Comparing / Evaluating a Home Air Purifier
When most people shop for a home air purification system (probably what you are doing right now), they look to the internet for advice. This web page was created to answer your questions. Like, how Long should I expect an air purifier to last? The answer is off-the-shelf models last 3-5 years.
When I looked today, out of the 20 top organic results under the search “home air purifier,” 11 of the results contain lists of the article’s favorite air purifiers. It’s not surprising that if a visitor to that page then buys an air purifier as suggested, the website that created the list gets paid a fee.
Now, that does not mean these 11 listing pages are bad or unhelpful. But I can tell you that many times, where a product appears on the list is directly correlated with how much the listing page is paid. The more an air purifier maker is willing to pay to be ranked #1, the more likely they are to be #1. Now, that is not true of every “best air purifier” web page, but keep it in mind as you shop. I have asked that LakeAir products be considered for these lists. I have been told my affiliate submittal would be considered, and as long as there was sufficient profit involved, I would be in the next list published.
That brings us to the 9 brand websites that made the top 20 results. These brand-name air purifiers are made by large companies with large SEO budgets. They are VERY good at making websites. This ability to make a good website has nothing to do with whether or not they make good air purifiers. The products featured all look very similar. They are designed to meet the current design fad. They are all made of plastic and have many gadgets to make them pretty neat. But do they clean the air? Yes, they do all clean the air, but for how long and how well? Now, if you have done your homework and research, you should be fine with your choice. But, how well have you done your research? Is it even possible to really compare air purifiers with the data presented by the manufacturer?
Dissecting the Information ~ What Nuggets of information we need
Some air purifier manufacturers provide a lot of useful information. These are the exceptions. Most manufacturers are very vague with their product specifications. I suppose this could be because they feel you are not smart enough to understand technical jargon. In this next section, we will look at a few manufacturer ads, and we will look at how to take the information they provide.
An Image of the product
Advertisers like to show big images so you can imagine how happy you will be with their product in your home. Now, the image shown to the right is from a webpage that Google ranked in the top 5 for the search “home air purifier”. There is nothing wrong with the photo; it shows the product and illustrates how the unit is advertised to work. Some images are misleading in how much a product will do. Let the real specifications be the number 1 determining factor, not how pretty their photography is. I give the picture an “A” after looking at the spec’s. The air purifier, not so much.
Air Changes per Hour
The most useful metric in a product specification is “Air Changes per Hour”. I looked for 15 minutes to find any specifications having to do with air purification capacity for this unit. There are 2 sets of specifications for this product, shown to the right. The specification told me how well the unit would clean, but not how much of an area it would clean.
The second set of specifications did little more to help me figure out how much space the product would clean, and how fast. The information listed described the product’s size and again showed me it was a truly good-looking unit.
30 minutes into my search, I finally found a 3rd party review that had unearthed some really useful information. It turns out this unit will actually produce 87 liters of air/ second. Sounds like a lot, but after the math is all said and done, this air purifier has a maximum airflow of 184.34 Cubic feet per minute. So what do we do with this hard-to-find information?
Turning CFM into the information I need CADR
Determining the CADR is straightforward. If the CADR is not published, but if you know 2 things, you can extract the air purifier’s CADR. We need to multiply the air flow that is usually given in CFM (cubic feet per minute) by the units filter efficiency. Some manufacturers may report air flow in the metric formula M3H (cubic meters per hour). You can convert m3h to cfm with this conversion calculator. I suspect that in most cases, manufacturers use the metric form because that is what they use in their product development. However, in some cases, other measures are used to be vague or to appear more impressive.
The other key element to finding the CADR is the units filter efficiency. This number is likely to be in the product specifications. Air Purifiers with True HEPA filters will have an efficiency of 99.97. Other commonly reported efficiency values are 99, 97, and 95 percent. Whatever the air purifier’s efficiency is, you multiply that number by 99.97 times the units CFM in this case 184.34 (0.9997 x 184.34 = 184-ish)
CADR (clean air delivery rate)
Now, the CADR in itself does not really tell us how well this product will clean a large area, as the product’s great videos imply. To determine how well it cleans, we need to consider the space size and our air-cleaning goal.
The air purifier above said it was good for a large space. For the sake of our exercise lets imagine “our large space” is 30 x 20 x 8
- Multiply Room L x W x H = Volume (4800)
- Volume / 60 = 1 ACH (80)
- CADR / 1 ACH = Effective ACH
We determined the effective ACH for the mystery air purifier is 2.30 . We did this by taking the air purifier’s CADR (184) and dividing it by 80 (The amount of air needed to clean the air once an hour), and we found that the air purifier in question will clean the air 2.30 times an hour.
Air Cleaning Standards
In the United States, the association that sets the standards for indoor ventilation, heating, air conditioning, and air purification (all things having to do with air flow) is ASHRAE
ASHRAE has set the standard for good air purification in the home at a rate of 4-6 Air changes per hour. This is widely accepted in all states and many other countries. There are other groups that set suggested standards for other places. On our website page “air changes per hour” we have cataloged many suggested room air change requirements. These are all suggested levels, and you should check with local authorities for your local requirements.
Samples of air cleaning standards
- General home use — 4-6 ACH
- Kitchens — 8 ACH
- Cigarette Smoking — 15 ACH
- Cigar Smoking — 20 ACH
These samples are for residential areas and do not apply to commercial areas. As to the smoking recommendations, the suggested standard are for 1 smoker in a closed room set aside from the household living areas.
Evaluating Air Purifiers by Clean Air Delivery
According to the math and industry standards, that ‘mystery’ air purifier failed the test. It just doesn’t have the muscle for a large room. But let’s be honest—no one should be expected to do all that algebra just to buy a home appliance.
To make it easy, I built the evaluation tool below. You don’t need a calculator; you just need your room dimensions and the numbers from the box of the air purifier you’re looking at. Enter them below, and the tool will tell you instantly if that unit is actually up to the task or if it’s just a pretty piece of plastic. I added some specific use cases to give you a quick evaluation for some key uses.
• General Home Use
• Kitchen Use
• Cigarette Smoking
• Cigar smoking
More Evaluating Tips
At LakeAir, we take home air purifiers very seriously. We know our home air purifiers are very good, but they are not for everyone. Our goal is to inform and educate the customer. In the rest of this page, we are going to point out some things that will hopefully help you make the best clean air choices for your home and family.
What's Really Important?
Being we are talking about air purifiers i am lead to believe that cleaning the air and cleaning it well is most important. The evaluating tool above shows you if a unit (based on manufacturers specs) will do a good job cleaning the air in a space of your choosing. According to consumerrating.org the 4 most important things to consider when buying an air purifiers are.
- How well does it clean the Air
- How large of an area will it cover
- Operating Noise
- Price
Evaluate (How well does your air purifier of choice, clean the air)
Let’s face it, an air purifier is a box with a filter and a fan. That is what all air purifiers boil down to. In this evaluation, we will examine filters. Every day, companies are developing new filters. One filter for nitrous oxide, another specially for formaldehyde. While all of these specializations are useful, what we really need are products that remove a lot of harmful particles from the air. LakeAir is an old-fashioned company, one of my competitors said I haven’t updated the website since the 90’s. “Ouch!” We believe in core values. Core values remain in ASHRAE’s recommendations. When this leader in clean air standards changes its tune on air filtration, so will we.
Does your air purifier use tested (widely accepted) filter technology? If your air purifier uses a good-quality HEPA filter, you are on the right track. We receive customer questions about competitor filters that off-gas odors. They want to be sure are filters are made in the USA. I am not certain that eliminates the possibility of off-gassing, but it does seem to make a difference.
Electrostatic, MERV, and Carbon filtration are also time-tested filtration methods. None of these are as effective at removing particles from the air as a HEPA filter, but there is quality across the filtration types as well.
The filters in your air purifier should be large and robust. A small filter will fill up with pollutants fast, and the air purifier’s performance will nose-dive in a hurry. Look for large, well-built filters.
Evaluate (How large of an area does your air purifier clean)
Manufacturer claims like “covers 1,400 sq. ft.” are often misleading because they don’t tell you how fast the air is being cleaned. To get real results, the experts at ASHRAE recommend 4 to 6 air changes per hour (ACH).
To check a unit yourself, find the room’s volume (Length x Width x Height) and multiply it by 4. Then, divide that number by 60. If the air purifier’s CADR is lower than that final number, it’s just not powerful enough to keep up with your space. It might look nice, but it won’t be doing the job you’re paying for.
Evaluating (How loud is your air purifier)
I will tell you that the biggest challenge as an air purifier designer is making an air purifier perform well while remaining quiet. We need to squeeze a lot of air through a tiny hole, and that, my friends, makes a bunch of noise. The best way to ensure an air purifier performs well with minimal noise is to oversize the blowers for the job. That’s how we deliver effective air purification with lower noise from our MAX Guard Line. If you turn them all the way up, they are noisy, but they are so powerful that you don’t need to run them at full to achieve effective air purification. The MAX Guard has a sound rating of 40-70 dB (decibels). How loud is that? The next section addresses comparisons between decibels and common everyday experiences.
How Loud is a Decibel?
As a designer, my biggest challenge is making an air purifier that performs well while staying quiet. To move air, you need a fan, and fans make noise. The best way to get high performance without the ‘jet engine’ sound is to use oversized blowers that don’t have to work as hard.
That’s the secret behind our MAX Guard line. Even though they are powerful enough for industrial use, they run at a comfortable volume for the home. We measure that volume in decibels (dB). To give you an idea of what those numbers actually mean in the real world, here is a quick comparison:
- 0 dB – The softest sound a person can hear with normal hearing
- 10 dB – Normal breathing
- 20 dB – Leaves rustling, a ticking watch
- 30 dB – A whisper
- 40 dB – Refrigerator hum, a quiet office
- 50 dB – Moderate rainfall
- 60 dB – Normal conversation, dishwashers
- 70 dB – Vacuum cleaners, traffic
- 80 dB – Police car siren, a noisy restaurant
- 90 dB – Hairdryers, blenders, power tools
- 100 dB – Motorcycles, hand dryers
- 110 dB – Nightclubs, sporting events
- 120 dB – Thunder, concerts, a jet plane taking off
An important thing to know is that too much noise can damage your hearing. Your average exposure should be no louder than 70 dB (decibels). NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) has set a level of 85 dB for no more than 8 hours a day for workplaces. LakeAir air purifiers use variable speed controls and can be set to well within safe and comfortable sound level.
Evaluating Cost (Does Your air purifier cost too much ?)
Evaluating the cost of an air purifier is a complex task. In the end, you will need to make the evaluation yourself. In this section, we will try to give you some information to help you decide how valuable your air purifiers are.
First off lets look at the average prices of different household appliances
- Refrigerators’ average cost in 2026 is $1,500.00, with models easily reaching $12,000.
- Ovens’ average cost in 2026 is $1300.00, with models reaching $7000 for some models installed
- Television’s average cost in 2026 is $1177.00 and as much as $2000
- Air Conditioners: Average cost in 2026 is $6,000.00 and as much as $22,000, depending on where you live.
- Air Purifier Average Cost in 2026 is $1300.00 and as much as $5000. for some deluxe models
These figures were found using AI query searches. We listed many of our sources below. These results don’t reflect how cheaply you can buy any of these items if you search for a deal. But they do provide a little scale. Air conditioning and refrigeration are more expensive. Televisions and Air purifiers cost a little less. These comparisons can help you decide how much you should spend. Use these along with the considerations below.
Performance
When evaluating the cost of a potential air purifier purchase the most important factor is performance. Through out this website we talk about performance of an air purifier. How much air a unit will clean and how well should be your first point in evaluating. However, if you can not afford a $1000.00 air purifier not amount of air purification is going to make the purchase make sense.
Durability
Experts like US Air Purifiers note that the average home unit only lasts 3–5 years. In a world of ‘disposable’ tech, that might seem normal. But a LakeAir air purifier isn’t a gadget; it’s an appliance built to last 15 to 30 years. With proper maintenance, lakeAir will offer a Lifetime Warranty. When you do the math, buying one LakeAir is actually cheaper than buying five ‘cheap’ units over the same period. Spending more money today for a product that will be around for more than 10 years has value, and you should consider the durability of any product you buy.
Need
Want is one thing, NEED is another. If you need an air purifier to help you live a healthy life, the importance and therefore budget should be larger than a product you just want. Need does not add value to any product, but it does increase its importance. So, as you evaluate your air purifier choices. Don’t be afraid to expand your budget if you can find a product that has both performance and durability.
Convenience
Gadgets are wonderful. They make us want a product more. Most gadgets, however, shorten a product’s life. The more parts you add to a product, the more it adds to the list of what can break. Air purifiers with built-in monitors will most likely fail sooner than those without. At this time, sensors have a short life. According to EPA. gov air sensors last one or two years. After that they can no longer be depended on. It is better to buy a good air purifier without a particle sensor and a particle sensor separately. The other gadgets in air purifiers are nice but they don’t make them work better. If this convenience is important to you, then you should give it extra weight. If you just need clean air put a little less weight to this aspect
Budget
The final and probably most important aspect to determining if a planned air purification purchase costs to much is whether it fits into your budget. Your budget is determined by the amount of money available to you. You may decide the portion of your available funds to go to this purchase might be tempered by your need. But in the end, if you cannot afford it, you shouldn’t buy it.
There are a couple of ways to possibly get the brand you want, even if the checking account is a little short.
- Purchase all or part of the air purifier using your HSA.
- Purchase a refurbish model
- Purchase on installments (Any purchase on the LakeAir Website cab be bought in installment payments through PayPal)
Key Take Away
Choosing an air purifier shouldn’t be about who has the best marketing; it’s about the math. A high-quality unit is a 20-year investment in your health. If the unit you are looking at can’t hit 4–6 air changes per hour in your specific room, it’s not an appliance—it’s a gadget. Use the Evaluator Tool above to make sure you’re getting what you pay for.
How Can I calculate CADR
If the CADR is not published, but if you know 2 things, you can extract the air purifier’s CADR. We need to multiply the air flow that is usually given in CFM (cubic feet per minute) by the units filter efficiency..
How do I figure out if an air purifier is big enough for my room using ACH?
To check a unit yourself, find the room’s volume (Length x Width x Height) and multiply it by 4. Then, divide that number by 60. If the air purifier’s CADR is lower than that final number, it’s just not powerful enough to keep up with your space. It might look nice, but it won’t be doing the job you’re paying for.
What are the most important things to consider when buying a home air purifier?
According to consumerrating.org the 4 most important things to consider when buying an air purifiers are.
- How well does it clean the Air
- How large of an area will it cover
- Operating Noise
- Price
How Long should I expect an air purifier to last?
Experts like US Air Purifiers note that the average home unit only lasts 3–5 years. But a LakeAir air purifier isn’t a gadget; it’s an appliance built to last 15 to 30 years. With proper maintenance, lakeAir will offer a Lifetime Warranty.
Why are so many “best air purifier” lists online biased toward certain brands?
I can tell you that many times, where a product appears on the list is directly correlated with how much the listing page is paid. The more an air purifier maker is willing to pay to be ranked #1, the more likely they are to be #1.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel
- https://www.mdhearingaid.com/blog/decibel-chart/
- https://homeguide.com/
- https://www.angi.com/
- https://www.housedigest.com/
- https://www.epa.gov/air-sensor-toolbox/frequent-questions-about-air-sensors
Dynamic
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