Why is Carbon Used in Air Purifiers?

Activated carbon is used in home air purifiers because, like air sponges, carbon filters trap airborne odors and gases. The reason it is called "activated" charcoal is that it’s been treated with oxygen. This opens up tiny pores between the carbon atoms and the pores trap the odors and gases. Carbon granules have a very convoluted surface, providing it with a large surface area to volume ratio, which makes carbon filters tops for trapping the gases that go through particulate filters first. But eventually, the pores become clogged with contaminants, and the filters must be replaced to function properly. (Picture Caption) You an see in these closeups that activated carbon has a honeycomb formation. The…

Guide to Air Purifier Repair

Indoor air pollution is a fact of life, and in many cases the air indoors is less healthy than the air outdoors. Between dirt, pet dander, dust, and various microorganisms, indoor air can get quite dirty. Many people use air purifiers to make the air that they breathe inside their homes cleaner. But like every other electronic appliance, air purifiers get dirty, and when that happens they run far less efficiently, but there is a lot you can do to improve its efficiency if you’re a reasonably confident do-it-yourselfer. Home air purifiers are fairly simple devices, and periodic maintenance according to the instruction manual can keep them running efficiently. You’ve probably at some point noticed…

Airpura P600

The Airpura P600 is a top of the line air purifier with a top of the line price: $1,000. It is made in Quebec by Airpura Industries, Inc. This model has not only a high efficiency particle air (HEPA) filter, but also a carbon filter, a pre-filter, an ultraviolet lamp, and a titanium dioxide photocatalytic oxidizer. It has a high powered 560 cubic feet per minute fan (measured without the filters installed), and is one of the most powerful on the market. Though Airpura claims that the machine can purify the air in a 2,000 square foot area, practically speaking, it is probably more like 700 square feet, which is still pretty large. The particular…

IQAir Health Pro Air Purifier Video Review

This is the next video in our series of reviews and this time we reviewed the IQair Healthpro air purifier. With this video, i was able to use PowerPoint to help use images to put my point across. We followed the main points about why the IQair healthpro purifier is so much better than the majority of air purifiers out there. I was able to use a screen capture program to film this so in future we should be able to make videos of this quality and higher. The main points that we talk about in this video is: 1. The Amount of awards won – Consumer reports, Wired magazine…etc 2. Technology uses – 0.03…

Portable Air Cleaners

I will often talk about portable air cleaners/purifiers versus whole house purifiers/cleaners but what exactly do we mean by a portable air cleaner? Portable air purifiers/purifiers are those that can be moved to any part of the house. If you require your bedroom air to be cleaned then you can just unplug your portable purifier from your dining room and plug it in your room. I am a big fan of portable cleaners versus house purifiers which are a static system that are part of your homes air condition or heating system. Here are 5 reasons why I prefer portable cleaners: 1. Cheaper portable units can still be useful Cheap Portable cleaners can still be…

The Problem With Home Air Cleaners

Home air cleaners work by cleaning the air as its passes through your house heating furnace or air conditioning system. The diagram below shows how this home cleaner system works: In theory a home air cleaner sounds wonderful. You are told that you only need one unit which costs between $500- $1000, which sounds cheap for a whole house full of clean air! Promotional marketing material tell us that these units will easily clean the air in every room of your house. Sadly as with most things in life the home air cleaner is not as good as they make out in the marketing material. Here are 10 reasons why I would not recommend you…

Bionaire Air Purifier

Bionaire air purifiers recently made it into the news after they used thousands of bad electronic chips were incorporated into their range of BAP1300 air cleaners. Now this is a perfect example of how sometimes reviews from Consumer Reports and AHAM’s CADR rating can get it very wrong.  The BAP1300 managed to receive a CADR rating of  315 and was supposedly  capable of cleaning a room sized 488 square feet. At Air-purifier-reviewsite.com we always tell our users not to rely on just one review (this even includes our very own site.) The internet has now given us unprecedented access to more data and reviews than ever. If you followed our buying advice you would find…

Allergy Air Purifier – Can They Help?

Most people will come across air purifiers as an alternative way to reduce their allergic symptoms. Air Purifiers are used for allergies such as dust mite, pollen and pet dander. The science behind allergy air purifier is that they remove the allergens from the air and thus the sufferer no longer has a allergic reaction. This sounds like magic pill for allergy suffers but the vast majority of air purifiers will actually make their allergy worse. I often spend time answering questions on Yahoo answers and very often people will ask why their air purifier is actually making their allergy worse. One young women bought an ionizer air purifier and then told us how it…

Aprilaire air cleaner

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…

Do Whole House Air Purifiers Work?

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…