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

In decorating and improving your home, you may be wondering how to improve your indoor air quality, and make your living space healthier.

There are several different ways to do that, and one has to do with the natural value of plant life.

Biologists and botanists know this, but some of the rest of us might need a reminder: some common houseplants will typically help you cycle the air in your living space, and clean it of certain chemicals.

First of all, all plants ingest carbon dioxide, making tree planting and other greenery one of the biggest weapons against climate change.

But that's not all that houseplants do, either!

Many of them can actually remove or break up toxic compounds like formaldehyde, which is used in a lot of building materials and consumer products. Other potentially harmful elements include things like benzene and trichloroethylene.

Experts often recommend plants with large leaves, or vining plants that have a lot of surface area, as effective cleansers.

10 House Plants for Cleansing the Air

Here's a short list of some of the most popular houseplants to keep your indoor air cleaner and improve your quality of life in your home:

Aloe Vera

This plant doesn't need a lot of water, but it does thrive in the sun. You can also use it for skin care! You’ll see it, for example, in burn salves and sunscreens. It’s a favorite, for sure.

Ferns

Ferns don't need as much sun, and they have quite a bit of frond surface, which makes them good air filtration components. They’re also familiar to anyone ho likes to hike in the woods.

Rubber tree

The rubber tree or ficus burgundy has large glossy leaves that help it to improve the air quality inside your home. It’s a good looking addition to your interior, too!

Snake Plant

This plant needs very little water and light. It's an extremely low-maintenance houseplant, and it also has quite a lot of air scrubbing value. Add this to your list!

English Ivy

This is one of those trailing plants that's ultimately effective in helping to improve your air quality. It also grows quickly and easily, so make sure you have enough space for it. Other kinds of ivy may be useful, too.

Philodendrin

These vining plans also help to improve your air quality, and look good with their heart-shaped leaves. Horticulture nerds may also know that this plant is easy to develop from stem cuttings.

Peace Lily

Here's one with some sentimental value – the peace lily is a classic that thrives in partial sunlight and humidity, but keep it out of reach of your pets both dogs and cats, as it may be hazardous to them.

Gerber Daisy

This great-looking plant also does its work to remove formaldehyde and other chemicals from your indoor air.

Devil’s Ivy

The devil’s ivy is a hearty plant that doesn't need much light. It's also an effective air cleaner.

Get Better Indoor Air

So if you have all of these houseplants around, is your work done?

Not necessarily. While plants are great natural cleansers, they don't have the raw power of a commercial air purifier.

Many would recommend using both approaches to really get the most out of your home or living space.

In other words, the natural plants do their thing, and a functional air purifier machine hums along in unison, bringing a lot more power to the equation. With a HEPA filter and activating carbon, these machines can really take a lot of microbial particles out of your air, and make your home a safe place to be in and breathe in.

Look for models like the Airpura 600 or similar designs with the HEPA filter that traps specific types of particulate, and the activated carbon that uses small pores to filter out contaminants. Get the cleaning power that you need to make your home a safe and nice place! And don’t forget the houseplants – because they help your area look good, too.

A lot of people love their pets.

Our furry companions are part of our lives, and for better or worse, they live in our spaces with us. Unless for some reason, they're not allowed to…

Lenders have a tricky decision to make. Do they rent to pet owners, many of whom are responsible tenants? Do they allow this kind of wear and tear on the units?

We know that humans thrive in connection with their animal companions. We have the health data to support that. So it's hard to make a blanket exclusion for pets.

But there are problems with the process of renting to pet owners.

Essentially, it's hard to keep that pet’s residual presence from impacting the unit after a pet owner has left and somebody else wants to move in. You just have a lot of cleanup to do, and beyond that, there are some related issues that might require other remediation, which we’ll go into.

Cats and Their Imprint on Rentals

Some landlords can tell you are stories about people flushing kitty litter down the toilet, and ruining the plumbing, or hardwood floors scratched and ruined for thousands of dollars of damage.

Those are worst-case scenarios, but even if that doesn't happen, there's a natural process that makes it tricky to rent a unit after a cat has been there for any length of time.

Essentially, cat hair and dander is a little like cigarette smoke – it tends to infiltrate the building and get embedded in building materials like carpet, wood floors, etc.

And of course, the cat’s urine, if not easily contained in the litter box, can be a problem, too.

But either way, a cat’s hair and dander has an odor that tends to stick in the unit after the cat and its owner have left.

If you’ve ever entered one of these units after it has been shut up for a while, you’ll know how it is. You get that whiff of cat, or if you’re allergic, your eyes may start stinging, or you may feel a little tickle in your throat. Even if the pet owners or someone else has thoroughly cleaned, this might not really be avoidable!

Solutions to Cat Rentals

So what do you do if you have a unit where a cat has produced a distinct odor, and you can smell it when you walk in?

One good solution is installing an air purifier inside of the home.

Air purifiers cycle through the indoor air, and remove harmful or annoying elements that reduce indoor air quality.

This is excellent for people with asthma or allergies, or anyone else trying to deal with the impact of items like cat dander and even urine.

The air purifier scrubs the air and cleans it inside of the building.

Best Air Purifiers for Pet Owners

The best types of air purifiers for cat odor have a HEPA filter with activated carbon. What is activated carbon? This is made when inert carbon is carbonized, and oxygenized. Then, small pores allow for air to cycle through, with the removal of various types of particulate. It’s a unique way to clean air, and a natural component of many of these high-end air purifier models.

With that in mind, there are some specific models that work well with the types of particles that carry cat odor. These include the Airpura 700, which also has a quiet 7-series motor and is estimated to trap 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns. There’s also the Airpura C700DLX, a similarly capable unit, or, for another brand, try the BetterAir BA-2080. With one of these modern air purifier units humming along in your indoor space, you’ll be well set up to handle the contaminants that produce odor and drive allergic reactions.

So the problem with cat rentals is, usually, solvable! But that is by no means the only value of an air purifier, or the extent of what it can do in your home. The same HEPA and activated carbon technology can be effective in dealing with the effects of smoke, construction debris, or other kinds of microscopic bits that can clutter up your indoor air. Take a look at the many models in our inventory to find the one that’s right for your space.

It’s a good idea to limit your exposure to formaldehyde in your indoor air. So what’s the problem with formaldehyde?

Well, long-term significant exposure can have a carcinogenic effect. Formaldehyde is also bad for people with certain respiratory conditions, and it doesn’t smell good, to most people.

Some think of formaldehyde as a chemical you use in a school’s science department, but it’s actually in quite a few building materials and consumer products, too. There can be quite a bit of formaldehyde, for example, in new laminate flooring or wall cladding, or in new furniture, for example.

With that in mind, there are a number of ways that people get exposed to harmful levels of formaldehyde in their homes.

High Formaldehyde Levels in New Building

It can be enticing to think of moving into your dream house, a brand new building, custom built for you in a fancy subdivision. But inside, that home can be off-gassing formaldehyde from flooring, walls, you name it.

That’s one of the down sides to building new – all of the newly manufactured materials can harbor, not just formaldehyde, but other contaminants, too.

Excessive Formaldehyde in New Flooring

Other major exposure sometimes happens when people put new flooring into a room or part of a home.

When you’re installing new laminate or manufactured wood products, it’s important to look at the VOC rating of the chosen products, to see what levels of formaldehyde and other chemicals are included. Getting a cleaner product will be better for your long-term health, and the health of your family.

Formaldehyde Fumes: New Furniture and Other Consumer Products

Another source of formaldehyde in the air comes from new furniture pieces which can “off-gas” this and other chemicals over time. Newly manufactured sofas, loveseats, etc. will often have a “new furniture smell” that can actually represent chemicals being released into the air. The problem may be worse if the furniture was tightly wrapped in plastic for shipping and only became exposed to the air inside of a home.

In general, many of these new products, not just furniture, but anything from fitness gear to throw pillows, can have elements called VOCs, that get released into the indoor air, as explained in this Treehugger article:

“VOCs are essentially chemical compounds—many of them human-made—with high vapor pressure and low water solubility, so they’re often used as industrial solvents for products like paint, office equipment, building materials, and furnishings,” writes Katherine Gallagher. “The smell could be coming from your upholstery being treated with flame retardants, chemicals to protect the fabric, or the varnish from your wooden furniture. These solvents range from trichloroethylene and fuel oxygenates to chloroform and formaldehyde.”

So part of the problem is that formaldehyde is being used as a solvent in manufacturing. It can also be used as a disinfectant, but due to its health risks and its flammable properties, it’s not common in cleaner products. The main sources are items like furniture and manufactured wood products.

Ways to Mitigate the Effects of Formaldehyde in the Home

How do you keep formaldehyde in the home down to safer levels?

A lot of this kind of planning boils down to a few simple things that promote better airflow and indoor air quality.

Ventilation

Better ventilation means that you’re breathing less of formaldehyde and other scary stuff over time. It’s tempting to have houses sealed up tight for more efficient heating and cooling, but that leads to worse indoor air quality in many cases.

Whether it's fans or other kinds of ventilation, this can be helpful in limiting your exposure to formaldehyde and other chemicals.

Off-Site Off-Gassing

As mentioned, the off-gassing process is where you get exposed to a lot of these harmful chemicals. With that in mind, if you let new products off-gas off-site or somewhere out in the open, they're bringing less of this chemical mixture into your indoor air environment.

Air Purifiers

You can also use a range of modern air purifiers to actually cycle the air and clean it inside your home.

With the right size and power, you're effectively scrubbing your indoor air of harmful items like formaldehyde.

Some models have a better capacity to handle things like formaldehyde.

The Airpura F700 may be a good choice if you also want particulate filtration, otherwise, for VOCs, the F700dlx is good. The Allerair Pro 5 Vocarb HD Model is also a top performer, and the Austin Air Healthmate Plus is another good option.

Don’t let formaldehyde and VOCs impact your health! Take a look and see what you can do to improve air quality in your home.

New data shows wildfires are increasing around the country, and that could be bad for everyone's outdoor and indoor air quality.

Reports from the Associated Press last month show states like Texas and Virginia getting hammered by colossal widlfires, with a total of nearly 3,000 square miles (over 2,600) burned so far this year in the United States.

In other words, we’re on track for major increases from last year.

That’s concerning in and of itself, but there’s also the factor of preparedness: the U.S. Department of Interior has claimed that in general, the federal government is “ready” but those with a close view of the situation call for renewed vigilance. In looking at wildfires in America, reporters cite events like the California Dixie Fire in 2021 that burned over 1,500 square miles of land, and required 2,000 firefighters.

Wildfire Hazards: Wildfires and PM 2.5 in Texas and Elsewhere

Planners are working on staffing, and they're also trying to tackle the catch-up job of better control of wildfires, as we see the numbers continue to climb.

Why is this concerning to people in the affected areas? 

Aside from obvious issues about potential property loss and damage to homes, there's another problem that's getting more attention today as people realize the ambient effects of wildfires.

Specifically, there's something called PM 2.5,  a type of fine particulate matter that has particles less than 2.5 µm – these particles can travel into the human lungs and bloodstream. Some studies suggest that wildfire PM 2.5 can also be more harmful, partly because of secondary compounds that travel in the smoke.

In fact, some very specific trials have been done to figure out whether wildfire problems related to PM 2.5 have been associated with greater mortality rates.

Scientists use something called ‘quasi-Poisson time series models’ for analysis, along with other methodologies – and what they are finding is troubling.

We’re also finding that this type of particulate may contribute to cardiovascular problems and other illnesses over time.

For reference, these particles are smaller than the width of a human hair, and able to infiltrate many different areas of a home or property.

In general, there is a lot that we know about PM 2.5, but a lot more that we don't yet know, and it's becoming a greater concern, especially for people with various conditions like:

• Asthma
• COPD
• Other respiratory issues

However, scientists believe that even those in good health can be adversely impacted!

So how do you keep these types of particles from wreaking havoc on your system?

Well, an air purifier unit cycles all of the air in an indoor space, effectively cleaning it of all sorts of potentially harmful microbes and toxins. It's important to point out that modern HEPA filters have the ability to filter out 2.5 PM.

Along with other kinds of items like pathogens, the HEPA filter is rated to remove these wildfire ultra fines from the air. So if outdoor air is contaminating the indoor air, and trapping particulates in a building, cycling through the filter will effectively remove large quantities of it. That’s very good news for people looking for a practical solution to this problem. It means that in many cases, all you need is a high-end floor-standing unit, properly installed and maintained, to feel a lot better about your air. You can get high quality air purifiers at US Air Purifiers, for an investment in healthy, clean air, because that’s what you breathe every day!

Wildfire Smoke and Air Quality: Solutions

So what do you look for with these effective appliances? Start with a HEPA filter, carbon activation, and intuitive controls. Take a look at air purifier models like the Airpura V600 or V614,, or the V700 with a stronger motor. Another great choice is the Airpura C700DLX - check these out to see modern air purifiers with the kinds of filtration that work against particulates and VOCs that are typically found in wildfires. Some of these models also have other technologies like Carbon Activation of a germicidal lamp, for cleansing even more from what you breathe inside of a home.

If you're in any kind of place that has either primary or secondary impact from wildfire smoke, you may want to look into using these units to protect yourself and your family.

And we've seen that even in places that don't experience heavy wildfire damage, the secondary impact involves massive quantities of smoke moving long distances, even across the country.

Worried about health risks from wildfire particulate? It can be scary to deal with the effects of smoke in your home, and these wildfire events can be really disruptive to your everyday routine. But you can take steps to address the changes to your environment! A good air purifier with a working HEPA filter can help mitigate a lot of these risks. Remember to change the air filter as specified, and perform all other routine maintenance, to get the most out of one of these modern air cleaners.

Last year, Israeli air purifier manufacturer Aura Air declared bankruptcy, limiting availability of the brand's products. As a former retailer of Aura Air products, we at US Air Purifiers are acutely aware of the fact that this disruption affects customers who already purchased or were interested in Aura purifiers. Here's what consumers should know about the Aura Air bankruptcy.

Why Did Aura Air Go Into Bankruptcy?

According to publicly available sources, Aura's bankruptcy was the result of a run-up of debts that the company was unable to service. Aura took on the equivalent of about $13 million in debt, resulting in the company eventually becoming insolvent and filing for bankruptcy in the District Court of Tel Aviv. That debt included around $100,000 owed to the company's employees.

The court granted the company its request to continue operating for a limited time, saying that the circumstances surrounding the bankruptcy were unique and favored continued operations. The alternative, had the court not granted this request from the company, would likely have been a liquidation of Aura Air and its assets to repay the company's creditors.

In part, the bankruptcy is also attributable to a failed deal for Aura Air to be acquired by Molekule, a US air purification company. The acquisition deal valued the company at $8 million that was to be paid in Molekule stock. For reference, the company went public at an initial valuation of around $44 million during the COVID-19 pandemic and at one time had a market capitalization of nearly $60 million.

What Does This Mean for Consumers?

Although the bankruptcy allowed Aura to continue operating, even at an operating loss, for a limited period of time, it has interrupted our ability to carry their air purifiers. Regrettably, it's unclear if or when Aura Air units will become available again. For the time being, consumers interested in smart air purifiers will have to look to other brands leading the field in data-driven air purification technology.

In addition to the unavailability of its products, Aura Air has also suspended the app that allowed users to connect to their air purifiers from their smartphones. Unfortunately, the app is unlikely to come back into use in the near future unless another company makes a deal to acquire Aura.

The good news for those who already own Aura products is that US Air Purifiers still has limited supplies of Aura Air Ray replacement filters available. We'll continue to carry these filters while supplies remain available so that our customers who purchased Aura purifiers can continue to use their current units for as long as possible. As of the time of this writing, we still have 40 filters available to meet the ongoing needs of our customers.

What Are the Best Alternatives for Aura Air?

Fortunately for consumers, there are a number of good alternatives for Aura Air purifiers available on the market. One of these is the Airpura P700, a 2,500-square-foot air purifier that's well suited to both VOCs and microorganisms. The IDEAL Pro AP80 is another good choice that performs an impressive two air changes per hour in spaces of up to 1,600 square feet.

US Air Purifiers is also pleased to be able to offer units from Molekule, the company that at one time was set to acquire Aura. We currently carry three models from Molekule with coverage ranging from 250 to 3,000 square feet and serving a variety of air cleaning needs. To learn more about these air purifiers and view specifications on individual models, visit out Molekule air purifiers product page.

One unit we particularly recommend is the Molekule Pro, a 1,000-square-foot air purifier capable of performing up to 2.5 air changes per hour. This unit is capable of targeting practically any organic pollutant that enters home air with a combination of true HEPA and patented photoelectrochemical oxiation (PECO) stages.

If you have questions about the right air purifier for your needs, please feel free to reach out to us with your questions! We'll be happy to provide you with answers and product recommendations based on your unique needs to ensure you get the right air cleaning solutions for your home, office or other spaces!