From Himalayan Salt Rocks that attract dust to $10,000 whole house filtration systems, there are hundreds of products on the market that claim to have air purifying capabilities. But having a thousand options is not always what you want.  How are you supposed to begin to narrow down the list? We put this guide together to help you narrow down the choices and make finding the right air purifier a whole lot easier. Step 1: Set your budget Step 2: Know the tradeoffs: What’s the difference between $50 & $500 air purifier? Step 3: Know your concerns Step 4: Only shop the best in your category Best air purifiers under $500 Best air purifiers under $300 Best air purifiers under $200 This one seems obvious. The first step to buying anything is to know what you are able to spend!  While some people will spare no expense to resolve their concerns, most people simply need the best solution available within a certain price range.  Fortunately, no matter what your budget is, there is an air purifier to help you.

It helps to know what you can expect from an air purifier in your price range. Most people would scratch their head if we asked them “What’s the difference between a $50 air purifier and a $500 air purifier?” However, almost everyone can quickly rattle off a dozen ideas when asked “What’s difference between a $5,000 car and a $50,000 car?” The more expensive car is going to: The more you pay, the more you get. So, Compared to $500 air purifier, a lower priced air purifier will Will a cheaper air purifier still work? Absolutely, if you buy it for the right concern. There are a lot of good air purifiers under $200. You just have to know what to look for, and set your expectations appropriately. Just because you can't afford a Ferrari, doesn’t mean you want to walk to work. Although a cheaper air purifier will not have as many features and functions, think of it like you do a car. Just because you can’t afford a $800 commercial grade air purifier, doesn’t mean you won’t get any benefit from the clean air that a $150 one can provide.

About 80% of concerns can be addressed by a low cost air purifier.air purifier smells like wet dog You can find a number of air purifiers for under $200 that will provide some relief from allergies and dust. best lens wipes for glassesBut to effectively remove odors and address asthma irritants, you’ll have to jump up to the $400 range.  eco air purifierTo remove chemicals or germs, you’ll probably be over the $600 range.    This is because these units include additional technologies that just can't be produced effectively for under $200.  These units also have more powerful motors, higher quality filters, and are going to do a much better job at the basic stuff (allergies & dust) than the lower cost units. Concerns Easily Addressed under $200

Addressed by units $200 to $400 Concerns Best Resolved by $600+ Air Purifiers Finally, if you want units with sensors, automatic operation, and intelligent filter life monitoring, many of those features don’t show up in units until they reach about $500. Cheap air purifiers will simply be made more cheaply. Parts fail, pieces break, and warranties are shorter, so you may end up replacing the entire unit sooner than you would a premium model. The bottom line: Low cost air purifiers can effectively remove airborne particles, which cause a majority of allergy and dust concerns. These days it is exceedingly easy to order cheap products from China and put them for sale on the internet. The last thing you want to do is find a no-name upstart brand that claims to solve all your problems and save you money. Odds are, the seller of these products won’t be around in a year when you need replacement filters, or won’t be very helpful if you have to get your unit serviced.

Air Purifiers America only carries highly rated manufacturers with years of established air purifier market presence. So, stick to highly rated units/brands that have been in the market for several years. In addition to steering clear of unfamiliar brands and companies that only sell 1 product, watch out for websites that throw together a top 10 list and claim to be experts in everything. There are a million sites on the web all trying to make a buck selling air purifiers and providing air purifier recommendations.  Anyone with a little time on their hands can skim the web for product information and customer reviews and piece together their own reviews page.  However, most people are lazy, and most websites will not actually spend the time to buy the air purifiers they are reviewing! What does this mean?  This means that they are reviewing the air purifiers based only on information already found online!  How are you going to tell which unit is noisier when every manufacturer describes their product as quiet?

How will you tell how flimsy the plastic is on the unit from the retouched product image? Or how hard to change the filter is if you don’t actually put your hands on the unit? This is why you should only rely on a reviews site that purchases & tests the products they review, as well as provides real customer reviews for you to validate the expert review. Air Purifiers America has been selling air purifiers online for over 10 years. Shop the best air purifiers as determined by the real experts. Austin Air HealthMate Plus JuniorWhole-House Air Purifiers: Efficiency Report Manufacturers say their newest designs of whole-house air purifiers reduce the amount of ozone that’s in the home through the use of carbon filters, which appears plausible. However, you still should be wary about claims of overall effectiveness. Email to a Friend I'd like to share an article I read on Consumers Digest with you... The push for healthier indoor-air quality by Environmental Protection Agency and the green-building movement has fueled the market for whole-house air purifiers in today’s homes.

According to market-research group Freedonia, sales of portable and whole-house air purifiers are expected to rise by 4.8 percent annually to $1.7 billion in 2014. As concerns about the effects of poor indoor-air quality have increased, manufacturers have marketed whole-house air purifiers as capable of doing more than ever before—including helping consumers who suffer from chronic respiratory illnesses, such as allergies and asthma. Although studies indicate that some claims might have merit, other claims are misleading. In 2009, Food and Drug Administration issued cease-and-desist orders to 10 manufacturers that claimed that their whole-house air purifiers could remove the H1N1 flu virus. FDA’s approval of air purifiers extends only to models that are considered commercial-grade and are approved as a medical device in hospitals and laboratories. Such models may make this virus-killing claim, says Sarah Clark-Lynn of FDA. As of press time, no portable or whole-house air purifier that’s marketed to the consumer can treat, prevent or remove the H1N1 virus, Clark-Lynn says.

When it comes to whole-house air purifiers, the biggest change in the past 3 years is the increase in the number of units that include carbon filtration to address ozone. The emission of ozone is a particular problem with whole-house electronic air cleaners, which apply an electric charge to trap irritants on plates of filterlike grids. (The other type of whole-house air purifier—media filter cabinets—moves air through a filter that must be replaced every so often.) Seven manufacturers now have models of both types of whole-house air purifiers that have carbon prefilters and final filters. The use of carbon filters not only removes odors that are left behind from cooking and tobacco smoke, but it also captures ozone (and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs), manufacturers say. The ozone that’s captured isn’t just the ozone that’s produced by electrically charged rods that are in whole-house air purifiers. The latest whole-house air purifier from Lennox, which is called PureAir and was released in 2012, helps to eliminate the ozone that occurs naturally in highly populated areas and collects in a home, says Kevin Lyons of Lennox.

It reduces the ozone that’s produced by electrical motors, cleaning chemicals, home furnishings and automobile emissions in the garage. Lennox says the carbon filters that are in the PureAir reduce ground-level ozone that forms inside of a home by 50 percent. Other manufacturers make similar claims but without a specific reduction figure. A Welcome Environment Read Now Models that have carbon filters start at $239, compared with $130 for similar models that have a only standard mesh filter. Based on our conversations with manufacturers, we believe that increasingly more models will include carbon filters in the next 3 years. No test data confirm the effectiveness of ozone removal by a whole-house air purifier, but Brett Dillon, who owns IBS Advisors, which is an energy-efficiency consulting company, tells us that whole-house air purifiers that are fitted with carbon filters can be effective at clearing ozone and VOCs. However, he points out that the efficiency of carbon filters decreases over time.