Allergy Air Filters: How to know what’s right for you
It seems like everyone and their uncle has an allergy air filter to sell you. And I don’t know about you, but those late-nite infomercials do little more than to make me anxious about the air quality in my home. If the air inside is really worse for my allergies than the air outside, yikes!
So, I finally decided it was time to dig in and do my research and find the right allergy air filter for my house, and now that I’m really happy with the two I bought, I thought I’d share what I learned with you.
Here’s what you need to know to determine which of the allergy air filters on the market is right for you.
1) Size of your room(s). Because I spend most of my time at home in my bedroom or in the kitchen/family room, I bought two allergy air filters and put one in each of the rooms. My bedroom is a small-medium sized room (about 160 square feet) and the kitchen/dining room is larger (about 350 square feet). Likewise, you need to know the approximate sizes of the rooms you spend the majority of your time in so that you can find the right allergy air filters for your space. If you spend your time all throughout the house, you might prefer to buy one whole house allergy air filter (you’ll need a professional installer for this).
For larger rooms, this allergy air filter is a great one. It’s highly reviewed, a great price, and is easy to take care of. But, it won’t work in a bedroom because it’s noisy (unless you need some loud white noise to cover up traffic noise). The filter does need to be cleaned every two months, but what I like about that is that while it’s a little extra work, it’s a big money saver because you don’t have to replace the filter every time.
For a room up to 225 square feet, or a room that requires a very quiet allergy air filter, this model is a great pick. It requires minimal maintenance, doesn’t give off ozone (which can build up in small rooms and may damage the lungs), and, like I said, is hardly audible.
For a room up to 80 square feet, this one is quiet and tiny so that you aren’t giving up a lot of space for your allergy air filter. This one’s not strong enough for the rooms in my house, but my mom has one in her guest bedroom, so I’ve experienced it first hand (I sleep in there when I visit). It’s plenty quiet to get to sleep, and it really does a great job filtering the air in a small space. Maintenance is easy and there’s a light to remind you it’s time to vacuum the filter.
2) How quiet do you need it to be? I already separated that out on the three models I recommend, but it’s an important consideration. Many people like allergy air filters *because* they add a little white noise to a space, but some people are lighter sleepers than others so make sure that if you get a filter for the bedroom, it’s not too noisy for you to fall asleep.
3) How good are you at remembering to change/clean the filter? Some models have a light to remind you the filter needs care, and this can be great if you tend to be forgetful about infrequent household tasks. I put this on the calendar and remember when it’s time to clean the filters that way, but a light can definitely be handy.
4) Ozone or no ozone? I’ve done some reading on ozone and, to me, it sounds dangerous. After all, this stuff belongs way, way up in the atmosphere, not being spewed in our houses. There is some evidence that lots of ozone in a small space can be damaging to the lungs, so I’ve chosen to stay away from ozone filters entirely. Check with your doctor to see what’s recommended for you.
So, that’s how I went about choosing the right allergy air filters for my home and I’m very happy with the two I selected. If you have any experience with the models I recommended, I’d love to hear how they’re working for you, too!
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