Ionic Air Purifiers - Is it all just hype?
Ionic air purifiers have been hurtled into the spotlight with
the advent of the Sharper Image air purifier, called the Ionic
Breeze. Despite a round of advertising that has wearied rather
than enthused consumers, many other manufacturers have joined
the ionic air purifier market. So are ion air purifiers actually
any good?
The main selling point of ionic air purifiers is the silence
with which they are said to remove particles from the air. This
is due to the lack of circulating fan in this type of air
cleaner, as the Sharper Image air purifier, the original ionic
cleaner, relies on electrostatic plates to circulate the air.
Independent tests have shown, however, that this reliance is
somewhat misplaced - while a fan-assisted air purifier can
process a room's air within one minute, this ionic air purifier
has a turnover rate move only an estimated couple of cubic
meters per hour.
Some ion air purifiers have added extra features to increase the
effectiveness of their cleaning power. Some manufacturers have
added negative ion capabilities, which claim to neutralize the
potency of airborne particles without actually drawing them into
the filter itself. The Sharper Image air purifier now comes with
an OzoneGuard, which claims to convert a significant amount of
dangerous ozone into oxygen, but this arguably is a relatively
useless feature, as much of the dangerous ozone that might be in
your home would be generated by a different kind of air
purifier.
There is no doubt that ionic air purifiers do have some air
cleaning capacity, but this is likely to be insufficient as to
make a real difference to the quality of the air in your home,
particularly if there is an allergy or asthma sufferer under
your roof. While ion air purifiers might be better than nothing,
you might be better advised to spend your hard earned money on
an air purifier that has been tried and tested, and been proven
to reliably remove a significant amount of airborne particles
from the atmosphere in your home. The ionic air purifier is not
this type of air cleaner.
Ionic air purifiers - are they worth buying or not? Maybe not.