To help inform our air purifier choices, we have collected 14 of the most popular models in the CNET Labs product testing facility in Louisville, Kentucky, where we put them through a rigorous set of tests. Our goal was to determine which air purifiers offered the best performance in terms of the efficiency of particles, energy consumption and silence, at the same time evaluating their appropriate sets of features and value.
The test for removing particles
The air we breathe is not just air. Truth be told, it is a combination of human -generated particles and naturally. The first is composed mostly of urban, industrial and carbohydrate car emissions, nitrogen oxides and combustion by -products, and the latter is most commonly represented by smoke from forest fires, sulfates, carbon black and volcanic activity.
According to WellSome of these microscopic solids and liquid drops, which can be made up of hundreds of different chemicals, are so small that it is almost inevitable to inhale. PM10 and PM2.5, which are particles with a diameter of less than 10 and 2.5 micrometers, respectively, pose the highest risk to human health because once inhaled. They assign deep into the lungs, and even in the bloodstream, disrupting the appropriate functionality of the lungs and heart.
“It is the size that can enter our body, in our lungs and enter our bloodstream,” Haao said. “It is the number one environmental risk factor globally. He kills about 6 to 7 million people a year, “he said, due to cardiovascular or respiratory problems caused by particle contaminants.
Our own air purifier chamber uses a clear panel with a clear overview, made of plexiglass and gloves, allowing us to manipulate air purifiers, particle numbers for our control device, two fans that provide proper air mixing And the smoke inside the chamber, the ports for openings that provide a small amount of fresh air at any time, a ignition port to illuminate the smoke -bombs from the exterior equipment, and the exhaust gate that removes the remaining smoke safely from the chamber and the building after each test after each test .
The chamber is not airtight sealed, but it is tight enough to ensure that there is no dangerous amount of smoke not to escape the environment. Our mission was to create an environment in which we exposed each unit of air purifier saturated with particles of approximately the same concentration to assess how quickly and efficiently they return air to breathing conditions.
We made our own smoke bombs, which are made of 50% potassium nitrate (KNO3), 40% sucrose (sugar) and 10% sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and included a distance burning fuse. Sugar acts as our fuel source, while potassium nitrate acts as an oxidizing agent and baking soda guarantees that our dry mixture maintains slow and even burning.
Using the Temtop PMD331 particle counter, we were able to confirm that 5 grams of dry mixture of smoke produces approximately between 590 million and 610 million particles per meter cube. The device is able to count particles of different sizes, including PM2.5 and PM10, and announces this data once every 15 seconds. Although we are able to count particles of different size individually, it is the total number of particles we care about, which is the set of all particles of different size.
We have prepared a 5-gram of smoke bomb, which is ignited by the ignition port after installing the air purifier and provided proper sealing. Once the air in the chamber becomes saturated with particles (greater than 580 million particles/m3), we turn on the air purifier in question. Data extracted from Temtop allow us to accurately monitor the impact the air purifier has on real -time particles.
Noise level
Using a decibel gauge, we measured how loud the air purifiers of their low, medium and high fan settings. This is especially important if you are planning to have an air purifier in your bedroom overnight and you do not want it to disturb your dream. We performed this test in our sound improvement studio to ensure that the decibel gauge collected only sound stimuli from air purifiers, excluding other possible sources.
Energy consumption
To answer this question we used a device called Kill-A-Watt And measure how much power each air purifier consumes different fan settings. Knowing the energy extracting for your air purifier can make a difference in your energy account.