How can I get maximize the benefits of having an air purifier at home or office? That must be a question you ask yourself when shopping for a good air cleaner. Or when you have already spent hundreds of dollars to buy that Coway or Alen BreatheSmart you’ve been saving for.
Air purifiers are very crucial appliances for every home. They help make the air clean, fresh, and breathable. By eliminating pollutants and allergens, they make life bearable for you, your family, and visitors.
However, the best air purifiers are quite expensive. Therefore, you must ensure that you make the most of your priced acquisition. But how can you achieve the best results from your air purifier? Let’s find out below…
How to Make the Most out of Your Air Purifier
Despite raving reviews of a particular air purifier brand or model, you must know how to use it. Otherwise, it can end up being a total waste of money. Here are a few pointers:
1. Correct placement
You can’t buy an air purifier for your bedroom and place it in the living room and expect it to work. Even if it is a powerful unit, it may only do a fraction of the job. Also, if you want to remove cooking smells, you must place the purifier near or inside the kitchen.
So, the best place to put an air purifier is near the source of the pollutants. That is if you are targeting specific airborne particles such as smoke or kitchen odours.
2. Select the correct air purifier for your needs
While most air purifiers eliminate common pollutants effectively, you must ensure that you pick the best option for a particular task. What I mean is that some places experience wildfires, excess traffic pollution, or chemical emissions.
Also, some air purifiers expertly remove allergens like pollen and should be your choice for pollen season. For common airborne particles like dust and pollen, an air purifier with a HEPA filter will work fine. However, if you need to eliminate odours, gases, or VOCs, look for one that has activated carbon.
To make this easy for you, we have reviewed the best air purifiers for each category. For example, we have researched and reviewed the best air purifiers for smoke. These will work for cigarette, wildfire, and cigar smoke.
If you have a newborn or a toddler, you may want a specialized air purifier for nurseries. However, if you don’t have a specific need, any of these best air purifiers for Canadians will work perfectly.
3. Filter type and maintenance
As hinted above, the most important thing to check when buying an air purifier is the type of filter. Most air purifiers have HEPA filters that trap up to 99.97 percent of airborne particles. Others go a step further and have medical-grade True HEPA filters (H13). These remove up to 99.99 percent of pollutants.
The ones that have activated carbon (or activated charcoal) capture very fine particles. So, they are ideal for smoke, odours, gases, and VOCs (volatile organic compounds).
To achieve the best performance from your air purifier, ensure that you clean the filters regularly. However, follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to clean the filters (if at all you are allowed to).
More importantly, ensure that you replace the filters on time. Most manufacturers let you know how long the pre-filter, HEPA filter, or activated carbon filters last. So, you must replace them on time or as soon as you notice reduced performance.
4. Buy an air purifier for each room
No matter how strong you think your air purifier is, it will hardly work for the whole house. So, if you have severe allergies, consider buying an air purifier for each room. However, if this is a tall order, buy one for the bedroom since that’s where you’ll spend close to a third of your life.
You can also consider buying a portable air purifier so that you can easily move it to your preferred location.
5. Close your doors and windows when the air purifier is working
For maximum efficiency, close the windows and doors when running the air purifier. However, open them from time to time for aeration purposes. Whenever you open the windows and doors, turn off the air purifier or use the lowest speed setting.
This way, you can save energy and reduce your power bills.
6. Live in a polluted neighbourhood? Consider leaving the air purifier on full-time
To maximize your air purifier’s performance, leave it running throughout. The best air purifiers are Energy Star rated and should not affect your power bills so much. You can also switch the lowest fan speed after running it at max for some time.
If your neighbourhood is relatively clean, you can turn on the purifier periodically, or when the air is known to be most polluted. A good example is pollen season, whereby you must monitor the pollen forecast and use the air purifier accordingly.
7. Know your air purifier’s air inlet and outlet
To avoid blocking clean air that is released by the air purifier, you must know the location of air inlets and outlets. Most air purifiers release air vertically, so avoid placing objects such as books on top of the unit.
Also, leave enough space between the air purifier, walls, and furniture for the best performance.
8. Clean the air quality sensor
Some air purifiers have sensors that monitor the air quality in real-time and adjust the fan speed accordingly (Auto mode). If the sensor is blocked by dirt or any other object, you may not achieve the best results from your air purifier.
So, locate the sensor and clean it regularly for the best results.
Conclusion
Air purifiers help to eliminate dust, pollen, and other allergy-causing particles from the air. Once you have a good unit at home or in the office, you’ll no longer worry about having allergic reactions or asthma attacks.
Clean air helps us to function properly and enjoy relaxing at home or working hard at the office.
However, even if you have the best air purifier in Canada, you must know how to use it and how to maintain it for the best performance. Once you follow our guidelines on how to get the best results from your air purifier, you’ll be happy with your purchase.
Here are a few tips (YouTube video by Coway Airmega):
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