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Air quality is a concern that many have. Smoke and pets are infamous for causing odors that linger and generally contaminating the air. Additionally, depending on the time of the year, molds and pollen can greatly impair your breathing, making it difficult to get a good night’s sleep. Air purifiers can be a blessing for those who are sensitive to pet dander, mold, pollen, or smoke. Finding the right one can be a chore though.
We have looked at some of the most popular models currently available to determine which ones work best for smoke and pet allergies. Eliminating pet dander and smoke can greatly help those with asthma or others who are affected by these particulates. We found that the Rabbit Air MinusA2 was the best all-around air purifier due to its strong performance, durable construction, and adaptability to a variety of situations. For those on a strict budget, the Winix 5500-2 may be just what you’re looking for. It offers good air cleaning quality, handy convenience features, and a washable filter, all at a very affordable price. Read below to learn more about the best air purifiers for pet allergies, smoke, and to help those with asthma.
Rabbit Air MinusA2 |
Winix 5500-2 |
Alen BreatheSmart |
Molekule Air | |
| Honors | Best in Class | Best Value | ||
| The Good | Strong and durable with 6 stages of cleaning. Built out of the best materials. Very quiet. Can be mounted on wall or freestanding. | Highly affordable and strong performance for budget model. Washable filter saves on replacements. Simple and straightforward. | Sleek and beautiful design. Cleans the air exceptionally well. Easy to use without many headaches. Lightweight and portable with minimal effort. | Best at cleaning smoke of all reviewed models. Simple design makes it flexible enough to fit into any room. Cleans a large area. |
| The Bad | Not much wrong. Settings could be set to default if power goes out. | Tiny amounts of ozone are created. Small coverage area. Not suitable for large rooms. | Missing smart sensor air quality detection. Vital feature that should be included. Higher speeds cause a low humming noise that could be disruptive for some. | Costly. Some QA problems reported by buyers. Can be noisy at times. |
| Overall | The best air purifier we found for smoke and allergens. Works well in all facets with very few drawbacks. | Good buy if you are on a budget. Doesn’t perform as well as the more feature-rich models but does good nonetheless. | Performs very well and is one of the best-looking air purifiers around. Smart sensors would be a huge benefit and propel this to the top. | Very high dollar unit that performs well for smoke, but not as well in other areas. Too many problems for such an expensive unit. |
| Our Rating | 8.9 | 7.9 | 8.5 | 7.2 |
| Check Price | Check Price | Check Price | Check Price |
The MinusA2 SPA-780N is a quality product that heads the class in most categories in purifying the air of pet dander, smoke, or other contaminants. This HEPA air purifier traps air contaminants like dust, pollen, pet dander, mold, odors, and many others. It cleanses the air using an advanced 6-stage process. Besides purifying, it also deodorizes the air, making living spaces of up to 815 sq.ft./ 75sq.m fresh 24-7.
The 6 stages begin with a pre-filter that collects large-sized particles. These include dust and common allergens. The medium filter traps smaller sized particles, but larger than a micron in size. These include pet dander, mold, and pollen. The third stage has a BioGS HEPA filter. This stage eliminates pollutants that are 0.3 microns in size, which further cleanses the air of common allergens.
The fourth stage involves a customized filter. Depending on the targeted use, one could opt for a toxin absorber, odor remover, germ defense, and many others. The fifth is the charcoal-based activated carbon filter that absorbs common household odors, chemicals, smoke, and harmful gases from paints, cleaners, detergents, and so on. The final stage involves negative ions generation. When they are released into the air, they tend to be healthy to the body and enhance indoor freshness.
The process summarizes the efficiency of this system in eliminating all kinds of air contaminants and odors. Additionally, the air purifier has a user-friendly interface and can be connected to devices via WiFi using a RabbitAir application. It is also compatible with Alexa, making it quite convenient and easy to use. Moreover, the device is extremely quiet and comes in a stylish rectangular body, available in black and white options.
It is a great option for large living spaces and can either be wall-mounted or placed as a stand-alone device. The only disadvantage would be the production of Ozone, though the levels still fall well below the recommended levels by the California Air Resources Board.
The Winix 5500-2 air purifier with True HEPA utilizes a filtration process that is 3-stages. It starts with a washable AOC carbon filter to remove household odors. It features a True HEPA filter which can capture 99.97 percent of all airborne pollutants as small as 0.3 microns. Lastly, it features PlasmaWave technology which effectively neutralizes bacteria, VOCs, gases, and more without emitting harmful ozone.
This model is capable of filtering rooms up to 360 square feet. Therefore, it would be a suitable option for small to medium rooms. It makes for the perfect option for the kitchen or even a bedroom. It offers 4 fan speeds which means you can go from near-silent operation to turbo to get maximum performance. Because the Winix 5500-2 features built-in smart sensors, it is capable of automatically adjusting fan speed to ensure that it is operating optimally at all times.
The unit comes with an easy-to-use remote control for remote function. It also has good quality-of-life features including a filter replacement indicator which ensures you are always alerted to when your filter needs to be replaced. The LED will illuminate when your filter needs a replacement. It even has a sleep mode function that can automatically sense the amount of light in the room if the unit is placed in the bedroom. This will ensure that the fan auto-adjusts to provide quieter performance to minimize sleep disturbance.
The Winix 5500-2 can deliver excellent performance for the money. It is capable of filtering pollen, dust, smoke, bacteria, mold spores, VOCs, and even pet dander. Because of this, it is a good option to consider for any small or medium-sized room even if you have pets. Its filtration performance and quality of life features make it an easy to operate air purifier that is versatile enough to offer performance for various situations. While it can’t compete with some of the more feature-rich models, it is the best of the budget air purifiers to remove pet odor, smoke, and allergens.
The Alen BreatheSmart Air Purifier features a stylish aesthetic with a slim profile that can fit in any modern decor. You can tell the design was thoughtfully curated to fit any aesthetic because you can choose from various designer panels including oak, rosewood, and more which helps you personalize the appearance.
The unit is extremely easy to use with a touch panel that is simple to navigate the settings. It features a pink noise frequency which means it can assist in your sleeping rather than contribute to worsening your sleep like some of the other louder purifiers. This makes it perfect for the bedroom.
More importantly, the BreathSmart Flex Air Purifier features powerful performance for any medium-size to large room. Packed within it is a high capacity HEPA layer which is capable of capture as much as 99.97 percent of airborne particles down to 0.3 microns. The filter can remove everything from dust to mold to pet odors and even smoke. The large model is capable of cleaning 700 square feet every 30 minutes which is extremely fast in relation to the rest of the marketplace.
Whenever you are looking at buying a purifier like this, you are likely going to want to find one that is energy efficient enough to run it around the clock. This purifier is very energy efficient only requiring 50 Watts when at max “Turbo” speed. Whereas, the lowest setting will only cost 50 cents per month.
The Alen BreatheSmart Flex Air Purifier is a great option if you are looking to get rid of pet allergens, household chemicals, pollen, bacteria, mold, and even smoke odor. It merges excellent performance with a stylish and portable design/form factor making it a value-packed addition to any medium-sized or large room.
The value of squeaky-clean homes cannot be underestimated, including the quality of the air. The Molekule Air Purifier is one of the more expensive models we looked at to see how it measures up to the other top models. This air purifier uses advanced Photo-Electrochemical Oxidation technology to eliminate air pollutants like mold, bacteria, viruses, VOCs, and allergens.
The technology oxidizes organisms and other organic chemicals in the air using a nanoparticle coated filter, destroying them completely. It is efficient for use in large rooms up to 600 sq.ft/ 55 sq.m. This makes the purifier ideal for social rooms like lounges, family rooms, living rooms, and even large master bedrooms. It uses a touch-screen display control, which can be linked to android and iOS devices. This feature makes the device user-friendly and convenient to use. Additionally, it does not emit ozone but gets rid of it, making breathable air devoid of harmful microbes and gases.
The purifier is also portable, which makes it flexible and adaptable for almost any situation. Quickly moving it between rooms is a simple exercise. Made of machined aluminum, the Molekule Air purifier is sleek and versatile. It fits seamlessly into the interior design of any room, regardless of the color scheme therein.
The PECO filter used in air purification lasts for an average period of 6 months for average use, while the pre-filter will generally need replacement after every 3 months. The good news is that the package comes with 2 pre-filters and 1 PECO-filter, and additionally, automatic filters are available for delivery by the manufacturer. This is one of the best looking and feature rich air purifiers currently available. Unfortunately, other models outperform its ability to clean particles out of the air for less money. That doesn’t mean it is a bad purifier by any means. It just means that better deals are available for similar or better performance.
The air within your home can be every bit as polluted as the air outside. Because most of us spend more time indoors than out, considering the quality of our interior atmosphere is a good way to protect our health and avoid respiratory problems.
An indoor air purifier can create cleaner, healthier air for homes, offices, coffee shops, medical offices and more. If you are considering improving the interior environment of your location with an air purifier, there are some things you should know about these devices.
In the following article, we will cover all the things you need to know to choose the right air purifier for you.
Choosing the Right Type of Air PurifiersThere are many different types of air purifiers available and each will serve a very specific purpose. Some of these will function better in your environment than others and some may even be a bad idea for your specific situation. Here is what you need to know:
These air purifiers feature pleated filters and fans to pull air from the environment and remove airborne particles of up to 0.3 microns in diameter. A top-of-the-line mechanical air purifier will be able to remove as such as 99.97% of airborne pollutants including smoke, paint fumes, etc. Some of these also feature HEPA filtration which can remove dust and larger particles from the air. Be careful of those filtration systems that say “HEPA-like” or “HEPA-type” filters. These can’t be expected to provide the same results as a true HEPA filter.
These do have certain limitations, however. They are costly to maintain and can’t eliminate gases or certain odors. They may also cost as much as $200 but a decent option may only cost about $80.
Unlike the mechanical type filters, activated carbon filters can capture odor-carrying molecules right out of the air with their charged carbon filters. While they may not be a suitable option for treating formaldehyde or ammonia, they can remove certain gases from the air as well. Activated charcoal filters are not effective against airborne particles, which is why many of these will also be equipped with a pleated filter.
It is important to note that the activated charcoal filter will need to be replaced more frequently — 3-4 months — than the pleated filter — 6-12 months. So, you will need to plan accordingly. An average activated carbon filter will typically cost about $50.
Ozone generatorsThese filtration systems produce ozone. Ozone is a chemical that is released into the atmosphere to react with certain compounds and change their chemical composition. While this is effective against certain pollutants, some experts agree that these are not suitable for indoor use. This is because the levels of ozone needed to improve the air quality indoors will exceed what could be considered healthy.
Electrostatic precipitators and ionizers will provide a charge to the particles in the air so that they stick to electronic plates. Much like the ozone air purifiers, there is not much evidence that these are actually effective for improving indoor air quality. As a matter of fact, you would do just as well to use an indoor water fountain.
Some manufactures of air filtration systems claim that a UV lamp is the best thing for killing mold spores, viruses, bacteria and other airborne pathogens. While mycotoxins, the harmful toxins produced by mold colonies, can be controlled with UV light, many spores and bacteria have been found resistant to UV radiation. As a component of a larger air purification system, UV filtration may be a good idea; especially in regions with considerable humidity. But as a stand-alone option, it may not be very effective.
Now that you know a little more about the filtration and purification systems on the market, here are some of the questions you should ask yourself when choosing the right option for your home.
1. Why Do I Need An Air Purifier?
Air purifiers are a good way to keep the air quality at a healthy level. Here is a simple guide for choosing the right option for your home or office.
Allergies — if you are suffering from allergies, you will need an air purifier designed to remove allergens from the air. The best sort will feature a HEPA filtration system
Asthma — asthmatic reactions can be triggered by gases, odors, and chemical pollutants, The best option here would be the activated charcoal option to remove these pollutants. The addition of a HEPA filtration system will ensure that pollen and other particulate matter is removed as well.
Smoke — there are air purifiers with HEPA filters specifically designed for removing smoke from the environment. These are fitted with HEPA H13 filtration systems which can remove considerably small particulate matter, even smoke and certain fumes. Whereas the HEPA H11 can remove particles as small as 0.3 microns, the HEPA H13 can remove particles as small as 0.1 microns.
Pets — homes with pets will need a specially designed filtration system that will pull pet dander and certain odors from the air as well. These special filtration systems will use a combination of purification and filtration systems to accomplish this task. Typically, activated charcoal supported by a HEPA 13 filter is more than adequate.
2. What Size Air Purifier Do I Need?
You will need to measure the area of your room before choosing your filtration system. This way you will be sure that the device you have selected will effectively purify the entire space. Look for the ACH (Air Charge per Hour) rating. This indicates the number of times the filter will filter all the air in the room in one hour.
3. What Features Do I Need on My Air Purifier?
Some of the extra features that will improve the functionality of your air purification system include:
Energy Star Rating — The EPA issues Energy Star ratings to those air filters that use less energy. This can save you money as well
Connectivity — some air filtration systems can be activated and interfaced through your mobile device. This makes things terribly convenient.
Air Quality — these indicators will provide you with a status report in real-time, this way you can know exactly how your purification system is working.
Other — other useful features include fan speeds, handles, remote controls, and filter change indicators.
