What Air Purifier Companies Don’t Want You To Know
Buying an air purifier can be tricky.
It can be especially hard to compare air purifiers and find the best one since they all sound great.
In many cases the marketing hype can be misleading. A lot of marketing is only focused on convincing you to purchase their product instead of focusing on finding you the right product.
We get it. Air purifiers are appliances and appliances aren’t something most people get too excited over. To overcome this some air purifiers are marketed with key pieces of information missing. In other cases claims are made that are simply not true.
At Oransi, we’re not holding back anything. We think transparency and being honest about products and practices is the best, and only, way to communicate. As asthma and allergy sufferers ourselves we build products for people like us. We want you to have the purifier that is best for your needs regardless of brand. If there is another brand that is better for your issue we will recommend that product.
We will “clear the air” about 6 marketing practices so you can be a more informed shopper.
Common Air Purifier Marketing Tricks
1. CADR is the most important factor in figuring out an air purifier's performance.
This is important as most people we talk with want an air purifier to alleviate allergies, asthma, dust, mold, mildew or smoke. An air purifier has to have a high smoke CADR to be effective. CADR measures both filter efficiency and air flow and accurately measures if a purifier will effectively clean your indoor air. CADR is also an independently sourced statistic meaning it's not the company coming up with the number.
Many companies won't even share a CADR on their product pages. We do not compromise on filter media or on powerful air flow in order to produce quality air purifiers with high CADR stats.
2. It doesn’t matter how many levels of filtration you have, just how much filter media you have and the quality of the filter media.
The number of levels is just marketing hype. Many levels typically implies very small, cheap air filters. It sounds impressive to say 5 levels of air filtration. The problem is when you have 5 levels of air filtration the filters have to be very thin. If you want to remove the tiny particles you need high quality HEPA filter media and strong air flow. You can't get the results you are looking for with a thin filter and weak air flow. It simply can't achieve the needed efficiency.
Another problem with thin filters is they become clogged much more quickly. They have much less filter media. This means you will need to replace them more often.
3. The more filter media the air purifier has, the longer it will last and the better it will perform.
Smaller, cheaper air filters can get clogged very quickly. This will reduce the air flow and mean you are not getting the air cleaning you expect. While the most expensive air purifiers aren't necessarily the best on the market, smaller cheaper air purifiers typically can't get the air cleaning job done.
Tip – make sure the filter is not thin.
4. Additional features aren't always a plus. Additional features including ionizers, PCO (photo-catalytic oxidation), and UV provide a marginal improvement at best and can actually add pollution to your indoor air at worst. And while smart devices might be appealing, they don't add to a purifier's basic functionality of cleaning your indoor air.
We wrote this article that compares HEPA filter media air purifiers vs ionizers. In the article we go into some depth on ozone and what you need to look for.
Marketers exist to sell products. Our goal is to educate and empower everyone so you can confidently make an informed decision.
Deciding on the perfect air purifier for you is difficult and this it's made even more difficult by some marketing in our industry. We hope you found this guide useful in knowing what to look for.
To help you select the best air purifier for your situation we suggest our air purifier price vs comparison page. This chart is compiled of independently sourced information to assist you in making the right purifier choice for you.
