Top Quality Air Purifiers and Healthy Home Solutions that You Can Trust

People who are reading up on the best ways to improve their health find that their indoor environment makes a difference. They’re finding that it works really well to use an air purifier to cycle the air inside of your home and your workplace. This keeps things cleaner and improve quality of life. That means less irritation and fewer health hazards long-term.

But what do people want in these well-engineered machines?

It turns out there are some common things that are at the top of the list for shoppers who have read detailed reports on what works with air purification.

Some people have a rather simple view. It's that you just turn the thing on, and let it work. Others want to know specifically how to get the best result. They tend to spend time reading up on their purchase. Here are five of the top features that people want in an air purifier.

High-Quality Filtration

In so many ways, air purification starts with good filtration.

The best standard, for a lot of people, is the HEPA filter that is rated to trap 99.97 of particles down to .3 microns. In addition, there’s a “super HEPA” that traps even more particles and is rated for 99.99% down to .1 microns.

You can read more about this on our site. In addition to the HEPA filter, there’s also activated carbon and ceramic core technologies. There’s probiotics. And of course, filtration agents for systems.

Coverage Areas and Clean Air Delivery Rate

What is the clean air delivery rate? It’s a standard set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the American Lung Association. CADR shows how well an air purifier works on health hazards like tobacco smoke, . That's also true for items like dust and pollen.

The standard is measured by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. You might see these two acronyms, CADR and AHAM, mentioned together.

In evaluating an air purifier model, the organization will list three numbers, one for each pollutant: tobacco smoke, pollen, and dust.

Look for more on our site, including the AHAM 2/3 rule for air filtration compared to room size. Plead note that some makers use a CFM metric instead of CADR. 

Automation Features

With the smart home revolution, air purifiers are part of the equation. Shoppers are choosing machines with high-tech features like remote operation. They look for automated settings. Case in point: the ability to port auxiliary data based on Wi-Fi connectivity. This is where you get into the Internet of Things, and the idea that every appliance should be wirelessly connected. For air purifiers, this means more granular data on things like particle levels, ACH and more. In terms of automated settings, you can look for a Molekule model incorporating this kind of design, or a Rabbit Minus A3, or some IDEAL models. 

Whisper-Quiet Systems

Many of these machines also have quieter settings for overnights or times when you don’t want to hear the machine operating at full volume. This is another very popular feature for a lot of buyers. It helps you to get better shut-eye, while also enjoying the clean air that supports your health. On the other hand, some people like the hum of a machine to lull them into slumber.

Maintenance Features

Here’s another key factor to consider when you are shopping for an air purifier:

How are you going to maintain your unit over time?

It makes a difference how the filtration works. It determines how you replace your air filter.

Too many people have purchased a machine like this, and stopped using it. That's because they didn’t know how to effectively change the HEPA filter.

We’ve explained on the blog that you should not wash HEPA filters with water, in general, and you should replace most of them fairly often.

So if that process isn’t intuitive to the buyer, you might end up wasting a lot of money and not really using the appliance that you bought.

If, on the other hand, you have a super-easy filtration system, and you can stock up and change the filter regularly, you’ll see the results in your home, and you’ll feel them, too, with relief from various kinds of symptoms related to invisible microbes and particles that could be doing you harm.

These are some of the things that people most often want when they’re trying to get a high-quality air purifier for a home or business.

Take a look at all of the resources that we offer at US Air Purifiers LLC for more on how to choose a machine and how to get the most out of your purchase. We’ve helped so many people to find the right fit. You get more out of their money with clean, breathable indoor air.

If you’re interested in improving your indoor air with air purifier machines, you might want to know about some of the best new technologies. Scientists have been working on new features to make these appliances more effective. Some are pretty impressive.

Many people think about an air purifier as just a plastic shell with a filter inside. There’s more to it than that. High design starts with particular kinds of well-engineered filtration. Then there are other features that can help you get more out of your air purifier in the long run.

Why You Need a Quality Air Purifier

We’re dealing with a multitude of challenges when it comes to the quality of the air that we breathe.

There’s the kind of pollution that’s classified as “greenhouse gases,” but there are also items like wood smoke that actually have potentially harmful ultrafines (very small particles) in high quantities.

Then you have all of those chemicals that come out of consumer goods. That includes furniture or building materials. Some of these are often referred to as Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs. For example, formaldehyde is in many consumer products. It is a probable carcinogen according to the EPA. Benzene is another chemical we know as a VOC that can be harmful to the human respiratory system. It is in items like degreasers and some kinds of cleaners. 

Those are important reasons to invest in a good air purification system. There’s another one, too. Some people develop allergies to natural materials like mold, or dust mites, or pet dander. Your allergies or health responses might be severe, or much milder. Either way, it’s always a good idea to clean the air that you breathe, as some of these conditions can emerge or worsen over time.

In any case, check out some of the best engineering for air purifier machines:

HEPA Filtration

The HEPA filter is a gold standard when it comes to removing contaminants from indoor air.

A HEPA filter has to be up to certain specific standards set by regulators. A medical grade HEPA filter must capture at least 99.97% of particles that are 0.3 microns in diameter, making it highly effective at filtering out dust, pollen, mold spores, and even some bacteria and viruses.

In order to achieve this, many HEPA filters have an accordion style or pleated design that enlarges the surface area of the filter and traps more particles, down to a very small size.

We often recommend the customers buy an air purifier with HEPA filtration.

Ceramic Core Technology

Some air purifiers also have something called a ceramic core.

This is when the air purifier has a ceramic element. The heat from the ceramic core can help with cleaning the air. 

A ceramic core is different technology than activated carbon. Activated carbon tends to work well on chemicals and odors, and doesn’t focus as much on particle control. The ceramic core can be a very effective way to remove more small particles from indoor air.

Probiotics

This is an interesting one – some new air purifiers actually use a high quality probiotic filled with healthy bacteria to cleanse the air that you breathe in an indoor space - visit BetterAir’s site to learn more. 

The idea here is to introduce healthy bacteria to fight potentially harmful microbes in an enclosed area. In addition to filtration or other technology, the machine is spreading these helpful probiotics around the space, and changing the equation when it comes to livable, breathable air.

Choosing Your Air Purifier Machine

Now that you know more about some of the best air purifier technology, you can figure out which appliances are right for you. If you’re dealing with pet odor and pet dander, you might want something with activated carbon, or you might want to make sure you get HEPA filtration for a certain standard of pollution removal.

As for VOCs, many customers want an appliance with activated carbon.

You can also ask about what’s added to ceramic cores to heat air to high temps, and why that is done. 

You can also ask US Air Purifiers LLC about warranties and pricing, and everything else that you want to think about when you’re shopping for an air purifier machine. We know how to advise our customers on what’s just right for a particular need and space, with attention to air changes per hour, an important metric for full cleaning. Ask and get the information that you need to purchase confidently!

People are talking about safety and air pollution.

It seems like it used to be more of a general issue, along with things like traffic and suburban sprawl. But the situation, for many, is getting more dire, and it’s becoming more important to keep an eye on the air that we breathe.

This piece from the Greenville Advocate is only one of many that references a World Health Organization statistic, that 99% of people around the world breathe dirty or unhealthy air. Dr. Jaisingh Rajput breaks down the science around this, and why it’s important.

Rajput estimates that the effects of air pollution lead to 7 million premature deaths annually.

Contaminants and Their Sources

So what is in the air that’s causing all of this concern?

Well, more wildfires means more combustion. That means more small particles that can be unhealthy for human ingestion. That’s in addition to many of the same combustion particles in industrial operations, and those being released with coal and fossil fuels.

Then there are other potentially harmful chemicals, packed into consumer goods and furniture, that enter our homes on a regular basis. These include, for example, formaldehyde, a caustic chemical, and benzene, another element that can irritate the lungs. 

Sometimes learning a little more about the science helps us to evaluate and assess what we’re breathing.

So let’s talk a little bit about a couple of terms that were used in this coverage of air quality around the world.

PM 2.5 and PM 10

This year, we’ve written a lot about PM 2.5 on this blog.

We’ve stressed the common sources of PM 2.5, including:

• Wildfires
• Industrial pollution
• Coal burning facilities

We’ve spent a lot less time talking about PM10.

Let’s start with a recap of PM 2.5 – PM 2.5 refers to ultrafine particles that are less than 2.5 microns in diameter. These are able to penetrate deep into the lungs, and cause certain kinds of respiratory conditions and health concerns.

OK, so what is PM 10?

The naming convention makes sense, because PM 10 refers to particles around 10 microns in diameter.

So they’re a fair bit larger than PM 2.5 particles.

Are they safer?

Because of their size, PM 10 particles are in general less likely to go deep into the lungs. But they’re still dangerous to human health. They can still get into the lungs and cause problems. They can even be pretty abrasive.

Examples of PM 10

One example of PM 10 is heavy soot, the kind of thing you would see in dangerous smog in cities.

Another is certain types of aerosols that come in the form of mist from liquid dispersion.

Things like mold and pet dander can also qualify as PM 10.

Organic and Inorganic Particles

Reading the literature on PM 10, you also see another item included in the list of contaminants called ‘inorganic soil particles.’

What does that mean?

An inorganic component of soil is a mineral component that doesn’t come from a living organism.

Examples include tiny bits of things like quartz, feldspar and limestone.

As you might imagine, these can still irritate the lungs or internal tissues, and contribute to health conditions.

Evaluating Your Indoor Air

Although you can have a lot of air pollution wafting around the outdoors in your community, many of these contaminants tend to build up in enclosed spaces.

That’s what makes it important to use modern air purifiers to scrub your indoor air and make it cleaner and safer to breathe.

Using modern filtration methods, an air purifier cycles air through the unit, and takes out a lot of these troublesome microbes, whether they come from organic or inorganic sources.

Modern units are also extremely effective. For example, a medical grade HEPA will remove 99.97% of particles down to .3 microns, and a super HEPA barrier will remove 99.99% down to .1 microns, which covers PM 2.5 capably.

We’ve talked in detail about the design of these filters, and all of the new technology in air purification systems, and you can read more about it on our product pages, and elsewhere on the website. In terms of useful models, check out an AirPura c700dlx, or an AirPura i700, or an Amaircare 675. 

US Air Purifiers LLC can help you to cleanse your indoor air, and get a better result with modern technology that fights air pollution where it lives-  and where you live, too!

Make an investment in your health and the health of your family, to breathe easier all day and all night.

It was long ago, and it was far away – (well, at least it was long ago.) In the last part of the 1980s, America’s deep space agency took on a study to figure out whether plants can remove a range of harmful chemicals from our indoor air.

This NASA program was undertaken in the era of Star Wars. It was called the Clean Air Study. This foray was led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in partnership with the Associated Landscape Contractors of America. Certainly, that latter organization would have had an interest in promoting these uses of green stemmed plants.

Scientists were wondering whether plants could do certain things in space stations. Plants can change carbon dioxide for oxygen during the process of photosynthesis. Could they also remove harmful elements like benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene? And how would that work?

These three contaminants are actually three of the most common culprits in decreasing indoor air quality. You may have read about this in an earlier blog post showing what each of these chemicals does. It helps to know why you should try to get it out of your home space or workplace. Knowing how to handle these compounds can help you be more empowered to live healthier. And that's important.

The Findings

Reportedly, NASA and partners found, in general, that plants could remove some harmful chemicals from the air, but not at extremely high levels. They could do a little. But not a lot.

Claiming that the results weren’t applicable to the average building, scientists noted that in order to remove significant amounts of these chemicals, you would need a lot of plants in a very small floor space. In addition, they found that certain chemicals were more vulnerable to these processes than others (we’ll get to that in a moment).

Researchers use things like English ivy. They looked at peace lily and bamboo palms. They also considered the weeping fig. Then there's chrysanthemums and gerbera daisies, which have generally been known to be good for cleaning the air. Each of these plants was studied for its efficacy.

Modern Research on Benzene

What happens when you target particular contaminants? With plants? Well, you might get better results for one than for others.

Fast-forward to 2018, and groups at the University of Washington have genetically modified something called pothos ivy. This plant can scrub benzene and chloroform out of indoor air. It uses a protein called 2E1 that changes those two items into new compounds that are healthier for plants to use.

The benzene turns into phenyl, and the chloroform turns into carbon dioxide and chloride ions.

2E1 is common to human and mammal livers. In genetically modifying the plant, the team made it express that protein. They saw it “devour” benzene in the air.

By contrast, we haven’t seen studies where plants could eliminate formaldehyde or TCE in similar ways.

However, with protein folding and other new innovations, there is the potential for other genetic modifications that might allow us to use green plants for all kinds of air purification.

The NASA Program’s Legacy

Although our deep space program practically stalled out after the 1960s, that early research on house plants did, in a way, bear fruit. It showed us one way to reach those goals and objectives that we set in protecting our health within an enclosed space.

However, there is also new technology that addresses a broader range of contaminants, everything from formaldehyde and TCE to mold, dust mites, pet dander, and more.

Modern air purifiers are made with technology that can trap almost all of a given pollutant down to .3 microns, and that translates to a robust amount of protection for people who live or work in a building.

But how do you know what’s lurking in your indoor air?

First, you can use an air monitor to figure out what levels of benzene, formaldehyde or other contaminants are present.

Then you can install an air purifier that will use HEPA filtration or other means to cycle the air and remove all of these potentially harmful microbes.

For formaldehyde and benzene, which are classed as Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs, you want a machine that is good at filtering this kind of material out of the air. Often that’s with carbon, or a PECO system. 

US Air Purifiers LLC can help with questions about model design and engineering, and much more. Get the confidence that you need in your purchase, and the particular model that will help you improve your health, at home or at work. Your lungs will thank you!

Let’s be honest – air quality is just a lot more of an issue than it was a few years ago.

We’re getting a lot more data on the health risks of air pollution. Places like the World Economic Forum are warning of worsening air pollution conditions. We’re seeing how this plays out globally. It's concerning.

In any case, if you’re looking for the right air purifier for your home or business, you’ll want to do the research and get the best value. Here are some of the models that are our best sellers in the $400 price point.

AirFree Lotus

The AirFree Lotus air purifier covers up to 650 square feet, protecting against the range of contaminants. That includes many allergens as well as items like dust mites, mold spores, and pet dander.

That's the basics. Get a two-year limited warranty, and a portable machine that is quiet and effective. The AirFree Thermodynamic Sterilizing System (TSS) is ISO certified and popular in various countries around the world.

Molekule Mini Plus

The Molekule Mini Plus is a high-tech air purifier rated for up to 250 square feet with 2.5 ACH. It has the true HEPA filter and proprietary PECO technology. It also works on a range of VOCs and other contaminants.

Any of these machines might be an ideal choice for areas of your home or business that you want to make safer and cleaner for inhabitants or visitors. This type of protection is not just high risk groups like children. It's not just for the elderly, the immunocompromised, and people with respiratory conditions. Everyone can benefit from breathing cleaner indoor air.

Respiray A+

What if you could get a wearable air purifier technology that you could take with you everywhere you go, for under $200, with a great HEPA filter and activated carbon? Too good to be true? Not really. The Respiray Wear A+ is lightweight and ergonomic, and features decent battery life and easy filter replacement.

It’s good for capturing allergens, scrubbing the air of volatile organic compounds, and protects against items like pollen and mold.

Makers explain that the wearable device provides an “invisible shield of clean air around your breathing zone” and unlike ozone machines, it doesn’t use that technology to reduce odors and pet dander.

A premium HEPA filter catches 99.9% of allergens, and the activated carbon there is great for strong perfumes and chemical irritants.

Amaircare Roomaid

This portable air purifier works well on certain types of VOCs. With coverage for 300 square feet, it comes with a five-year limited warranty.

There’s a two speed fan, 360° air intake, and HEPA filtration.

This model capably filters items like cigarette, smoke, mold and mildew, and more.

Rabbit Air

If you want a model that will hop along well for under $400, The Rabbit Air bioGS 2.0 comes with HEPA filtration and ultra-quiet operation, as well as a five year warranty. It’s Energy Star certified, and its HEPA filter is 99.97% effective for .3 microns and over 99% effective for .1 microns. 

US Air Purifiers LLC can help advise on the best machine for your needs, and how you can strategize air purification of your home space. You can use an air monitor to see what allergens or contaminants are in the air, and the levels at which they are present, and then get the air purifier machines in place to cycle the air. Ask about all of the new technologies available, and what they do, and get the confidence of choosing the right purchase for your situation.