Do Air Purifiers Help With Stuffy Rooms?

I’m not a fan of stuffy rooms in the slightest. 

And it’s not because of my asthma or anything related to my respiratory issues. 

I just can’t stand breathing the air of a stuffy room. 

Unfortunately, stuffy rooms are pretty common.

If you leave home for a day or two, you will inevitably return to a stuffy room you need to take care of. 

I’ve spoken to many people in the past, and I can reassure you that I’m not the only one who feels like stuffy rooms are the worst to stay in, never mind sleep in.

That’s why I’ve searched far and wide for a proper fix for stuffy rooms. And that’s when I found out the answers to my question. 

So, keep reading to find out if air purifiers can help with stuffy rooms. 

In this article, I’ll also go into a bit more detail about what makes a room feel stuffy.

I will talk about how air purifiers can even contribute to making a room feel stuffy and what you can do to make your room smell and feel like clean and fresh air.

What Makes a Room Feel Stuffy?

The room might feel stuffy for several reasons.

It could be:

  • poor ventilation
  • dust
  • polluted air
  • humid air trapped within a space for a while
  • change of temperature both inside and outside
  • poor use of an air purifier

Once you narrow down the reason it’s stuffy, you’ll quickly find a solution to the problem. 

In my case, my room starts to feel stuffy if I don’t ventilate it properly. 

For example, I open the windows in my room for around 20 to 30 minutes every morning when I wake up.

And in the evening, I leave the windows open for 20-30 minutes before bed.

Can Air Purifiers Help a Stuffy Room?

Your air purifier can help with a stuffy room. 

In fact, I bought my air purifier to handle the room’s stuffiness during the day and night when the windows to my room remain closed. 

I work from home, so I need my space to feel as comfortable and fresh as possible if I want to bring out my most productive side. 

That’s why whenever the room is stuffy, I feel my productivity also takes a hit.

As I mentioned earlier, dust and other contaminants cause a room to feel stuffy and stale. 

So, since air purifiers are specifically designed to remove these contaminants, you can imagine that air purifiers work really well in a stuffy room.

However, ensure you get a good model suitable for your needs. 

For the best results, you need an air purifier that can filter out as many solid and gaseous particles as possible. 

Ideally, this means getting an air purifier with a multi-stage filtration system that includes a pre-filter, a true HEPA filter, and an activated carbon filter. 

You must also learn how to use your air purifier properly to make the most out of it.

And lastly, you need to know where the correct location is for your air purifier.

If you put it in the wrong spot in your room, the purifier will still work as intended, BUT it won’t be able to process the volume of air it’s designed to purify.

Best Air Purifiers For a Stuffy Room

To adequately deal with a stuffy room, you must address the problem by using a good and high-quality air purifier designed to deal with stale air. 

I will share what I learned in my own research when I personally had this problem.

Below, you can find a few air purifiers ideal for dealing with stuffy rooms and bringing back that feeling of clean and fresh air.

Levoit Core 300

I and the Levoit Core 300 air purifier go way back. 

When I moved to Delhi for a few years during the early years of my life, I remember how difficult it was for me to adjust to the stuffy air in my room. 

It was constant. 

I couldn’t sleep. 

That’s when I came across the best air purifier for Delhi’s air – the Core 300 by Levoit.

This air purifier features a 3-stage filtration system featuring an H13 true HEPA filter, an activated carbon filter, and a pre-filter. 

It was the perfect air purifier as it would eliminate 99.97% of dust, smoke, mold, pollen, and unpleasant odors contributing to my home’s stuffiness.

As for the actual design of the air purifier, it features a modern white design measuring 8.7 x 8.7 x 14 inches and weighing in at just 7.5 lbs or 3 kilograms. 

This air purifier is mainly designed for smaller rooms of up to 20 square meters or 219 square feet. 

If your room is larger than that, this air purifier won’t be a good choice for you.

Pros:

  • Affordable
  • Can remove up to 99.97% of particles in the air
  • 3-stage filtration system
  • Light and convenient to use

Cons:

  • No automatic features
  • Not suitable for a larger room

Blueair Blue 311

Unlike the Levoit Core 300, the Blueair Blue 311, also known as the Blue 3210, is suitable for larger spaces of up to 912 square feet, which can be covered in just 60 minutes. With that being said, it is a little bit more expensive.

This air purifier cannot purify the air in your entire home, as is the case with most models on the market today.

So, what you’ll need to do is just bring the air purifier to the room that you want it to purify the air in.

It is portable, weighing just over 6 lbs and measuring 7.9 x 7.9 x 16.7 inches.

In terms of performance, it does feature a HEPASilent dual filtration system, which not only removes 99.97% of solid particles as small as 0.1 microns but also very silently.

This is the perfect model if you want an air purifier for COPD, asthma, coughing, wheezing, or just a unit that removes the stuffiness from your room in less than an hour.

Pros:

  • Suitable for large rooms of up to 912 square feet
  • Light and portable
  • Easy to use
  • HEPASilent dual filtration system

Cons:

  • Pretty expensive compared to other models

Can Air Purifiers Contribute Towards a Room Stuffy?

Generally speaking, no, your air purifier shouldn’t make your room feel stuffy.

That being said, this is only relevant if your air purifier is in perfect working condition.

But, it may contribute if you haven’t cleaned your air purifier yet.

Because filters become clogged up over time, they can produce a distinctive smell and contribute to the stuffiness of your room.

Or let’s say you are in a particularly humid environment and don’t tend to use your air purifier 24/7.

Mold can and will start growing inside your air purifier, which is never good news.

The second you turn your unit on, it will start to circulate the stuffy air inside your room and blast mold spores.

As I said, location and placement are just as important for your air purifier to work correctly. 

Your room may remain stuffy because the air purifier is in the wrong place or direction, causing a lack of air circulation. 

How to Make a Room Less Stuffy

As you can see, a room can feel stuffy for several reasons, so it’s best to take a multi-faceted approach to reduce the stuffiness. 

Most of the time, my air purifier is enough to handle the room’s stuffiness.

However, there are times when I use multiple methods to keep the air feeling and smell as fresh as possible.

So, here are some of the different approaches you can take to make a room feel less stuffy.

Improve Your Room’s Ventilation

The best thing you can do to remove the stuffy and stale air inside your room is simply ventilated the space regularly. 

As I mentioned, I ventilate my room for half an hour in the morning and evening, and yes, I do that even when it’s winter and cold. 

Even if my room gets a little cold, I still sleep and work much better than when I breathe in stale air.

So, before investing your hard-earned money in an air purifier, try to ventilate your room more often and see if that helps. 

If not, also make sure to invest some money in a good and high-quality air purifier to help you deal with the stuffiness in your room.

Use a Fan

I just talked about why ventilation is arguably the best way to remove stuffiness in a room. 

However, simply opening a window sometimes isn’t enough to address the problem. 

Unfortunately, some rooms don’t have many windows, if any, and people with these rooms are limited to addressing the stale air.

But if you have a fan, it can instantly help. 

Fans are specifically designed to improve circulation and ventilation. 

So, if your room is feeling a bit stuffy and stale, there’s no harm in turning on the fan to increase circulation.

Use a Dehumidifier

Another device you can use to address a stuffy room is a dehumidifier. 

When a room is humid, meaning there’s a lot of moisture in the air, the room feels stuffy. 

This is probably the main reason your room and indoor space feel stuffy if you live in a humid area.

With a dehumidifier, you can easily remove the air’s excess moisture, allowing the air in the room to feel fresher and cleaner. 

This is one of the best ways to address a stuffy room, and I found that it works exceptionally well when you pair it with an air purifier.

Conclusion

If you have a stuffy room, an air purifier could be an excellent way to deal with the issue. 

However, keep in mind that many things can cause a room to feel stuffy, and there are times when you’ll need to take multiple approaches to make the air feel nice and light.

Along with an air purifier, you can use a fan or dehumidifier. 

But the most important thing to consider is always ventilation. 

And if you have a well-ventilated room, it will be much easier to keep your room a comfortable and enjoyable place to live, work, and sleep in.