site before you will know that I spend most of the time moaning about air purifiers that fail to live up the marketing hype. However its not all doom and gloom as I’m now going to tell you which air purifiers are the real deal!

I don’t want you to just take my word for it, so I put in some links to other review sites – please feel free to check them out. I always recommend that people do their own research so search the names of these products on Google…etc

IQAir HealthPro

The IQAir Health Pro purifier is respected by nearly every review website we came across. We love it because it really does what it says on the box. It has a 4 stage filtration process that can block 99.5% of particles bigger than 0.003 microns. Each purifier is hand tested and each comes with a handwritten performance report!

Here is what other people are saying about it:

1. Consumersearch.com

http://www.consumersearch.com/air-purifiers/iqair-healthpro

The IQAir HealthPro air purifier is expensive, but according to reviews it’s the best option for people with severe allergies.

2. AirPurifiersAmerica.com

http://www.air-purifiers-america.com/ed_APA_test_results.asp

99% of particles removed – Top Marks for 22 air purifiers tested

3. AllergyBuyersClub.com

http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/iqair.html

The IQAir HEPA air purifier is manufactured in Switzerland. It is a testament to precision Swiss engineering. The company behind this unit is in the hospital clean room business.

4. AirPurifierPower.com

http://www.air-purifier-power.com/iqair-air-purifier.html

I still adore my Healthpro, so obviously the best.

Where can you buy the IQAir Health Pro?

Alen A350

The Alen A350 is not that well known and many people will dismiss it because it is only able to clean 400-800 Feet when compared with the likes of the IQair which can deal with up to 1000 feet.

When looking at how this purifier performs in tests you think their must be some sort of mistake made with the price. The A350 costs around $450 which is nearly half the price of an IQair Healthpro. If your budget just wont stretch for the IQair then I would happily recommend the Alen A350.

Here is what other people are saying about it:

1. Consumersearch.com

http://www.consumersearch.com/air-purifiers/alen-a350

In tests, the Alen A350 air purifier has been shown to remove nearly as many allergens from the air as the more expensive IQAir HealthPro

2. AirPurifiersAmerica.com

http://www.air-purifiers-america.com/ed_APA_test_results.asp

In testing, the Alen A350 finishes second only to the top-ranked IQAir HealthPro in its efficiency at removing allergens.

3. AllergyBuyersClub.com

http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/alen-a350-a375uv-hepa-air-purifiers.html

The Alen A350 and A375UV air purifiers are a good choice for someone looking for an affordable air purifier that has features and performance similar to many higher priced air purifiers.

4. AirPurifierPower.com

http://www.air-purifier-power.com/alen-a350-air-purifier.html

He says it’s especially good at dust and pollen removal, particularly for rooms of about 250 square feet.

Where can you buy the Alen A350?

Airgle 750 Air Purifier

The Airgle 750 is a purifier from Korea that needs to be taken very seriously when your looking for a new purifier. This purifier uses 12 filters to clean the air which is probably why it was given top marks across the board in relation to its ability to remove pollutant particles. The Airgle uses a combination of HEPA filters and activated carbon. The only downside is the small amount of activated carbon that is used. I would feel more comfortable with at least double the amount of carbon. What really stood out for me about the Airgle 750 was how quiet it was – produces 23dB when it was purifying 71 cubit feet per minute! Another plus point is that this unit produces zero emissions!

Here is what other people are saying about it:

1. AirPurifiersAmerica.com

http://www.air-purifiers-america.com/ed_APA_test_results.asp

In independent laboratory tests performed by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, the Airgle 750 air purifier had the highest Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) when compared to 159 leading air purifiers.

3. AllergyBuyersClub.com

http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/airgle-750-premium-hepa-air-purifiers.html?id=1

“Impressed” would be the word to sum up our review of the Airgle 750 Hepa Air Purifier. From the performance of the four true HEPA filters, to the easy glide casters, this air purifier scored high across the chart.

4. AirPurifierPower.com

http://www.air-purifier-power.com/airgle750review.html

The 750 from Airgle, a contender in the premium air cleaner space, is best for those with serious particulate sensitivity.

Where can you buy the IQAir Health Pro?

It might seem like a great idea to pick up a cheap air purifier whilst your doing your grocery shopping but in reality your going to waste your money.

The vast majority of air purifiers that are stocked by Walmart are under $150 and the majority sold are created by Sharper Image. The two best selling purifiers are the ionic pro combo and ionic pro mini both by Sharper image.

1. Keep Well Away from Sharper Image

Now Sharper Image has had some bad press with their ionic breeze air purifiers after they where found to release ozone which actually reduced air quality. Now the new ionic pro models do not release as much excessive levels of ozone but they are still very inefficient.  Read the following articles about why its a bad idea to invest in a sharper Image purifier:

http://allergyclean.com/news/5112006.htm

http://www.livescience.com/technology/060509_air_purifiers.html

2. Can Only Remove Large Particles

The problem with all cheap purifiers is that they can only remove a very small percentage of the particles in the air. Most of the sub $150 priced purifiers can only deal with particles that are bigger 0.3 microns. 0.3 microns is small but in the world of air based particles they only make up about 10% of pollutant particles. This means that these cheap purifiers are only able to clean 10% of the air in your room.

3. Can Only Work In Small Sealed Rooms

You will see that many of these units promise to clean rooms up to 250 feet but this is assuming that your room air does not circulate. As we all know, air will pass throughout the house and thus an air purifier will be required to clean the vast majority of air throughout the house. Most American houses will require an air purifier that can deal with at least 1000 feet and this is true even if you only want to clean the air in one room. Sealing your rooms is just not an option unless you really want to take one step closer to the grave!

I am sure you have already heard of the Iqair Healthpro plus purifier as it has won numerous industry awards. The Iqair plus purifier is the Cadillac of the air purifier world. The reason that the Iqair purifier is so well respected is because of the sheer amount of particles that in can block using its four stage filter system.

The average purifier will be able to stop most particles over 0.3 microns – which is small but in fact 90% of all airborne particles are actually smaller than 0.3 microns! When people complain about their air purifier not working its probably because most purifiers only remove 10% of all the particles in the air. If you suffer from a pollen allergy or asthma, 10% will be useless to you.

The IQair includes a HyperHEPA filter as part of its four stage process which can deal with particles down to 0.003 microns! The guys at IQair actually guarantee that this purifier will remove at least 99.5% of all particles bigger than 0.003 microns.

Finally we have a purifier that can successfully remove enough particles to relieve the symptoms of an allergy sufferer. The IQair plus purifier removes particles that are 100 times smaller than those that are picked up by your average high street air purifier.

Is performance certified?

Yes, whilst most air purifier make wild claims about their machines,  IQair actually test your machine and filters before it is sent to you. Each purifier will come with a 2-page performance certificate that is filled out by hand by an IQair technician.

So how does the IQair Purifier actually work?

First Stage: A micro-particle filter that removes the largest particles such as pet dander, spores and pollen particles.

Second Stage: Activated carbon filter that works on removing the odour causing compounds.

Third Stage: Chemisorptions using pellets which is able to remove toxic chemicals that are found in the home such as formaldehyde.

Fourth Stage: This is the nano fiber Hyper HEPA filter that will remove 99.7% of particles under 0.3 microns and 99.5% of particles larger than 0.003 microns. This stage will catch all viruses, bacteria and even particles caused by smoke and automobiles.

If your fed up of using an air purifier that fails to remove enough particles then we suggest you check out this purifier from IQair.

We understand that the IQair healthpro can just be way over budget for some customers so we suggest that they look at getting similar performance for less money with a Sharp air purifier. Whilst the Sharp air purifiers are good, nothing can compare to the IQair healthpro Plus.

The following 10 allergies are super rare and make life unbearable for the people who to live with them.

1. Allergic to Wi-Fi

One DJ claimed that he suffers from an allergic reaction to Wi-Fi. He says that he finds it hard to travel now due to most airports now containing Wi-Fi areas everywhere.  Thankfully the DJ has some protection as he lives in a house with 18inch thick walls.

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2. Allergic to Sex

Sex for some women can lead to itchiness, redness, swelling and even infertility. The reason for this allergy is due to the victims white blood cells treating the semen as bacterial invaders. The good news is that there is a treatment which is rather good – more sex! By increasing the amounts of interaction with the allergen the reaction will be reduced. So if you hear a lady friend complaining about itchiness after sex then be a good friend and offer to help in the desensitization process

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3. Allergic to the Mac Book Pro

This allergy often affects people who have had an allergy to the metal nickel. Sadly the Mac book pro contains small amounts of nickel within the case. Users have reported red bumps appearing after long sessions of surfing the net. However it’s not just Mac Books that are the culprit as most cell phones contain elements of nickel within the case/battery. The sad story is that once you react to metals the only treatment is to avoid exposure so its back to using your plastic covered Dell laptop!

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4. Allergic to exercise

This  super rare allergy affects less than a 1,000 people a year so don’t bother using it as an excuse when your down the gym. Doctors believe that the allergy is caused by an underlying mild food allergy and the exercise acts as catalyst which causes the symptoms to arise. In rare cases this can actually cause unconsciousness and even death.

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5. Allergic to Water

Imagine cutting your finger and then watching as the inevitable outpour of blood causes you to break out in blisters? Every day water allergy sufferers have to deal with the fact that their immune system hates something that makes up 60% of their body. Victims of this strange disorder can no longer shower and are forced to clean themselves with a damp flannel. Even drinking a simple glass of water is out of the question. Thankfully only 1 in 230 million people suffer from this worldwide.

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6. Allergic to Sunlight

No these sufferers are not vampires but the proteins in their skin change when they come into contact with UV light causing their antibodies to attack. Sufferers will have to deal with itching, hives and even full blown anaphylaxis if they spend too long sun bathing.

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7. Allergic To Eating An Apple Under A Birch Tree

Food allergies are now common place and now it seems that nearly everyone complains about being allergic to wheat, milk, peanuts…etc

Grace Morley on the other hand is not allergic to eating apples and can even spend all day under a birch tree. However if Grace combines eating an apple with sitting under a birch tree she could die within minutes. Doctors believe that the birch tree pollen must have a subtle affect on her immune system that causes it to go into overdrive when it comes into contact with apple juice.

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8. Allergy to Wood

In 2008, Dan gave up his job as a lucrative banker (maybe he knew something we didn’t?) to become a carpenter. After only a few days of working with the wood he noticed that he was breaking out in a rash and hives. The doctors later confirmed that he was allergic to the wood shavings. Thankfully Dan found one type of wood that he is not allergic to so now he just uses that to make his furniture.

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9. Allergy to everything except deer meat

Timmy Armstrong  suffers from a major food allergy that means he can only eat deer meat and a small amount of oats, salt and sugar. If Timmy eats any other sort of food, his oesophagus can swell so much that he will stop breathing.  It’s still not understood why deer meat does not induce an allergic reaction.

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10. Caffeine Allergy

Whilst its common to see many cases of intolerance to caffeine, actual allergies are very rare. Symptoms of this allergy can be very similar to what patients with Attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder and even depression deal with. Doctors have even suggested that people with caffeine allergies may have been wrongly diagnosed as having a mental illness.

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This purifier was first seen at the design awards when the technology won an invention award in 2008. Now its finally available to buy for $199 from Amazon.com.

The purifier is very different to your average consumer purifier and actually uses plants to clean the air of toxins using the plants own filtration system. One of the benefits of such a system is that it can clean the basics such as dust and pollen but also problem chemicals such as benzene and formaldehyde that is often now found in new upholstery and carpets.  In laboratory tests it was shown that the amount of formaldehyde in the air was reduced by 80% in just 1 hour of running the purifier.

The Andrea air purifier is created by Le Laboratoire and has combined nature with a machine to help clean your air.

Once we got our hands on the device we had a few minor issues with the unit. Firstly the fans that push the air through the system are not particularly quiet so you might have to rethink putting one in your bedroom. I am sure that in future versions that some of these minor issues will be ironed out.

You can use any plant in this purifier but the designers recommend that you go for a plant with good natural filtration such as aloe vera or spider plants.

via

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Air Purifiers are created to clean the air off problem particles such as dust, pollen and dirt. One of the recent technological advancements are ionizer air purifiers that use ionization cleaning technique.

To understand how ionizer air purifiers work you need to understand a little bit about the ionization process.

The first thing that happens is that the ionization unit charges the air with a release of electrons that in turn charge the all the particles in the air. Now all the particles including the dust, pollen and bacteria are charged negatively so are heavier and are attracted to the positive plates of the ionization unit.

Negative ions can also provide a feeling of well being and can be compared to the air near a waterfall or on the beach (places where natural air negative ions are high.)

Many air purifiers will combine an ionization air purifier with an other type of filter such as HEPA or Activated Carbon. Ionization units can help to improve the efficiency of other filters as it increases the size of particles and thus makes it easier for them to be caught in the filter.

One of the benefits ionizer only air purifiers is that they do not require expensive filters but will still be required to be cleaner every few days. In our experience air purifiers that only use ionization are not that helpful. Usually for most people they will require this to be matched with a least one type of filters, we recommend HEPA or activated carbon.

If you are only looking to remove basic pollutants from the air such as dust and want to increase your rooms level of negative ions then maybe a ionization only purifier will be perfect for your home.

Overall we think that ionization units are awesome as they help to increase the efficiency of normal air purifiers. We would always recommend going for a purifier that includes some sort of ionization facility.

Save Your Money And Keep Well Away From These 11 Bizarre Air Purifiers.

1. Pet Purifier

Finally your dog can breath clean air it sniffs at another dogs ass. This bizarre air purifier even comes with an air freshener mode. Once activated the air freshener will spray your pet and those around it with a scent that is meant to induce relaxation in you and your dog.

Thankfully this ridiculous pet gadget costs less than $20 so you will still have some money left for the inevitable veterinary fees.

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2. Face Mask Purifier

Be honest the Hannibal Lecter look is hot this year!

This gadget is powered by USB and uses two fans to provide you with a constant stream of clean air. Whilst the constant sound of the fans might annoy colleagues I doubt they will have the cojones to make eye contact with you. Sadly for this purifier to work outdoors you will need to cart it around with your laptop.

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3. Personal Air Purifier

At first i thought this was some sort of clunky MP3 player circa 1996.

This ugly device is actually an air purifier that you hang around your neck. How this can actually provide you with clean air is beyond me but thankfully you won’t have to worry as its not longer available for sale.

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4. Cat Litter Purifier

If you keep forgetting to change the cat litter but hate the feline stench then this might be the gadget for you. However I doubt this purifier could do much to stem the smell from a 6 weeks worth of cat mess.

Just save your money and get off the coach once in a while to look after your pet.

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5. Plant Purifier

On paper this plant air purifier sounds awesome. It uses plants instead of filters to clean the air in your room of noxious pollutants. However can you seriously imagine these two little plants cleaning your smoke drenched dirt box of a room?

I think not!

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6. All in One Clock, Temperature and USB Air Purifier

This gadget is utterly useless for someone who smells ok and sleeps in a bed. However if you stink, smoke, sleep at your desk and need to know the time constantly then this is the gadget for you.

It is USB powered, beeps every hour and even has the room temperature on it’s lcd screen. Totally useless

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7. Ozonolysis Air Purifier – Create Smog In Your Room

Recently a range of ionic purifiers were released that used ozonolysis technology. Whilst the marketing slogan told us that these purifiers would clean the air, the scary truth was that these unit where pumping out harmful toxins.

One purifier generated as much harmful ozone that is found during a high smog day in downtown Los Angeles.

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8. USB Pen Drive Purifier

Whilst at $6 this purifier is dirt cheap but its still totally ridiculous. The only thing this gadget will do is to help run your laptop battery down. I would prefer to spend the $6 on something more useful.. like maybe some Gummy Bacon?

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9. Manmade Tree – Air Purifier

In Peru they have found a bizarre solution to the air pollution problem. Whilst a simple solution would be to stop cutting down trees they decided to build these strange manmade monstrosities. The “Super Tree” purifies the air using electricity and they say it can clean up to 200,000 cubic metres of air.

Sadly as it’s a machine this “tree” creates a large amount of sludge like waste that needs to be sewage treated.

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10. Apple Air Purifier

Be warned this purifier is not from the makers of the iPhone and iBook. I really have doubts on this small gadgets ability of cleaning any amount of air but hey at least it looks pretty!

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11. Purifier Chair

Remove the stench from an 8 hour marathon session of WoW with this awesome gaming chair. It combines a personal air purifier with touch screen controls and multi monitor set-up.

At $40,000 I imagine will be way over the budget for the average Wow player.

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