For a lot of folks, air pollution is synonymous with belching smokestacks and smog-filled skies. But pollutants found right under your roof, including mold spores, dust mites, and even carbon monoxide, are often the bigger problen. Consumer Reports' latest tests of more than 40 air purifiers yielded a handful of winners that could help clear the air. Before you make the investment, follow our advice for improving indoor air quality through enhanced ventilation, better moisture management, and the control of source contaminants in your home. If, after all that, you or others in your home are still suffering from allergies, asthma, headaches, or the like, look for an air purifier that excelled in our tough tests, in which we fill a room with smoke and dust and let the machines prove their cleaning power. If your home has a forced-air heating or cooling system, consider a whole-house purifier, which is a basically a super filter that replaces the standard filter inside your furnace.

Installing a 1-inch-thick filter, such as the $20 3M Filtrete 1900 MPR, can be an easy, inexpensive do-it-yourself project. Thicker purifiers, including the top-rated Lennox Healthy Climate CarbonClean 16, $100, require professional installation, adding a couple hundred bucks to their initial cost. Portable room air purifiers, which typically weigh between 10 and 20 pounds, are designed to clean a single area of your home. Larger models, including our top-scoring Honeywell HPA300, $250, tend to capture the most airborne particulates in our tests at both high and low speeds because of the increased surface area of their filters.active air purifier As you sift through our air purifier Ratings, remember that you'll have to routinely replace the filter on your air purifier. clean air motorcycle corporationThis expense is reflected in our annual cost and could be the difference of $100 or more in your pocket each year.how to use delphin vacuum as air purifier

—Daniel DiClerico (@dandiclerico on Twitter)(Oct. 22, 2014) - Air cleaners make claims like “capture 99 percent of allergens and irritants,” “remove allergens like dust, pet dander and pollen,” healthier, fresher air.” Consumer Reports tested 26 portable air cleaners to see how well they work. Testers pump contaminants into a controlled chamber, dust, as well as smoke. Some of the models tested were slow and to removed the contaminants and not terribly effective. The three poorest performers: Hamilton Beach TrueAir 0483, Hoover model WH10600 and Holmes HAP1200-U. Consumer Reports says also stay away from electrostatic purifiers because they can emit ozone, which can aggravate allergies and asthma. And be aware, even the best air cleaner isn’t going to be enough if you’re not very proactive about removing contaminants like vacuuming, dusting, making sure the rooms are adequately ventilated. Those things are actually much more important than just using an air cleaner.

If you still want an air purifier, Consumer Reports says opt for one that uses filters to clean the air. Consumer Reports recommends the Honeywell HPA300for $250. It’s relatively quiet and excels at removing dust, pollen and smoke. Consumer Reports also tested whole-house filters for homes heated and cooled with forced-air. They replace the standard filter in a forced air system. The 3M Filtrete 1550 for about $30 is very good at removing dust and smoke and is one of the least expensive tested. Like many whole-house filters it will need to be installed by a professional. Complete Ratings and recommendations on all kinds of products, including appliances, cars & trucks, and electronic gear, are available on Consumer Reports’ website. Some air purifiers create ozone, which can be harmful. Most air purifiers cannot remove many common allergens, including pet dander. Air purifiers can help remove mold spores from a home. True HEPA filters are effective in cleaning the air inside laboratories.

This Day in History Learn something new every day Top 10 unbelievable historical concurrencies Adorable animal families that will make you "aww" These 10 animal facts will amaze you Top 10 amazing movie makeup transformations Top 10 facts about the world You won't believe these 10 facts about people These 10 facts about space will blow your mind 10 most extreme places on Earth 10 hilariously insightful foreign words Can you see through these real-life optical illusions? The good news is that most air purifiers do purify the air. The bad news is most people derive little to no benefit from their use. Using air purifiers as part of a multi-pronged attack against allergens or pollution seems to be the best route to take, but the effectiveness of air purifiers alone is considered by consumer advocates to be negligible. Considering the average price of high-end air purifiers offered through specialty outlets such as Sharper Image or Brookstone, other less-expensive air treatments should most likely be considered first.

Air purifiers work in a number of ways, but quite commonly the purification mechanism is an electrostatic charge on metal plates. The entire unit is placed in a inconspicuous location and air naturally circulates through it. As the air passes over the charged plates, any dust or spores or other floating debris should be captured by the electrostatic charge, much like salt crystals being attracted to a statically-charged comb. The air coming out of passive air purifiers should be much cleaner than the air going into the unit. The problem with passive electrostatic air purifiers is that many common allergens do not float in the air because they are too heavy. These allergens and germs remain on the ground or other surfaces and rarely if ever reach the electrostatic plates of air purifiers. Air purifiers also take allergens and harmful germs out of the air, but then cause them to fall onto carpets, furniture and clothing. The plates themselves must be removed periodically for cleaning, which could expose the user to more allergens and bacteria.

Air purifiers containing motorized fans do offer some advantages over passive models. More air can be treated if it is drawn into the unit mechanically. Air purifiers can also keep the air circulating, which keeps dust and allergens from landing on other surfaces. If a person required more purified air due to a health condition, air purifiers with special HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Arrestor) filters could work well in conjunction with other air filtration systems. One of the major problems associated with air purifiers is the production of a heavy oxygen gas known as ozone. Ozone in the atmosphere serves as a protective layer against harmful solar radiation, but concentrated ozone in a confined space can cause a number of serious health problems. Many air purifiers using electrically-charged plates do generate ozone as part of their process. The health benefits of purified air may not be enough to overcome the potentially harmful effects of ozone-producing air purifiers.

Consumers should look for HEPA filtration, low ozone production and some form of air circulation when shopping for air purifiers. The passive electrostatic air purifiers may offer some piece of mind, but very little actual health benefit. You might also Like Air purifiers may also be used in industry to remove impurities such as CO2 from air before processing. Indoor air is often more harmful than outdoor air,usually two to five times serious than outdoor, sometimes up to 100 times, because of various contaminants such as smoke, formaldehyde，benzene, etc. and other allergens. In order to solve this problem, people invented the air purifier. These devices help to remove harmful substances, improving indoor air pollution, the hazards of secondhand smoke effectively. Indoor air quality can be greatly improved by using a good indoor air purifier. The invention enables those people who suffer from allergies, asthma and other respiratory diseases have benefited much . Depending on the specifications indicated, some air purifier can remove pollen, dust, smoke, pet dander and other substances.

Some are able to reduce or remove include odors, viruses Some electrostatic filters also include an ozone filter to take care of any ozone produced by the high voltage in the collection plate area. I know this because the Oreck Truman cell electrostatic filter units that I bought have the carbon honeycomb in behind the collection cell that is an ozone filter. I did research on air purifiers in Consumer Reports before deciding on the best one that would fit my budget. I think one of the most important things when it comes to an air purifier doing a good job is the filters you use. You can't just plug in an air purifier, never touch it and expect it to do you any good. You need to change the filters and make sure they are cleaned on a regular basis. We have two dogs in our house all the time and I think an air purifier helps keep the dog smell out of the air. I used to run an air purifier in my home all the time. I have had everything from expensive to cheap models and didn't really notice much of a different with any of them.

I haven't used an air purifier for quite awhile now and have not noticed any difference in my health. If you want to buy an air purifier I would recommend starting out with an inexpensive one to see if it does you any good before investing in one that is more expensive. Some of them are also noisier than others, so if you want something that is quiet that is something you will want to check into before you bring it home as well. I have thought about getting an air purifier just so I am breathing cleaner air in my home. After reading this article I wonder if it would even be worth it and might I be making it worse? I have a small diffuser that I use with water and essential oils. This also helps purify the air, but covers such a small area and I was looking for something that would cover a larger area. I have an air purifier with no filter, and for the first few weeks, it did wonders for the air in my room. I could breathe easier at night without sneezing or becoming congested.

The purifier was quiet, because I kept the fan speed on low. It seemed to be the most wonderful solution to my allergy problems. However, after about four weeks, it started making weird noises. I cleaned it out, but the popping and whizzing continued. I still have no idea what caused this. I cleaned it more than once, just to make sure it wasn't something that this could remedy. However, I had to finally give it up, because the noise was annoying and I feared it might catch fire in the night. @feasting – First, I would like to say that for me, air purifiers do work well. I don't have asthma, though, and my allergies are mild. There are a couple of other things that you can do, since you cannot tolerate the ozone. Make sure that your air filter on your HVAC unit is kept clean. Change it or at least check it once a month. Also, vacuum and dust your house once a week. There is so much dust that accumulates in just a week on my furniture that any asthmatic guests would be horribly bothered if I didn't dust often.

@StarJo – Ozone put out by a one room air purifier can cause respiratory problems. It could be anything from light irritation to trouble breathing, coughing, and asthma. It's pretty bad that something which is supposed to help you breathe easier can actually cause an asthma attack. Does anyone know what some good alternatives to air purifiers are? I have allergies and am prone to asthma, so I need help with this. So, home air purifiers can actually be bad for you? What are some of the side effects of the ozone they produce? My air purifier is just using a HEPA filter, and no electrostatic. But it seems to work well, it can remove smells from the air. The only negative is you'd need to move it room by room to clean all of the air in the house. We use an air purifier in the "man cave" of our home. It is the only room where people are permitted to smoke. While the purifier does not completely eliminate the smoky smell, it does seem to clean the room out a bit and keep it from looking murky.