In recent years, many people have started to recognise the importance of air quality. As a result, growing numbers of people have started buying air purifiers for the home.

But do air purifiers work? Do they make enough of a difference to make it worth buying one?

This is your essential guide to air purifiers. We’ll explore how they work, and address some of the common questions a lot of people have about air purifiers.

What Does an Air Purifier Do?

Air purifiers clean the air in a room. Using a series of filters, they can capture airborne particles as small as 0.1 micron. A good air purifier is capable of capturing around 99.97% of all airborne particles in a room.

So an air purifier can effectively rid your room of such potentially harmful particles as:

• Dust
• Pollen
• Mould
• Pet dander

In this way, air purifiers help ensure you breathe cleaner, healthier air in your home. They can help people who suffer from hayfever manage their condition. They can also make life a lot easier for people with asthma, and for people who suffer from pet allergies.

Do Air Purifiers Get Rid of Covid-19?

Air purifiers can capture droplets in the air, preventing them from circulating further. And when bacteria and viruses are trapped, they can no longer reproduce. So a good air purifier doesn’t just trap viruses. It also kills them.

When you sneeze or cough, you can scatter these tiny droplets in the air, and these droplets can contain viruses and bacteria. If anyone else inhales these droplets, they may get infected with these airborne viruses or bacteria. And these droplets can hang around in the air for hours.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, some experts recommended keeping rooms well-ventilated to help remove airborne viruses. Unfortunately it’s not always practical to ventilate a room with an open window. But run an air purifier and you can keep a room ventilated at all times, whatever the weather.

How Long Does It Take for an Air Purifier to Clean a Room?

The Blue 3410 Air Purifier can completely filter the air in a room of up to 36m² every 12.5 minutes. But even the smallest air purifier can completely purify the air in a room up to five times an hour.

For more, read our full guide to how air purifiers work to clean rooms.

Do Air Purifiers Make Your House Smell Better?

Clean air does smell better! As well as removing potentially harmful particles, air purifiers can also remove tobacco smoke and cooking odours from the air. And as they remove pet dander, they can even remove that “dog smell” from the home.

If you want your house to smell better, you could burn candles or use air diffusers. And while these are effective, they only serve to add more particles to the air, which can be bad news for any asthma sufferers in your home. By contrast, an air purifier makes a room smell better through actively removing particles from the air.

Should You Run An Air Purifier All Day?

You can run an air purifier all day if you want to. But there are two potential downsides to doing this. First, air purifiers run on mains electricity. So if you have any concerns about your power usage, then you might not want to run your air purifier all day.

Second, the filters and pre-filters in your air purifier don’t last forever. You can buy replacement filters. But the longer you keep your air purifier running, the more often you’ll have to buy replacements.

Air purifiers work quickly. As we said above, they can completely clean the air in a room in as little as 12.5 minutes. So there’s no need to run your air purifier when you’re not at home. Just turn it on when you get in, and you’ll be breathing clean air again in no time.

Are Air Purifiers Worth It?

Yes! Many studies have shown that air purifiers can significantly help to reduce the levels of harmful particles in the air. If you or your children suffer from asthma or allergies, or if you want to help prevent the spread of airborne viruses and bacteria, or even if you just want your house to smell better, an air purifier can make a huge difference.

If you are considering getting an air purifier for health reasons – whether it’s to help manage asthma or allergies – then just bear in mind that an air purifier won’t remove all particles from a room. Dust, pollen, and pet dander can also linger on furniture and other soft furnishings. But if you combine an air purifier with a regular cleaning schedule, then you should find it easier to manage your conditions in the home.

Find the right air purifier for you, browse our complete range of air purifiers today.