Six things to look for when choosing an
AIR PURIFIER
Don't make the wrong choice! Make sure your purifier has these "must-haves."
The Top Six
There are six things you should always look for when choosing an air purifier:
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It should use technology recommended by the CDC and EPA – (especially if you’re a school or business planning to use government funding to purchase the purifiers)
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The filters should last longer than a few months.
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The purifier should not off-gas
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The company should be able to back up any claims
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It should be engineered to create a circular airflow.
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A good air purifier shouldn’t need so many bells and whistles.
1. CDC & EPA
RECOMMENDED TECHNOLOGY
Since the pandemic started there have been numerous air cleaning companies that have popped up around the globe. Many of these companies are offering pretty inexpensive units BUT they use electronic, ionizing, UVGI, PCO, or PeCO technologies… and these are known to produce ozone which is extremely harmful to human health. Ozone can damage the lungs. It can also worsen chronic respiratory diseases like asthma -- AND it can decrease a person’s ability to fight respiratory infections. Not a good thing nowadays.
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What the CDC and EPA recommend is a combination of both HEPA and carbon. And not HEPA-type or HEPA-like filters. But true, medical-grade HEPA and activated carbon – like what’s used in the Austin Air purifiers. Some Austin units also use potassium iodide-impregnated carbon as well as zeolite to capture the broadest range of contaminants.
2. LONG-LASTING
FILTERS
Some air cleaners might seem like they’re relatively inexpensive, BUT they require the filter to be replaced every three or six months. Maybe twelve months if you’re lucky. So that can get really expensive – especially if you’re deploying numerous purifiers throughout a school or office building. Then you have to take into consideration whether you have enough employees on hand to switch those out all the time… and how much you’re going to have to pay those employees. It all adds up.
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Austin Air filters are designed to last up to five years. Five years. That’s a huge difference. That’s because we use more filter material than anyone else in the industry. We use 60 sq ft of HEPA... PLUS up to 15 lbs of activated carbon. No one else even comes close to using that much. That’s why our filters last so much longer.
3. SHOULD NOT
OFF-GAS
What is off-gassing? Off-gassing is when a product releases volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or other harmful chemicals into the air. It’s basically that new car or new furniture smell. That’s an example of off-gassing.
Air purifiers that are painted or made out of plastic can off-gas from those materials, too. And for quite some time (years, even). So you end up with a situation where someone purchases an air purifier to clean the air, but the purifier itself is releasing pollutants into the air while it tries to clean it.
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Austin Air purifiers are constructed from solid steel – not plastic – and they are powder coated, not painted – to ensure there is no off-gassing.
4. SHOULD BE ABLE
TO BACK UP CLAIMS
It’s unfortunate, but the saying is absolutely true – you can’t trust everything you read on the internet. Since the start of the pandemic, there are numerous air cleaning companies popping up around the world – and naturally, they’re all saying they are the best.
So how do you know whom you can trust? Easy… the company that can back up their claims with real data.
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Austin Air outperformed more than 100 other air cleaners in government tests AND we are the only air cleaner company to partner with research organizations to conduct clinical trials on its products. We’ve worked with Johns Hopkins University, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the University of Washington, and others. That means it works. And we can prove it.
5. SHOULD CREATE
CIRCULAR AIRFLOW
A lot of air cleaners out there work the same: they pull air in from one vent and push air out another vent, usually on the top of the unit. The problem with that design is that you’re really only cleaning the air right around the purifier. It creates a sort of mushroom cloud of purified air… but it doesn’t clean the whole room.
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The Austin Air purifiers on the other hand have a unique design where they pull air into all four sides through a 360-degree intake system… then they push the air out of one exit vent… but the exit vent is not on the top. It’s on the side. What this does is create a circular airflow throughout the room so that all of the air in the room is being moved through the purifier and cleaned.
6. NO UNNECESSARY
FEATURES
A lot of advanced features are good to have on cell phones - and maybe cars… but they’re really not necessary on air purifiers. You see these purifiers with blinking lights and timers and sensors… First, that’s just one more thing that can break on a cheaply made – often plastic – machine.
Second, you shouldn’t need a timer to turn the purifier on and off. You should run your air purifier all the time. If you can’t run it all the time, then perhaps there is something wrong with it.
Third, if your air purifier has a sensor to tell you when it’s time to replace the filter, then that means it’s probably going to need to be replaced way too often. (They probably didn’t make a sensor that was only going to go off once every five years.)
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The Austin Air purifiers have one, simple three-speed switch. You literally turn it on, and it keeps running and cleaning the air for years to come.