Ionic Air Purifiers - How They Work

filterless ionic air purifier
By Jay G

In a recent survey conducted by several government health agencies, it was discovered that over 80 percent of homeowners and more than 60 percent of employees are concerned about the quality of air inside their homes and offices. In a time where pollution and allergens are at an all time high, it is becoming more and more important to look for individual solutions to keep the quality of air we breathe safe for our homes and families.
For many years the only options available for air purification were small, machines that simply passed air through a paper filter. These machines were adequate at cleaning large particles from the air, but were unable to remove bacteria, mold and other dangerous airborne pollutants.
In the last 15 years however, new technological developments in the air purification industry have led us to ionic air filtering.
Ionic air purifiers are without a doubt one of the most reliable and effective air purification technologies available on the market today. In fact, they are so effective that they have become the industry standard for hospitals and clean air facilities around the world and are able to eliminate allergens, chemicals, bacteria, odors, viruses and many other types of contaminants.
An ionic air purifier cleans the air by dispersing negatively charged ions into the atmosphere to attract positively charged contaminant particles. These negatively charged ions then bind themselves to the pollutant particles and are returned to the purifying unit.
Once inside, the air purifier the machine reverses the polarity of the charge on the ions, separating them from the dirt particles. Unlike conventional air purifiers, the ionic air purifier collects the contaminants on special metal collector plates instead of paper or glass filters. These plates are cleaner than the other filters, but do build up pollutants over time and should be washed weekly.
Once the pollutants are separated from the dirt particles, the ions are re-charged and sent back out and the entire process is repeated. Depending on the quality of an ionic air purifier, this process can be repeated as many as 20 times per minute.
There are many different models of ionic air purifier available and it can be incredibly difficult to select the right model. When choosing the right ionic air purifier it is important to consider the size of the room or area to be cleaned as well as the sensitivity of the inhabitants.
The simple rule pertaining to room size is: the larger the room, the larger the model required to clean the room.
The same is true for the level of contaminants. The higher the level of contaminants in a room, the more powerful the machine required to eliminate those contaminants.
Almost every ionic air purifier is able to filter out the same types of contaminants, but people who suffer from allergies or asthma will often require a more advanced machine because they are more susceptible to irritants than people who have no allergies.
If you're looking to improve the quality of air in your home, consider the Oreck Air Purifier which uses both ionic and hepa filtering technologies.
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