This is the filter of a small Anko air purifier after 3 - 4 months which was next to the door leading to the garage. It's usually open during the day for the dogs.
Filter
Do Air Purifiers Work? Yes, Depending on Where They Are
WorstAgreeableRadish on 15/04/2025 - 18:22
Last edited 15/04/2025 - 18:23
Last edited 15/04/2025 - 18:23
Comments
That doesn't really prove anything besides 'filters trap dust'. You could have left the purifier sitting outside your house running 24/7, but it's not improving the air quality of your home.
If you want to know whether a purifier works, you need a particle counter in the space you're measuring.
The very rough rule of thumb is that it should output enough air to completely process all the air in the room six times in one hour, which a small Anko would not come anywhere near close to. Unless you're purifying a closet.
I do have a few more non-anko ones in the house.
What this does show me, is that without that purifier where it is, I would have had quite a bit more dust in the house.
That fluff on the outside is not the stuff that is long term hazardous to health nor is it pollen, it's just house dust or bits of dog hair which the cilia in your lungs are perfectly designed to get rid of.
And that's a tiny amount of dust- a quick vacuum will pick up far more. My PC will pick up that much dust on the filters yet I don't regard it to be an air purifier.
Purifiers are next to useless for dust, and that coarse air filter is there simply to protect the (hopefully) HEPA filter underneath it.
The stuff that you should be concerned about is the stuff that you cannot see in that picture.
Do air purifiers work? Yes, depending on where they are
Do air purifiers collect dust? Yes, depending on where they are
FTFOP
I upgraded my PC recently and all the filters were clean, so I guess the purifiers do help in that regard.
If I can dust my furniture half as often, it's a win for me.Dust is what I can verify, the rest of the stuff I can't.
I upgraded my PC recently and all the filters were clean, so I guess the purifiers do help in that regard.
I should have mentioned that my PC filters are one or two steps up from what you show on the outer layer of your filter cartridge. I still don't call my PC an air purifier.
Dust is what I can verify, the rest of the stuff I can't.
Which is why I said in my first post: If you want to know whether a purifier works, you need a particle counter in the space you're measuring.
As it stands, you have zero idea what your purifier is doing besides hoovering up a trivial amount of house dust which has no downsides to your health. And that dust is from your carpet or garage floor, and is likely being kicked up for very short times when you or your dogs walk past- if it wasn't operating, that dust would fall right back down into your carpet. Essentially what you've got going there is a little 24x7 vacuum cleaner.
That doesn't really prove anything besides 'filters trap dust'.
It does, it proves the amount of 'dust' now not in the OP air floating around.
If you want to know whether a purifier works, you need a particle counter in the space you're measuring.
Lots do, and they do reduce the count.
Any recommendations for the best disagreeable radish?
Are these the air purifiers that you can't buy replacement filters for!?
Was going to buy before I read reviews that the filters are often impossible to buy.
next to the door leading to the garage. It's usually open during the day for the dogs.
It would only be capturing a fraction of the airborne dirt that goes past it. The rest of it will drop out onto your floors.
next to the door leading to the garage. It's usually open during the day for the dogs.
If you must have your house open (doors or windows), then you'll get better bang for your buck by having your air purifier in your bedroom running all night and for at least an hour before you go to bed (windows and door closed of course). At least you'll be breathing clean air for one third of your day.
The Anko unit you showed is pretty small though and might not even be able to properly clean the air in a small bedroom (but will still be better than nothing, assuming it has a HEPA filter).
Have a read up about air purifiers here https://www.rtings.com/air-purifier
A DIY Corsi-Rosenthal box is the best performer.I doubt that filter was doing much at all with all that dust on the prefilter. The airflow would have been seriously reduced. My Philips 3000i prompts to vacuum that stuff off the prefilter every few weeks.
90% of that is because of the dogs, you know that!
Anything that pushes air will pick up dust, e.g. a fan, an air conditioner, a dehumidifier. If you put a dehumidifier in the same spot, it will likely pick up as much dust on its filter.
But this is not what an air purifier is for. It's for purifying the air, e.g removing pollen, smoke, VOCs and tiny particles that are bad for your health.
To be effective, an air purifier needs to have a good enough filter and be powerful enough to purify all the air in your house quite quickly, and most don't.
And, to be effective, you need to actually live somewhere that has bad enough air quality to require an air purifier. I don't, but some people might.
Most air purifiers aren't very effective at removing VOCs. You need something with a 'pellet based carbon filter' and ideally zeolite as well because some VOCs aren't filtered out by the carbon… most purifiers don't have either. And then if yours does, you need to replace the carbon/zeolite filter medium with some unknown frequency because it becomes saturated with the VOCs and its hard to tell when that is. Fortunately ventilation (with fresh air from outside) is usually more effective at reducing VOCs in your house (assuming the VOCs aren't coming from outside).
So you leave your door open but want to have purified air? Yeah. Good one.
All that thing is doing is adding to your electricity bill.
You have shown us exactly what those Tv infomercials for vacuum cleaners do. Here's a tub of duat tipped onto the floor. Now this amazing vacuum cleaner sucks it up in one pass. Brilliant.
If you truly want to purify your air, seal up the house and run something that will exchange the volume of the room in a reasonable timeframe (determined by science)
Thanks for sharing.