Air filtration – what size particles can your air purifier actually filter?

Air purifiers are a great appliance in the home – during the hayfever season air filtration is for many people the only thing that stands between a runny nose, sneezing, itchy eyes, and a normal life. But often it is not clear what air filtration actually is required to achieve the desired effect.

You see, air can be filtered for different reasons, some people only want to remove pollen and other larger airborne particles, whilst others want to get rid of viruses and other germs.

Key to this whole filtration issue are the size of the actual particles themselves, so here is a summary, sizes are in micron (one millionth of a meter):

• Viruses 0.003 - 0.05
• Tobacco smoke 0.01 - 1
• Cooking smoke 0.02 - 1
• Combustion gases 0.02 - 1
• Bacteria 0.35 - 10 (99% of bacteria are larger than 1 micron)
• Skin flakes 0.4 - 10
• Pet dander 0.5 - 100
• Dust mite debris 0.5 - 50
• Household dust 0.5 - 100
• Mold 2 - 20
• Coal dust 2 - 100
• Pollen 5 - 100
• Plant spores 6 - 100
• Lint 10 - 100
• Human hair 70 - 100

So there you go, with this list in hand you can better evaluate the various air purifying systems on the market. Best of luck!

For more information on related products, please choose from the following:

HEPA Air Cleaners |Electrical / Ionic Air Purifiers | Ozone Air Purifiers | Whole House Purifiers | Replacement Filters