Looking for the best air purifier for cigar room? This article has got that covered.
Whether you’re a self-titled cigar expert or a casual smoker, you understand the appeal of sitting back, relaxing, and puffing on your favorites.
But if you live with others or have a neighbor close by, you might not be able to indulge as often as you want to.
Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to the unsavory byproducts of smoking—an air purifier for cigar rooms.
With the right air purifier, you can smoke your favorite cigars without worrying about the smoke or smell infusing into your home or the impact of secondhand (and thirdhand) smoke.
Air Purifier for Cigar Room: Why is it Necessary
There are many reasons to invest in an air purifier for your home, office, car, or cigar room.
Higher air quality is always better than the alternative.
When you smoke indoors, you can significantly lower the air quality you and your family breathe.
An air purifier for your cigar room will help to address the following:
Smoke
When you smoke, you’re burning tobacco to generate smoke that carries the scent and flavor of the various ingredients that were infused into the tobacco.
If you’re a cigar smoker, you probably savor the smell and taste of your favorite cigar.
But, as good as it may smell or taste, smoke is still harmful to inhale.
When inhaled, smoke is an irritant that impacts your eyes, nose, throat, and lungs.
Fortunately, by exhaling the smoke when smoking a cigar, you can generally avoid inhaling a high concentration of smoke.
But without property ventilation or air purification, the smoke can accumulate, making it hard to breathe and lowering the air quality.
Over time, unresolved concentrations of tar and tobacco from cigar smoke can discolor walls, fabrics, and other room elements.
Plus, the smoke carries smells and leaves traces of chemicals on the room’s surfaces that can be kicked up and inhaled later, causing all kinds of physical harm.
Removing smoke from the air is essential for maintaining high air quality and minimizing the irritation it can cause to anyone who breathes it in secondhand.
As long as you choose an air purifier with a HEPA filter that can remove smoke particles as small as 0.3 microns, you can prevent staining and minimize the irritating effects of breathing in a smoky room.
Smells
Smells are one of the biggest inhibitors of cigar smoking.
Cigars produce a strong odor because of the treatment and curing that they undergo to generate the taste and smell you’ve come to love.
But while you may not mind the scent that your cigar puts out while you’re puffing on it, family, friends, neighbors, and your landlord are less likely to feel the same way.
Odors can also easily be absorbed into various materials, making them hard to eliminate once you’ve let the smell sit for an extended period.
Clothes, furniture, and even carpeting will absorb the smell of smoke after it has had time to settle from the air, which causes you to carry the scent of your cigar room throughout the rest of the house.
When removing smells, a standard air filter won’t solve your problem.
While most HEPA filters will remove much of the smoke in the air, the scent attached to the smoke particles can pass right through the filter.
If you want to remove odors from your smoke room with an air purifier, choose a model with a high HEPA rating (H12 or higher) with a layer of activated charcoal.
The charcoal acts as an adsorbent that holds onto the odors and allows the rest of the air to cycle through, removing them from the air you breathe for an improved smell.
Chemicals
While the smoke and smell of a cigar are the most noticeable byproducts of smoking your cigar, they’re not the most dangerous.
Cigars contain a number of chemicals, including nicotine, tar, formaldehyde, and other toxic substances, which can be carcinogenic and extremely harmful to your overall health.
When you smoke, these chemicals turn into volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are much smaller than smoke particles and harder to filter out.
You can be exposed to these chemicals by smoking the cigar yourself, breathing in the smoke produced by the cigar, or even experiencing thirdhand smoke from the chemicals smoke leaves behind on the various surfaces of your cigar room.
Allowing your cigar smoke to dissipate without proper ventilation or air purification risks exposing others to harmful chemicals long after smoking.
Like removing smells, a standard air filter cannot filter many of the chemical elements of cigar smoke.
Activated charcoal adsorbs the VOC odors and removes them from the air to help improve the air quality and freshness.
Air Purifier for Cigar Room: Buying Guide
When it comes time to invest in an air purifier for your cigar room, you want to be sure you’re getting something that will work for your needs.
Keep an eye out for these critical elements when narrowing down your list:
Power and Range
Due to how harmful the chemicals and smoke produced by cigars are, it’s essential that your air purifier can effectively filter the air in your cigar room to help minimize exposure.
The air purifier’s effectiveness will likely be provided in either clean air delivery rate (CADR) or as a total area of effective range.
CADR refers to the volume of air that can be filtered every minute by an air purifier.
Getting as high of a CADR as possible is recommended so that you can be confident that your air will be sufficiently filtered. However, a higher CADR may also bring higher noise levels.
An air purifier’s effective range also refers to the amount of air it can filter.
However, instead of referring to volume, it’s based on the square footage of the room you’re using it in.
However, the effective range refers to how big a room it can filter in one hour.
When it comes to your cigar room, you’ll need much faster purification, so aim for a range that’s 5 times the size of your room so that it can be purified every 12 minutes.
In this case, a 10′ by 18′ room would require an effective range of at least 900 square feet.
For both figures, you want to be sure that you at least meet the recommended capacities or ranges to ensure proper filtration.
Of course, a higher value is also acceptable.
It may lead to faster filtration at the cost of size, cost, or noise levels. Still, it’s usually better to invest in the best filter possible instead.
Filter Type
Regardless of how strong your air purifier is, it won’t help to clean your cigar room if it doesn’t have the right filter to address the smoke and chemicals.
HEPA filters are the most common filters you’ll find in cigar room air purifiers.
They use mechanical filtration through various filter levels that trap, absorb, or adsorb the particles floating in the air.
By doing so, they remove the harmful irritants from the air so that you or others don’t breathe them in.
HEPA filters come in many grades, but you’ll most commonly see H12 for residential use.
Meanwhile, H13 and H14 are graded for medical use in hospitals and other sanitary environments.
The difference between the grades is in how effective they are at filtering particles, with higher ratings proving more effective at removing pollutants from the air.
For example, H12 filters will remove up to 99.5% of particles as small as 0.3 microns, while H13 and H14 filters remove 99.95% and 99.995%, respectively.
You’ll want to go with the highest grade of HEPA filter that makes sense for you for the most efficient air filtration.
However, in some cases, higher HEPA grades can filter through a lesser volume of air due to the density of the filter’s layers. Be sure to check the CADR or effective range for your choice.
An activated carbon layer is also crucial to your cigar room air purifier so that you can effectively remove the odors and chemicals from the air for a healthier experience.
Noise Levels
Nobody wants to hear a constant whirring in the background while enjoying your favorite cigar, so consider the noise level of the air purifier you choose.
This figure may be included in the product listing or on the packaging.
If not, you can safely assume that larger or stronger air purifiers will generate more noise as the fans require more power to function and move more air at a time.
You might also want to consider whether your chosen model has variable fan speeds so that you can better control the noise levels during and after use.
Additional Features
On top of the essential criteria above, you’ll also want to consider what added features your cigar room air purifier has so that it can be more convenient for you.
A timed cycle option can help ensure your cigar room’s air is clear.
For example, after smoking, you can set a 30-minute or 1-hour timed cleaning on the highest fan setting for it to get rid of all the airborne pollutants before they settle without worrying about going back in to turn it off.
An air quality sensor can also be incredibly convenient.
Once it detects smoke or receives a low air quality reading, the air purifier will adjust the fan speed to meet the room’s needs.
In addition, the automatic sensor will adapt throughout your smoking session to keep the room habitable. It will then turn itself down or off once you’ve left and it has filtered the air accordingly.
Air Purifier for Cigar Room: Our Top 4 Picks
Need a quick recommendation for an air purifier for your cigar room? You can’t go wrong with our recommendations.
1. Loytio Air Purifier
The Loytio air purifier is ideal for smaller cigar rooms, owning an effective range of 400 square feet or a 10′ by 8′ room every 12 minutes.
It’s only 24 dB, so it’s perfect for an office where noise matters and includes an H13 filter with a smoke and VOC-removing carbon layer so that you can enjoy fresher air.
2. Levoit Core 300 Air Purifier
The Levoit Core 300 model is rated for rooms up to 1,095 square feet to support approximately 220 square feet of a cigar room.
It’s relatively quiet at 24 dB and features an H13 air purifier to remove up to 99.95% of pollutants and a carbon layer to help keep your air clean.
Additionally, you can replace the standard filter with a special “smoke remover” filter for even better results.
3. BLUEAIR 211+ Air Purifier
The BLUEAIR air purifier can filter a room up to 550 square feet every 12 minutes with its 4-layer H13 filter that features an activated carbon layer.
It’s quiet at 23 dB on the lowest setting and features an air quality sensor to automatically adjust the fan speed as needed, making it easy to set and forget it.
4. Medify MA-112 Air Purifier
The Medify MA-112 features a medical-grade H14 HEPA filter with an activated carbon layer for comprehensive cigar room support.
It will effectively support up to 800 square feet of room with filtration every 12 minutes at an impressive 559 CFM.
In addition, this unit has an adjustable fan to help control noise levels and filtration speed, plus a timer for worry-free use.
FAQs about Air Purifier for Cigar Room
Does a HEPA Filter Work For Smoke?
Yes, a HEPA filter with a grade above 11 can remove smoke particles from the air.
However, without a carbon filter, it cannot remove the smell or VOCs from smoking.
What Range Should My Cigar Room Air Purifier Have?
Your air purifier should be able to cover an area equal to 5 times the square footage of your cigar room to ensure that it can filter the air quickly enough to minimize harm.
For example, a range of 400 square feet would work for a 10′ by 8′ room.
Will An Air Purifier Clean Smoker’s Walls?
An air purifier will not be able to clean the walls, ceiling, or floor of your cigar room.
Once the particles have settled onto a surface or been absorbed, they must be removed manually.
Where Should I Place My Cigar Room Air Purifier?
For your filter to be most effective, place it near where you’re smoking your cigar.
This positioning ensures that it has access to the air that needs it most and can help prevent air quality from decreasing faster by getting to the source.
How Else Can I Improve My Cigar Room Air Quality?
In addition to using a high-quality air purifier for your cigar room, you’ll also want to consider ventilation.
While it’s not feasible for all cigar rooms or living situations, introducing fresh air can help your air purifier to remove airborne pollutants much faster and limit the risk of residual particles causing thirdhand smoke.
Final Thoughts on Air Purifiers for Cigar Rooms
When making your cigar room more hospitable for you and your family, look no further than an air purifier.
As long as you choose an air purifier model with an H12 or higher filter, an activated carbon layer, and an effective range that’s 5 times your room size, you’ll be able to enjoy your cigars in peace without worrying about impacting your family or destroying your cigar room.
Are you looking for some more air purifier options to consider? Check out our list of the Best Air Purifiers With Sensors in 2023 to enjoy the convenience of an adaptive fan controller.