So, you suffer from Hay Fever or Allergic Rhinitis and are trying to decide which air purifier is most likely to help you, well you have come to the right place, we have great first hand experience of Hay fever in this office (unfortunately!) , and think we can definitely help to point you in the right direction, read on for our guide on choosing the best air purifier for relief from Hay Fever.
What is the most important thing to consider?
When it comes to removing tree , grass and shrub pollens the most important ingredient your air purifier must have is a good level of suction. Yup, that's right, the air purifier you choose will almost certainly have a filter capable of trapping those allergens, but if it doesn't have enough suction to actually draw them towards it quickly enough then it will not be of much use.
How do you work out how quickly an air purifier will gobble up those offending allergens then?
The first thing is to compare the CADR ( Clean Air Delivery Rate ) of the machines you are interested in. Generally speaking a higher CADR rating means quicker removal of the offending allergens in your room.
In order to be truly effective in gobbling up pollens an air purifier needs to be powerful enough to recirculate all of the air in YOUR room size through its filter as frequently as possible. As a guide, try to choose a machine which has enough air volume to process all the air in your largest room at least 3 times an hour. If you can get one which provides around 4 or 5 times an hour that would be even better.
The CADR rating on a box tells a consumer how efficient an air purifier is at actually removing the three main indoor pollutants, namely Pollen, Smoke and Dust. In this case, as a Hay Fever sufferer you should try to choose one where the pollen figure is highest. Clean Air Delivery Rate testing is carried out by an impartial and independent organisation called AHAM - a word of caution here though - not all manufacturers submit their units for certified testing to AHAM and may instead just list their own 'in house' test results on the box. If you want to be certain of what you are buying always choose a machine which has the genuine 'AHAM Certified' Seal on the box.
BEWARE of the manufacturers over inflated 'recommended room sizes'.
This is where we believe most consumers get misled into spending good money on something which is never going to be powerful enough to provide them with genuine relief from their Hayfever. Manufacturers usually state on the product box and specification list that the air purifier is 'For Rooms up to...' and then quote a room size usually given in square metres (m2). This information is completely worthless unless it is also followed by another figure telling you how long it will take to clean the air in that size of room.
One blatant example of this currently available on the High Street is an air purifier range manufactured by VAX which on the face of it seems to be reasonable value for money. One of their units available for £199 in Argos has a Pollen CADR rating of 240. So we know it is capable of removing pollens and according to the manufacturers specification the unit is suitable for rooms up to 103m2. However, when you calculate the CADR rating and divide it into the claimed room size, it shows that the unit would take 65 minutes to clean the air once in a room that size, equating to a very poor 0.93 air changes an hour. Remember, we already know that an air purifier needs to provide at least 3-5 air changes an hour to be genuinely effective at removing allergens!
Another VAX unit at £94.99 claims it will remove over 99% of allergens in rooms up to 87m2. Yet once again taking the CADR figure and working out the results clearly shows that this unit will take 69 minutes to purify the air once in that room size, equating to just 0.8 air changes an hour. These air purifiers may well still be effective in reducing Hay Fever symptoms, but realistically the room sizes in which they will be able to perform well are about 5 times smaller than those quoted.
OK, enough of the technical stuff!
To cut through the numbers and make life a little simpler for us all, we have put together a list of air purifiers which we know will provide up to 5 air changes per hour in their recommended room size, and all of which have genuine AHAM certified CADR ratings. Simply click the link below to view our Air Purifiers for Hay Fever section As always, we do love to talk to our customers so please do not be hesitant, pick up the phone and give us a call on the number at the top of the page - or use our live chat to ask anything you want to know and we will do our best to help!