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HEPA VS Electrostatic Air Purifiers

Clean indoor air is of great significance to you and your family’s health. You can care for the quality of air you breathe by getting the most effective air purifier.

HEPA VS Electrostatic Air Purifiers

Choosing the most appropriate air purifier for your home can be difficult, since there is a plethora of features to take into account. In this guide, we’ll focus specifically on how HEPA and electrostatic air purifiers differ.

The Basics
Before we start, please allow us to clarify a few terminologies.

HEPA Air Purifier

A HEPA air purifier is a device that uses a HEPA filter that can capture small particles with over 90% efficiency. True HEPA Filters, on the other hand, have an increased particle-retention rate of up to 99.97% efficiency for particles 0.3 microns and larger. For the remainder of this article, we’ll be referring to True HEPA Filters.

Electrostatic Air Purifiers

Electrostatic air purifiers use a process known as ionization. This employs the use of electrostatic charges to make dust particles adhere to standard filters. The filters themselves aren’t of great importance, but the static charge is what boosts their particle-capturing capabilities.

These air purifiers follow a two-step process, which starts with the electrostatic charge. All of the captured particles in the standard filter are placed in a collection bin. This makes disposing of the accumulated debris much easier on the user.

Comparing HEPA and Electrostatic Air Purifiers

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty—how the two air purifier types compare based on various aspects.

Efficiency

As we started earlier, a True HEPA Filter is designed to capture up to 99.97% of at least 0.3 microns in size. Things like dander, dust mites and their waste, pet hair, and pollen have very little chance of scaping the filter’s media, allowing for cleaner are to be recirculated in your home.

As for electrostatic air purifiers, their static charge allows them to cause 0.1-micron contaminants to adhere to their filters with 97% efficiency. So, technically, True HEPA Filters are superior, but if you’re worried about single-cell organisms infecting you or your family, an electrostatic air purifier has a greater chance of snatching them from the air.

Airflow Reduction

Airflow reduction refers to the amount of air pressure that’s lost after inserting a filter in the air purifier. Every air purifier model will be slightly different. On average, True HEPA Filters will cause a 20% reduction in airflow, whereas electrostatic filters experience a drop of only around 5%.

The more airflow the device can maintain, the better it will be at cleaning larger spaces. So, while air purifier models may be marketed as a 1,000-square-foot model, you’ll have to take the amount of lost airflow caused by their respective filters.

Noise Output

Since electrostatic air purifiers hardly experience drops in air pressure, their fans don’t need to work nearly as hard as those in a HEPA air purifier. Generally speaking, a motor that needs to work harder will generate more noise, meaning the electrostatic air purifiers produce much less noise pollution than their HEPA counterparts. You should take this into account when comparing the noise rating of each type of air purifier.

Ozone Production

By default, True HEPA Filters do not emit a single iota of ozone. Electrostatic air purifiers do emit ozone.

However, some of the best electrostatic air purifiers only produce negligible amounts of ozone—around 0.5 PPM—which is not harmful to humans or pets as the ozone will dissipate over time. But if you’re looking for ultimate safety, you should rely on True HEPA Filters over electrostatic ones every time.

Final Thoughts

As you can see from our comparison, both types have their own sets of ups and downs. For the most part, you can’t go wrong with a True HEPA Filter, but if you’re worried about single-cell organisms infecting your family, an electrostatically charged air purifier with the capability to capture 0.1-micron particles is the superior option.


Air Recommended Air Purifiers

Our Pick Perfect for bedrooms, playrooms, and living rooms, the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH is one of the best-performing, most durable, and most economical purifiers we’ve tested.

Most Popular The Levoit Core 300 air purifier has some strong suits, but in our opinion it falls short of carving out a meaningful niche for itself. Its ideal use would be in a small bedroom occupied by someone who is sensitive to noise.

Also Great With high end air cleaning performance and a whisper quiet fan, the Winix 5500-2 is the perfect combination of power and finesse. It cleared airborne particulates out of our smokey testing room faster than any other model.

Best of the Best If you have a large space you want to remove irritants from, We recommend the Airmega 400S. All of Coway air purifiers do an excellent job of attacking indoor pollutants, and we highly recommend any of them. The 400S is designed to accommodate large room sizes.

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About the author

Hi I’m Alex, founder of HouseholdMe.com and I’d like to say thank you for dropping by. Like most of you, the first thing I look at before buying something online is reviews or buying guides. By reading what other people say will help me gauge whether or not a product is good or not.  I am trying to help people find answers, solve problems, and get inspired.

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