Smoke Air Purifier Ratings: Compare Air Purifier Smoke Odor Performance
Smoke odors, whether from cigarettes or cooking can be a nuisance and fortunately air purifiers can help to clear the air so to speak. Smoke particles and odors are a combination of a variety of microscopic gases so if you can see the gases know that you are seeing a high concentration. These gases are so small that filtration technologies such as HEPA air filters or electronic air cleaners are only somewhat effective as most gas particles will simply pass through the filters in the air purifier. A different approach is needed to remove smoke odors from the air and most air purifier manufacturers utilize carbon to adsorb the gases. Carbon is commonly used in water filtration such as aquariums and even for foot odor – think Odor Eaters.
Rather than bore you with information from the periodic table and covalent chemical bond mumbo-gumbo we will cut to what you care about and that is – does this really work? The short answer is yes but a more complete response would be that it works in relation to the amount of carbon and the amount of surface area that is exposed to the smoke gases as they pass through the air purifier. Some air purifiers use a thin layer of filter media that has carbon sprayed onto it while other air purifiers have tiny activated carbon pellets and others have larger activated carbon pellets. In our research we have found the air purifiers with activated carbon to be more effective than the sprayed on carbon filters. The larger activated carbon pellets will last longer than the smaller carbon pellets however they may leave more room for the gases to pass right through and may offer less surface area.
Keep in mind that an air purifier can do a good job in removing smoke from the air, but they will not remove smoke odors from your carpeting, furniture or curtains.
If the humidity is high in the room where you want to remove smoke or odors, the carbon may not be as effective in smoke odor removal and some air purifier manufacturers include a blend of potassium permanganate with the carbon to help attack the smoke odors in this situation.Most Popular Smoke Air Purifiers:
Austin Air Healthmate Air Purifier
IQAir Multi-Gas Air Purifier
We hope to have more scientific results on the performance of the smoke air purifiers in removing smoke, gases and odors from the air in the near future. See how the air purifiers compare to the listing of top rated air purifiers.
Advantages of activated carbon for smoke and odor removal: Activated carbon acts like a sponge to adsorb odors, smoke and certain VOC’s(volatile organic compounds). The use of carbon in an air purifier to address indoor air quality issues such as smoke odor removal has been popular in Asia and is relatively new to the U.S.
The disadvantage of the use of activated carbon in an air purifier is that the adsorption process is reversible meaning at some point in the future it is possible, if not likely that all of those odors that you removed from the air over the past months or years will be released back into the air. For this reason it is important to replace the carbon immediately should this situation occur with your air purifier.