Air purifiers can be a useful addition to your home

When looking at a purifier's filtration capacity, professionals look first at the CADR (a measure of how efficiently an air purifier cleans the air). The CARD value (the amount of air that can be cleaned per hour) of a home air purifier is usually in the hundreds, for confined spaces of tens of square meters, and such a large CARD value can only be used inside a confined space, with a window open, because the rate of purification can't keep up with the speed at which the polluted air comes in.

Extreme weather events won't go away

Unfortunately, drastic weather events (which are becoming more and more common), such as wildfires from Canada to California, can blanket the sky with smoke hundreds of miles away. Some emergency preparedness in the form of an air purifier can have a significant impact on your health and well-being.

In extreme events, when you can't open your windows to bring in fresh air, you can make your air purifier with a box fan and filter, but having a dedicated unit ahead of time is better for several reasons.

Advantages of air purifiers

Portable air purifiers come in handy during moments of increased air pollution, such as when something catches fire in the kitchen, a wildfire breaks out in the neighborhood, or during seasons of heavy pollen. A unit like the Coway Mighty runs on high speed for a few minutes, cleans the room much faster than an HVAC, and then keeps the room clean and tidy while running on medium or automatic speed.

"I put a Coway air purifier in my dad's house for that reason," said Tim, the purchaser. "It spends most of its time tucked away in a closet, and we let the HVAC keep the air clean. But whenever we use the fireplace, we pull out the Coway to help clear the air of the smoke that enters the living space and can aggravate my niece's asthma. It makes all the difference in the world."

As long as you clean the pre-filter monthly and change the HEPA filter regularly (usually every 8 to 12 months - check the operator's manual). But as you've already learned, we do like the Coway Mighty best because of its durability, compact size, and efficiency.

Air purifiers don't remove odors though

As much as we rave about air purifiers, none of them help eliminate smoke odors. That's because they're not very good at capturing the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that our noses interpret as odors.

Air purifiers capture particulate matter physically, and while some have token odor-capturing VOC filters with activated carbon, they just don't have enough carbon to make a difference. Once the carbon has reacted with the VOCs and done its job, it is consumed.

For cigarettes and non-airborne mold, the only real answer is professional remediation (air purifiers do capture airborne mold, but you need to address the underlying problem to fix it).

If it's CO2 and gas stove exhaust (or if you're using something like oven cleaner, which we don't recommend), open the windows to let fresh air in and exhaust the foul-smelling air.

I hope this is enough to convince you and your family of the value of an air purifier. It's worth it to make a little space in your room to keep Coway Mighty company.