Thanks to their many advantages, you might be hearing a lot about air purifiers these days. One of these advantages is their ability to remove odors and make the surroundings smell better.
Household odors are entirely natural and nothing to be ashamed about. However, you should still try to get rid of them. You have landed on the right post if you’re looking for the best way to do so.
Do air purifiers really help with smells? Do they have any side effects? Most importantly, should you buy an air purifier just for odors?
Let’s discuss all this and more so that you can make an educated decision.
Household Odors & How You Can Get Rid Of Them
Odors inside the house can originate from cooking, smoking, chemicals, general hygiene habits, humidity, etc. This means that your home doesn’t necessarily have to be dirty to have unpleasant odors.
Usually, we cannot even smell these odors because we get accustomed to them. However, anyone from outside would be able to notice them immediately – just like you would notice the smells in their house that they are unaware of.
Household smells are not only unpleasant, they can also be harmful. For example, smells caused by your pets are probably only unpleasant. They cannot harm you.
On the other hand, odors originating from toxic fumes can harm your health. What’s dangerous about them is that as you get accustomed to the smell, you stop noticing it and thus get exposed to toxins for long periods of time.
This is where an air purifier for smells comes in.
How Can an Air Purifier Make Your House Smell Better?
Air purifiers clean the air around them. In doing so, they get rid of airborne contaminants like pet hair and dander, mold spores, dust, pollen, smoke, toxins, bacteria, viruses, etc.
As these contaminants get removed, air purifiers DO help with smell!
In fact, this is what makes air purifiers one of the best ways to make your surroundings smell better.
Unlike most air freshening appliances and tools, they don’t just release pleasant smells into the air to mask unpleasant odors.
Instead, air purifiers remove the particles that cause these smells.
The results are obviously more long-term and effective.
But this is not it. Let’s discuss air purifiers in detail in order to see how they work and how exactly they remove odors.
Air Purifiers – How Do They Work?
Air purifiers clean the air around them by filtering out contaminants. As a result, they release fresher, cleaner air into their surroundings. Although different types of air purifiers use different mechanisms to clean air, they all serve a common purpose: to clean air.
Let’s take a brief look at different air purifiers to learn how they work.
Types of Air Purifiers
- HEPA Air Purifiers – HEPA purifiers can filter out airborne particles of sizes as small as 0.2 microns.
- They use an advanced, thin mesh filter to trap contaminants like mold spores, pet hair and dander, pollen, dust, smoke, etc.
HEPA purifiers are the most commonly used air purifiers as they get rid of most airborne unwanted particles (and the smells associated with them).
However, since they use a filter to trap pollutants, they require consistent maintenance as well. Therefore, HEPA filters need to be cleaned or replaced regularly in order to perform efficiently.
- Activated Carbon Purifiers – This air purifier is the best at removing odors from the air.
- It uses an activated carbon filter to reduce fumes, smoke, chemicals and gases from the air.
- They are particularly useful in newly built or renovated houses where chemicals release toxic fumes.
However, unlike HEPA purifiers, these purifiers are not excellent at removing pollen, mold, dust and dander.
Some models combine both filters – activated carbon filter and HEPA filter – to provide the functionality of both purifiers.
- Ultraviolet Air Purifiers – These purifiers work similarly to HEPA purifiers, but the internal technology is different. Unlike HEPA, UV air purifiers do not use a mechanical filter to trap contaminants inside. Instead, they use UV light to kill airborne pollutants.
These air purifiers are most beneficial for reducing viruses from the air.
UV light of a short wavelength destroys the DNA of airborne viruses and makes them ineffective, thus disinfecting the surroundings.
- Ionic Air Purifiers – Also known as ionizers, these purifiers use the ionization technique to clean air. They release charged ions into the air that stick to airborne particles.
As a result, these particles carry a negative charge and become too heavy to float in the air and ultimately fall.
In this way, the air becomes cleaner and fresher, while contaminants can easily be wiped away.
There are more types of air purifiers as well, but they all achieve a common purpose: cleaning the air around them.
Are There Any Side Effects?
Yes, air purifiers are an excellent way to make your house smell better, but do they have any side effects? If yes, are air purifiers actually worth it?
Let’s find out.
Not all air purifiers have harmful side effects, but some of them do. For instance, ionizers and other electric air purifiers that release charged ions can create ozone around them.
Ozone is toxic to breathe in and causes health problems long term. It can also react with common chemicals used in household cleaners, self-care products, fragrances, etc.
On the other hand, air purifiers like UV and HEPA are safe to use as they do not emit electric particles.
HEPA purifier is especially recommended as it uses mechanical filtering to trap contaminants and clean air. It gives effective results with minimal side effects.
Other Ways to Make Your House Smell Better
Is there a better way to remove odors and make your surroundings smell better? Let’s look at a few more ways to keep your house odorless.
Air fresheners are the most commonly used tool to make surroundings smell better.
However, they only work for a short while and release chemicals into the air. If used excessively, some of these chemicals can even be harmful to you.
Another popular way to make your house smell better is using a diffuser.
Diffusers are usually used with pleasant-smelling essential oils. They work by releasing a mist containing tiny droplets of essential oil into the air.
Diffusers work better than air fresheners, but still, they don’t get rid of smelly airborne particles.
Like air fresheners, diffusers only release pleasant smells into the surroundings to mask unpleasant odors.
Benefits of Air Purifiers – What Else Can They Do?
Since air purifiers remove all sorts of contaminants from the air, they have several advantages. For example, they remove odor, airborne allergens, viruses and bacteria, pet dander and hair, mold spores, toxins, etc.
Air purifiers can help with pet-related and other allergies, breathing problems like asthma, and household odors. They are also beneficial for people who get sick quickly, especially the elderly and little babies, as they eliminate airborne viruses and bacteria.
Air purifiers are an all-in-one solution to a number of household problems. They can prove to be a long-lasting healthy lifestyle choice with proper maintenance.
Do Air Purifiers Help With Smells: Wrapping it up
By now, you should know all about air purifiers, how they work and how they are helpful in removing odors.
We have also discussed alternate ways to make your house smell better, but none of them actually eliminates the odor; they only release pleasant odors to cover the smell.
Some people argue that air purifiers are too pricey to be used just to remove odor.
However, this is not the case.
Unlike air fresheners, they don’t need to be bought again and again after a bottle runs out.
Moreover, they don’t release chemicals into your surroundings. In fact, air purifiers remove chemicals and other airborne contaminants from the air, making it safer to breathe.
So, when you’re paying for an air purifier, you are not just paying to make your house smell better; you’re also investing in cleaner air free from airborne viruses, allergens, bacteria, toxins, and other harmful contaminants.
This was all there is to know about how air purifiers help make your house smell better.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or confusion. We’d be happy to help!
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