How does an air purifier work?

Air purifiers are everyday home products that can be found easily on the market. They are devised to help the users purify the air that circulates indoors. They help in cleaning the air, and they make breathing much more offhand. However, it might seem like a complex theory of how their design can carry such a task out.

The question might be; ‘how do air purifiers work?’ or ‘are air purifiers worth it?’ This article will answer these questions and provide quality information on how air purifiers work.

What does an air purifier do?

Before you can understand the operation mechanism of an air purifier, it is necessary to know what they do entirely. Air purifiers are appliances that help clean the air that circulates in a room. They remove contaminants, pollen, dust, and other harmful particles in the air that make us sneeze and sniffle. They get rid of irritants that are not visible to the bare eyes. And indeed, these irritants are in the air even if they can’t be seen.

To be able to breathe fresher air, this appliance is an excellent solution. They will become a crucial part of household living as the rate of air deterioration increases.

Meanwhile, we might need insight into how they work to understand their importance and maintenance requirements fully.

What are the types of air purifiers?

Sometimes, air purifiers are fitted in ventilation systems. Other times, they are standalone appliances that can be installed on its own. These are the two types of air purifiers. They both have different means of operation.

Standalone air purifiers are only installed to eliminate the pollutants in the air that circulates in the specific room they are installed. They do not do the whole house air purification. This means that if they are installed in the bedroom, they will operate primarily in that room.

However, air purifiers installed in ventilation systems can filter the whole air that gets into the entire living space. This makes them more challenging to handle. In addition to that information, the type of contaminant the air purifier will filter will depend on the kind of filter it runs with.

But before analyzing how the air purifiers work, let’s take a look at the important parts of a typical air purifier.

What are the parts of an air purifier?

Knowing the main parts of an air purifier makes it easier to understand the way they work. An air purifier is majorly made up of two components: the fan and the filter.

The fan
The fan does the job of pulling indoor air into the inner compartments of the purifier. It also releases the air that has been purified back into the room. This means that the fan draws in air for purification and circulates the filtered air. The fan is usually situated on the front of every air cleaner.

The filter

This makes up the essential part of the air purifier. After the fan has drawn in the air to be purified, the filter must remove or extract the irritants and contaminants, including dust particles, bacteria, viruses, allergens, pollen, smoke, and pet fur. This means it has to be super-efficient to carry this out.

Nonetheless, different configurations of air purifiers have other filters that work in specialized ways. So, the way one filter will remove these contaminants will differ from the filter of another cleaner.

How does an air purifier work?

I’m sure from the parts of the air purifier mentioned, it provides the sparsest idea of how an air purifier works. Here is a more detailed insight into this;

• The first step in cleaning the air is straightforward. The fan sucks air from the room into the inner compartment of the air cleaner. In some other designs of air purifiers, the air could flow naturally into the internal chamber without the aid of the fan.
• Once the air finds its way into the inner compartment, it will pass through a series and links of filters, first removing bigger elements like dust or pet hair, finally removing the smaller particles like allergens, bacteria and viruses.
• After that, clean air will be released back into the room with the help of the fan. This happens in a series of cycles, and it continues to keep the air in the room fresh and clean.

Different types of air filters

Filters are an essential part of an air purifier. The efficiency of the air filter of the cleanser will determine how fine the filtered air will be. This means, the more advanced the filter, the cleaner the air.

This brings us to find out the various types of filters for air purifiers. There are many types, and they all have different ways of cleaning the air. The most common types of air purifiers are:

HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) Filter

HEPA filters are highly effective in capturing 99,97% of fine particles that are 0.1 microns and smaller. The HEPA filter’s microscopic fibre maze consists of interlaced glass fibres that are twisted and turned. The small size particles are caught by the diffusion principle when floating through HEPA filters. By hitting and sticking to the sides of fibres, these particles are trapped and therefore not harmful anymore.

UV light filters

UV light air purifiers use UV light to get rid of bacteria, viruses, and contaminants from the air. It handles this by concentrating intense UV light on the viruses and bacteria gathered on the filters. They break up their DNA, and the viruses can no longer function.

Carbon (activated) filters

Carbon filters are only responsible for the gaseous contaminants of air. Unlike other filters that can collect tiny solid particles from the air, carbon filters can eliminate smoke and other harmful gases in the air.

When carbon is passed through very concentrated oxygen, it becomes activated carbon. Activated carbon filters are effective in filtering gaseous contaminants. Once the air is sucked into the inner compartment, passed through the filter, the gasses are absorbed and bond to the open-pored carbon surface.

Ionizing filters

Ionizing filters make use of an electrically charged ion to get rid of pollutants trapped in the air. It could eliminate contaminants by sending negatively charged ions that bond to contaminants and get rid of them or by sucking the air into the compartments and collecting the pollutant in charged metal rods.

If you tend to be responsive to dust particles, pet dander, smoke, or allergens in the air, don’t hesitate to get an air purifier. After considering how it works, reasonable attempt to maintain the device is essential. No matter the design or type, regular maintenance is important to ensure that it works properly and remain efficient.

To find out more about our air purifiers, you can visit our online shop.