There are tons of benefits attached to having a reliable air purifier at home; one of them is that they help to eliminate harmful chemicals from indoor air. Apart from that, air purifiers also offer protection against bacteria and viruses. Air purifiers are made of three major components, these include filters, motor/fan, and housing.
Most air purifiers often come with two filters installed. The first one is the pre-filter, which helps to remove larger contaminants of about 50 microns in size. The second one is the main filter, which helps to eliminate smaller particles. However, some air purifiers can always have three or more filters installed.
What filters are in air purifiers? How many filters do air purifiers have? Is a PM 2.5 filter a HEPA filter? Which filter is the “filter 2” on AirDoctor? As you read further through the rest of this article, you’ll find everything you need to know about the burning questions above.
What Filters Are in Air Purifiers?
Before going ahead to address this question, let me start by talking about what air purifiers are and their benefits.
What Exactly Are Air Purifiers
Air purifiers are designed specifically to help sanitize indoor air to eliminate harmful particles, such as dust, pollutants, allergens, and toxins. If you’ve ever used essential oil diffusers before, you can safely say that air purifiers are their exact opposite.
Many people use the terms “air purifiers” and “air filters” interchangeably. Although both of them are closely related, they are two different terms. Air purifiers perform a different function when compared to air filters. For instance, filters are only designed to remove particles from the air. Air purifiers, on the other hand, will remove small and large particles and also sanitize them, too.
There are several different types of air purifiers out there; all of them have their strengths and weaknesses. Some of them are only capable of trapping and eliminating larger particles. However, some of them, such as AirDoctor, are designed to trap and remove ultra-small particles.
That’s not all; some air purifiers are designed to neutralize the harmful particles without necessarily filtering them first. As for others, they mostly trap the particles as air is being forced through their filtering devices.
Benefits of Air Purifiers
With the increasing level of pollution in several countries across the world, including the United States, many people have now shifted to using air purifiers for their indoor air.
Air purifiers offer tons of amazing benefits for their users. For instance, a reliable purifier can help you trap and eliminate a log of harmful substances in your indoor air. Yes, it can help you remove allergens, such as pollen, pet dander, and dust mites, which could cause respiratory issues, especially to allergy sufferers.
Apart from allergens, air purifiers are also capable of eliminating tobacco smoke, mold, and indoor toxins. All these substances are harmful; they could cause several different respiratory issues, such as asthma.
Components of Air Purifiers
All air purifiers are made of three major components; they include the filter, motor (or fan), and housing. Speaking of filters, their major work is to help trap the harmful particles in the indoor air, preventing them from causing respiratory issues to your body system.
As earlier mentioned, there are several different types of air purifiers out there. The type of air filter that you’ll get depends, to a large extent, on the technology used to construct the purifier.
Here’s what I’m trying to say; HEPA (or High-Efficiency Particulate Air) is one of the most common technologies used for the construction of air purifiers. If this is the technology behind your air purifier, then you most certainly have a HEPA filter.
Some other common filter technologies used for the construction of air purifiers are activated carbon technology and UV technology.
Here Are The Common Filters in Air Purifiers
- HEPA filter
The HEPA technology has been in use on air purifiers for many years. The HEPA filters, made of thin fibers of glass, are capable of trapping and removing harmful particles that can’t be seen with the eyes.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), HEPA filters help to remove about 99.97 percent of dust, pollen, debris, mold, and bacteria, with 0.3 microns in size.
- Activated carbon air filter
Activated carbon air filters are created through the activation process. They have many molecular-sized pores, which are known to possess a high absorbent ability, as well as chemical bonding. These special properties contribute to why these filters can remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs), odors, and other harmful pollutants from the indoor air.
- UV-light filters
UV air purifiers are engineered specifically to use short-wave ultraviolet light or UV-C light to trap and eliminate mold, bacteria, and viruses from the indoor air.
Here’s how the purifier works; as air is forced through it, it goes through the UV lamps, which are designed to disinfect the air through germicidal irradiation. Although this process is effective, one of its setbacks is that it could generate ozone.
The bottom line is that air purifiers commonly have three different types of air filters. These are the HEPA filter, activated carbon air filter, and UV-light air filter.
How Many Filters Do Air Purifiers Have?
There are several different types of air purifiers out there. Since that’s the case, it’s hard to say the exact number of filters that come with them. Some air purifiers, especially older models, are usually constructed with a single filter.
However, modern air purifiers often come with one or more filters. So, air purifiers can always have up to 3 or more air filters, depending on their type.
AirDoctor is one of the most commonly used air purifiers today. Apart from being affordable, this product is known to theoretically remove 100% of airborne particles, which are as small as 0.003 microns.
The interesting part of using an AirDoctor air purifier is that the product has three different filters; pre-filter, carbon/gas trap/VOC filter, and UltraHEPA filter. These filters perform different functions; for instance, AirDoctor’s pre-filter device is installed primarily to help protect the other filters and remove large contaminants, such as dust, animal hair.
As for AirDoctor’s carbon/gas trap/VOC Filter; it utilizes potassium permanganate and activated carbon to eliminate toxic substances, as well as odor, gas, and organic compounds in the indoor air.
The third filter installed on AirDoctor’s air purifier is known as the UltraHEPA filter. This filter is 100 times more effective than the regular HEPA filter as it can trap airborne particles, which are as small as 0.003 microns.
The bottom line is that most purifiers out there, especially the older models, only come with one filter device. However, some modern purifiers have up to two or more filters – a good example is the AirDoctor filter, which has up to three filters.
Is a PM 2.5 Filter a HEPA Filter?
Before going ahead to address this question, let me start by talking about what PM 2.5 filter means.
PM 2.5 filter is an acronym that stands for particulate matter, with the size of 2.5 micrometers or smaller. Well, 2.5 microns is just about 3 percent of the diameter of a strand of human hair, which measures about 75 micrometers, depending on the person’s hair.
PM 2.5 particles are very harmful; they could get into your lungs and heart, causing severe health issues, such as aggravated asthma and heart attacks, if care is not taken. To avoid this issue, here’s where the need to have PM 2.5 filter comes into the scene. PM 2.5 filters are devices designed to trap and capture fine aerosols, especially those that are much smaller than 2.5 micrometers.
On the other hand, HEPA filters are designed to remove about 99.97% of harmful particles in the air, which are 0.3 microns in size.
The bottom line is that the HEPA filter and PM 2.5 filters are not the same. They are two different filters that can be used to remove smaller particles of varying sizes.
Which Filter is the “filter 2” on AirDoctor?
AirDoctor, as previously mentioned, is a type of air purifier that combines both UltraHEPA filter and Carbon/Gas Trap/VOC filter, to remove almost all harmful particles in indoor air. One special feature of the product is that it has a three-stage filtration system.
Yes; AirDoctor has three different filters; the first one is the Pre-filter, which is specifically designed to remove larger particles, such as dust. As for the second filter (or filter 2) which you asked about, it’s known as the Carbon/Gas Trap/VOC filter.
This Carbon/Gas Trap/VOC filter make use of potassium permanganate and activated carbon to eliminate odor, gas, and several other organic compounds around your indoor air.
Sources
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.honestbrandreviews.com/reviews/airdoctor-review/amp/
https://molekule.science/activated-carbon-air-filter/
https://molekule.science/how-do-uv-light-air-purifiers-work/