Introduction
Air purifiers work by capturing particles from the ambient air in your home. They do this through a filter. While filters are designed to last a long time, they will need changing from time to time.
The importance of replacing your air purifier filter is vital to ensuring your air purifier's safe and continuous operation. Without performing this essential step, you won't be getting the best of what your purifier has to offer.
Here's everything that you need to know.
How Air Purifier Filters Work?
Air purifier filters work by forcing air through a crisscrossed lattice of fibers and holes. AS the air is forced through the holes, it changes direction. This slowing of the air causes particles to collide with the walls and fibers of the filter, where they become trapped.
And when we say particles, we mean the following:
- Pet dander
- Dust
- Dust mites
- Pollen
- Pollution
- Smoke particles
- Viruses
- Other impurities
To envisage an easier way as to how air purifiers work, imagine a food strainer. Now imagine pouring a pan full of water and peas into the strainer. The water represents fresh and pure air, and the peas represent impurities. The water flows through the strainer holes, whereas the peas become trapped.
However, ask yourself this…
Would you still want to use the strainer without cleaning out the peas captured from the previous week or month? How pure do you think the water would be that had made its way through the strainer in this instance.
If the answer is 'not very', you'd be right.
While our analogy is a little basic, if you fail to change your air purifier filter, this is exactly what is happening. Impurities will build up and become part of the problem instead of the solution.
Why Changing Your Filter is Important?
Quite simply put, if you fail to change your air purifier filter when it requires it, you aren't getting all of the benefits. The whole purpose of an air purifier is to output fresh and pure air. Anything that reduces its efficiency is a bad thing.
In the short term, you could see a loss of performance. In the long term, if the purifier stops working as it was designed to do, you may see a return of the symptoms that required you to purchase it in the first place.
What Happens if I Don't Replace My Air Purifier Filter?
Want some good reasons to give that filter a makeover? Here's what you can expect to happen if you don't change your filter.
Reduced Efficiency
As we said above, air needs to be able to flow through the microscopic holes of the filter for it to work properly. It's to be expected that the filter will become dusty, which means that it is working. However, with a large increase in the accumulation of dirt, pollutants, and dust, the air simply won't be able to get through at all.
Damage To Your Purifier
Think of your air purifier a little like a vacuum cleaner, but instead of sucking away at the carpet or floor, it pulls in air from the room instead. What do you think happens if you never change the bag or cylinder in your vacuum cleaner?
Eventually, it is going to break down, right?
The same can be said of air purifiers. Forcing air where it doesn't want to go will wear down seals and cause it to cease functioning completely.
Good air purifiers aren't prohibitively expensive. However, changing filters makes for a much more cost-effective option than replacing the air purifier entirely!
Fire Hazards
Lint, the term given to large quantities of fiber and dust, can be extremely flammable. This won't be an issue in the normal day-to-day running of your air purifier; however, if this is allowed to build up to unsafe levels, you could find that your purifier isn't keeping you as safe as you think.
It should be kept clean and relatively dust-free as with any electrical appliance to avoid creating a dangerous situation.
Increased Electricity Costs
Your air purifier has one job, and that is to remove harmful particles from the air. Even when the filter has seen better days, your air purifier will work hard to provide this benefit. The downside is that because the filters' holes will be made smaller by collections of debris, the fans inside the filter will have to work even harder to produce the same output.
Normally, air purifiers are relatively low-energy devices, designed to be run all day and using around the same amount of electricity as a small desk lamp. If your filter is due for renewal, you may find that this increases the amount of power consumed by your purifier.
Increased Germs and Mold
This is a big one.
Air purifiers are designed to kill germs and remove mold spores from the atmosphere in your home. This is a good thing. However, the filter is where these agents are collected and accumulated.
When germs and mold spores are concentrated in one area, they can breed easily. There is a lot an air purifier can handle, but it does have limits. Ensure that yours doesn't reach its limit by changing your filter.
How Often Should You Change Your Air Purifier Filter?
The good news is that, due to the microscopic nature of impurities removed from the air, this isn't a task that you'll need to perform too regularly. In fact, with the Clair Air range of air purifiers, around once every 12 months is ample to ensure consistent operation.
What if you forget?
You won't!
The Clair Air K2 air purifier has an inbuilt alarm that will let you know when it is time to change your filter. Remove the old one, insert another, and you are good for another 12 months! And the process couldn't be simpler.
Here is a quick video guide showing you how easy it actually is! If you'd like to see more about how the range of Clair HEPA Air Purifiers work, be sure to visit us here.