How Do Air Purifiers Work?

You’ve heard people talking about air purifiers and how they can help improve indoor air quality.  But how do they actually work?

It’s certainly a question that thousands of people ask, so in this article, we ‘ll dive in and explore how the best air purifiers, (in our opinion) work to filter out the nasty stuff in the air.

The principle of how an air purifier works is actually surprisingly simple.  Yes, it’s true that there are lots of options out there: ionisers (with no filters), U/V light, electrostatic etc etc.  But the truth is that the tried, trusted and proven air purifiers simply use a powerful fan to pull air through a filter and recirculate the clean air back into the room. 

It’s also true that you can literally clip any kind of air filter to the back of a standard fan and you will be, to some extent, purifying and filtering the air that you breathe.  There’s lots of DIY videos on youtube that you can look at if this is something you would want to try out.

So that’s the raw essence of how an air purifier works…..  It sounds simple and it is in principle – but a decent air purifier refines this quite a lot.

So is an air purifier a glorified fan?

In short no.  Zonitise air purifiers use very powerful dual motor fans that are sat behind 3 layers of sealed filtration.  Firstly there is a pre-filter, then there is a carbon filter, and then there is a HEPA filter.  So the air purifier fans pull the air through the filters and into the machine, and then the purified air is emitted out of the top.

The pre-filter is to trap the course particles/dust/hairs, the carbon filters help trap the airborne particles that cause odours, and the HEPA filter (learn more about them here) traps the fine particulate matter, viruses, bacteria, and mould spores.  Often a considerable amount of the cost in an air purifier is the size and level of filtration media you have in front of the fans.  Here at Zonitise, it is our strong recommendation that you ensure that filters are True HEPA 13 or 14 level – this will ensure that you are purifying the air to the safest levels.

Then it is important that you have a fully sealed unit so that all that air that is drawn in by the fan has to go through the filter.  All Zonitise air purifiers have a live air quality monitor inbuilt into the machine to display the live air quality at any point. 

The fans have an automatic sensor which allows them to increase their speed in accordance with the air quality being recorded on the monitor.  There is a sleep function which allows the air purifier to function, at a very quiet sound, and the option to connect up to Wifi so you can turn on your air purifier from anywhere and see what the air quality is.

Ensuring that your air purifiers fan and air flow is large enough for the room is also vitally important.  You don’t want to be purifying the air in a space any less than 4 times per hour ideally as that’s all part of how an air purifier works.  Check the volume of air that your fan can deal with per hour, and ensure it corresponds well to the room where you are going to run the purifier.  You can find out more about that here.

What about the other types of purifiers?  U/V and Ionisers?

We actually have a couple of machines with UV.  The purpose of the UV is only to kill any viruses or bacteria particles that are trapped in the HEPA filter.   It doesn’t have any purifying effect on the air as it passes.  The reality is that viruses and bacteria are generally caught deep inside an antimicrobial filter are generally dead or harmless after 3 or 4 days, so the likelihood of coming in contact with them when you replace a filter is statistically very low.  However, some people do feel that having this additional function can give them peace of mind that everything caught by the filter is also being killed by the UV light.

Ionisers and Ozone generating purifiers are not recommended by Zonitise.  You can find out more about the different types of air purifiers on our Learning centre.

Interested in finding out more about Zonitise Air Purifiers?

Feel free to continue browsing our Learning centre, or book a chat with one of our advisors.