We breathe 4-6x per minute – that’s a good 3-6 liters of air at rest for the average person. What’s more, most of this air is breathed indoors. And that can lead to problems. That’s why indoors you should go for the best air purifiers.

Outside, the sheer volume of air, as well as natural filtration processes, ensures that the air is usually of good quality. Big cities are excluded here, of course – though even the air quality is usually better than indoors. Oxygen is the least of your worries here, much more problematic are pollutants that can accumulate, from dust to estrogenic substances that your polyester carpet emits.

The first thing we’ll do is look at why exactly that causes problems. To do that, we’ll take a look at where indoor pollutants come from and how air filters help improve indoor air. Then, lastly, I’ll introduce you to the 3 best indoor air filters.

Why do you need an Air Purifier?

Improve the Air Indoors

Air filters, of course, help to improve the air in the room. They remove the vapors & smoke particles from the air. Namely, the filters are designed to remove from the air all particles below a desired particle size. For HEPA filters, depending on the classification, this is more than 99.9% of all particles.

Especially near the kitchen, this helps to lighten the air from the feeling and thus optimize.

Filter out pollutants

This is where indoor air filters shine. Many worry about what they eat, some even think about the quality of drinking water, but few think about the quality of the air they breathe every day for thousands of liters. In fact, however, this is of enormous importance, because our modern indoor life also creates some problems here.

Plastics are the main Sources of Pollution

Artificial materials are the main problems. Especially fabrics made of polyester such as carpets and curtains, artificial wall paints, laminate made of plastics, or furniture made of fake wood offgas particles into the indoor air. Basically, all things you have indoors that are not made of stone, wood, glass, wool, or any other pure natural material do this.

The problem with the whole thing is that all of these man-made, hydrocarbon-based substances have an effect on the body – many have an estrogenic effect. They have a feminizing effect, just like endogenous estrogen. Others, however, are linked to autoimmune diseases, cancers, and all sorts of other medical conditions.
So when you breathe them in, they go directly into the pulmonary alveoli and get a quick pass into the bloodstream. This effect is intensified if you breathe unnaturally through your mouth and not through your filtering nose.

Or in short: It is a debacle.
Our bodies can’t handle these substances because they never existed in the environment before. They had never been a problem. Indoor air filters help to reduce the load, but the best solution is to replace all the synthetic materials with natural ones – curtain by curtain and shelf by shelf.

Mold Spores can cause Serious Health Problems

Mold spores have always existed. What has changed is the environment. Outside, they are not a problem because the air is in constant motion – also, the volume of air is gigantic. Indoors, however, they can accumulate and thus pose a problem for us humans.

Molds produce toxins and release them into their surrounding air to prevent other fungi from growing on their ‘territory’. Damage to humans is merely collateral damage. The problem is that mold brings with it extremely serious problems, with countless consequential damages. Some spores can even eat into the body, others like the aflatoxin of Aspergillus Niger (black mold) are classified as a class 1 carcinogen according to the WHO and aspergillosis is a known disease.

Air filters are of little help with mold spores – only finding the fungal colony and destroying them and the circumstances that led to their growth will help.

Are Viruses & Bacteria a problem?

In my opinion: No.¹Unless you run a hospital, sure, then it looks different. But for the private context it makes zero sense before the argument.

You have an immune system that works in a more complex tuned way than anything you have learned so far. Many make themselves weaker than they are by such statements and put themselves in victim roles.
Unfortunately, this fact is often forgotten in our world and fear of all kinds of germs is stirred up. But no one addresses the big elephant in the room: that the only thing that matters is that you are healthy all around. This is by far the most important factor.

Then pathogens can even be positive, as Moises Velasquez Manoff writes in great detail in his book ‘An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Disease*‘ about the connection between modern hygiene and immune diseases.

Dust Particles come on top

Dust is another problem. Basically, dust is just an accumulation of smaller particles, be it skin flakes, said particles from furniture, or whatever else accumulates. And while dust itself is a minor problem, sheer mass makes it so.

Indoor spaces are often poorly ventilated, so particle counts can increase. If people then suffer from hyperactive immune systems due to species-specific nutrition or epigenetics, it may be precisely this that attacks the harmless dust.

What to look for in an Air Purifier at Home?

Look for a built-in HEPA filter

HEPA filter stands for the classification of the filter – there are:

1. EPA
2. HEPA
3. UPLA

They differ in the amount of particles they remove from the air in the room. HEPA filters manage to get rid of 99.95 – 99.995% of substances. In comparison, UPLAs are in the range up to 99.999995% and are more necessary for professional applications.

You can recognize a HEPA filter by the classifications H12 & H13 which should be indicated somewhere by the manufacturer. Fortunately most of them write ‘HEPA’ in the product description.

What size room is it suitable for?

The filters of the individual manufacturers then still differ according to the room size for which they are suitable. This is usually specified in m² for common apartment and room sizes from 30 to over 130m².

For example, I have a 75m² air purifier in the living / dining area, since I spend most of my time there. However, since my apartment is ~60m², the air filter should be able to improve the indoor air of the entire apartment.

Cost: Initial purchase & filter cartridges

Last but not least: Let’s talk money!

Of course, costs are important. Whereby here less the unique initial costs should play a role, but the costs of the filter cartridges on a year extrapolated. Most filters cost 100-200€ in the initial purchase for a normal apartment size.
What then matters is how often you have to change the cartridge, and how much one costs. For example, I change my filter cartridge every half year for ~30€, which equals a good 60€ per year.

The 3 best Air Purifiers for your Home

MyClair HEPA Air Purifier

The MyClair filter is the one I own. As far as I know, it is only available in Switzerland for ~110Fr depending on the offer. It filters about 50m² per hour and removes more than 99.99% of particles due to the HEPA filter. The filter has 3 stages, that is:

• The first stage filters out large particles
• The second stage takes care of the fine particles down to 1 micron in size. These include pathogens & allergens.
• The third stage is an activated carbon membrane, which in turn removes odors and organic compounds (read: man-made toxins).

On top of that, it looks good and is easy to integrate into home decor.

Xiaomi Mi HEPA Air Purifier

If I lived in Germany, I would have chosen this filter from Xiaomi via Amazon*. It has the same filter stages as the MyClair, but manages a larger room volume of about 100 m² per hour. It costs 120€, replacement cartridges come for 30€.

He just has more of the technology installed bells and whistles, such as an air quality indicator, app integration and a dimmable display. As a side note: the app integration via wireless connection mandatory disable, because this creates some nnEMF radiation that you get off. And honestly – who needs these extras? Walking 5m and controlling everything via button is not such an act…

Philips Air Purifier AC2887

Cryptic name, but it does it’s job well*. In my experience, Philips products are always a good choice as far as household is concerned. The filter costs more than the Xiaomi, namely 195€, but also seems to work quieter at the highest level. Overall, it is a bit larger and therefore stands out more in the room. Nevertheless, this filter works similarly to the other two with 3 filter levels.

In terms of other values, the Philips device manages less total area (80 m²), but comes with similar technical gadgets as the Xiaomi. Again – turn off all the smart home features. The replacement cartridges come for 40€ per year.

Frequently asked questions answered briefly & concisely

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Fußnoten & Quellen

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  Unless you run a hospital, sure, then it looks different. But for the private context it makes zero sense before the argument.