Clean Air Solutions: Best Air Purifiers for Pet Hair and Home Use
The best air purifier for home can remove all kinds of unpleasant smells and indoor pollutants, such as pet hair. If you’re living with a pet you’re allergic to, having an air purifier can help prevent or reduce your symptoms.
So, which air purifiers for pet owners should you buy?
In this post, we’ll take a look at the best Air Purifier For Pet hair from trusted brands, specifically Dyson, SwitchBot, and Winix.
Overview
Air Purifier for Pet Hair | Definition, Benefits, and How It Works
An air purifier for home is exactly what its name suggests—it cleans the air in your home with the help of an internal fan and filter. Every model of air purifier can remove specific airborne contaminants, such as dust, pollen, dust mites, chemical fumes, cigarette smoke, and pet hair and dander.
Most air purifiers have two main components: fans and filters. Here’s how these two work together to purify the air you breathe:
- Step 1: Home purifiers use one or two fans to draw in air from within the room. Then, the fans move this captured air through layers of filters.
- Step 2: The filters are responsible for removing unwanted odors, chemicals, and solid particles (such as dust and pet hair) before releasing the cleaned air back into the room. Filters, such as activated carbon filters, consist of tiny holes that can help grab and hold onto odor-causing air pollutants.
It’s important to note that it takes several kinds of filters in an air purifier for home to do the job effectively. Some of the commonly used filters in home air purifiers include:
- Pre-filters (usually the first line of defense).
- High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter.
- Activated carbon filters.
- Electrostatic filters.
- Titanium dioxide (TiO2) filters.
Why should you have an Air Purifier For Pet hair in your home? Here are some of its possible benefits:
1. Promotes Healthier Indoor Air
Most of us spend most of our time indoors. In fact, people in the WHO European Region spend around 90% of their day indoors, such as in their homes, schools, and workplaces.
While indoor air quality has improved for the past decades, people are still at risk of developing a range of health problems. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), around 20% of Europeans suffer from allergies, asthma, headaches, and other health issues due to indoor air pollutants.
Can an air purifier for home get rid of these pollutants in your home’s air?
The short answer is “yes.” But the efficiency of an Air Purifier For Pet hair at improving indoor air quality usually depends on the filtration technology it uses.
2. Removes Bad Odors
With the right type of air purifier for home, you can easily enjoy fresh, healthy air all the time. For removing unwanted odor, the most important filter in home air purifiers is the activated carbon filter. This filter works by grabbing onto odor molecules, which stick to the surface instead of being absorbed.
3. Eases Allergic Reactions
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, air purifiers can help reduce viruses, allergens, and other contaminants in the air of a home—that is, if you use them correctly. Depending on several factors, such as the size of the room and capacity of the purifier, it could take 30 minutes to a few hours to eliminate most airborne pollutants.
What Is the Importance of Pet Hair Removal?
Pet hair doesn’t only make your home interior look messy and smell bad, but it also has a negative impact on health. Your immune system could negatively react to pet dander, which clings to the hair and causes allergic reactions if you have sensitivities. This is why it’s important to rid your home of these allergens to ensure a healthier environment.
When choosing an Air Purifier For Pet hair, look for these features:
1. HEPA Filters
A high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter is known for its impressive ability to capture as much as 99.97% of air pollutants, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They could remove particles as small as 0.3 microns, such as pet dander, mold spores, and pollen. These particles are so small that they have no problem sneaking past the tiny hairs lining our airways.
2. Activated Carbon Filters
Aside from the health risks, pet hair and dead skin cells can cause your home to smell bad. This is where activated carbon filters excel at trapping all kinds of unwanted odors through adsorption. Just make sure to replace your purifier’s activated carbon filters every 3 to 6 months, or as recommended by the manufacturer, to ensure optimal performance.
3. Pet Hair Specific Technologies
Most home air purifiers don’t come with only one technology for handling pet hair and dander. Most purifiers include pre-filters that prevent pet hair and other bigger particles (more than 5 microns) from clogging the primary filter. Some may use ultraviolet (UV) light to target the bacteria and viruses that could be present in the hair and dander.
The 3 Best Air Purifiers for Pet Hair and Home Use
Fortunately, there’s no shortage of options for a good-quality Air Purifier For Pet hair. To give you an idea of your options, we’ve put together three of the best air purifiers for pet owners on the market.
Winix 5500-2 Air Purifier
If you’re looking for a mid-range Air Purifier For Pet hair, the Winix 5500-2 Air Purifier might be for you. This air purifier for home could improve the air quality of any medium-sized room with the help of its four-stage filtration system, which includes a washable pre-filter, carbon filter, HEPA filter, and Winix’s PlasmaWave technology.
It also comes with other advanced features and accessories, specifically:
- A remote control.
- A filter indicator light.
- A sleep mode.
- An LED light for real-time reporting of air quality.
Benefits:
- Quiet and efficient.
- Adjusts fan speed in response to your current air quality.
- Can improve the air quality in rooms measuring up to 1,740 square feet in an hour.
Reviews:
One of the downsides of the Winix 5500-2 Air Purifier is its bulkiness. But overall, customers still love it because it’s relatively quiet and has a sleep mode option. It’s also effective in removing dust and unwanted odors. It has Dual Smart Sensors that measure air quality and immediately adjust the speed of the fan.
SwitchBot Air Purifier
SwitchBot designed its air purifier for home with your furry friend in mind. Its safety grill makes sure your pet’s claws won’t get stuck, while its electrical wires are chew-proof to prevent electrocution. SwitchBot also added a pet mode to keep your pet calm when using this purifier.
The 360-degree air intake allows this purifier to draw in air from all sides of your room. Once captured, the purifier’s 3-layer filtration system can efficiently remove 98.18% of unwanted odors and 93.45% of floating hairs.
Benefits:
- Thoughtful design that perfectly balances functionality, safety, and visual appeal.
- Offers different features and accessories for different purposes.
- Efficient at removing most air contaminants, including pet hair.
- Operates quietly so as not to disturb your sleep.
Reviews:
Customers love the 2-in-1 design of the SwitchBot Air Purifier—acting both as an Air Purifier For Pet hair and a fragrance diffuser. The pet-friendly table top, pet mode, chew-proof electrical wires, and claw-proof grills are also welcome additions to ensure the comfort and safety of pets. Since it has a 236 CFM CADR rating, it can purify air within larger areas in just a few minutes.
Dyson Purifier Cool TP07
Equipped with Dyson’s Air Multiplier technology, the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07 efficiently draws in air from the surroundings and creates a powerful stream of clean air. Since it’s completely sealed to meet HEPA H13 standard, Dyson guarantees that what goes inside the TP07 will stay inside. It also detects air quality changes in real-time and reports them on the MyDyson app or its LCD screen.
Benefits:
- Includes an oscillating fan that helps promote good airflow.
- Completely sealed to prevent captured air pollutants from going back into the room.
- Works well in filtering indoor air within a few minutes.
Reviews:
The Dyson Purifier Cool TP07 is effective at cleaning the air in indoor spaces. Customers also love how easy it is to use. When it comes to the build quality, remote control, and noise produced by the purifier, customers have different opinions.
Air Purifier for Pet Hair| 5 Important Considerations
Not all home air purifiers will have the right features to effectively filter out pet hair and dander. Before buying an air purifier for pet hair, carefully consider these factors first:
1. Room Size and Coverage Area
It’s important to know the size of the room in which you plan to place an air purifier for pet hair before buying one. If the CADR (cubic meter per hour) rating is too small, the purifier won’t be able to filter all air in the room. If the rating is too high, you could spend more money than necessary.
Most manufacturers will specify the CADR rating their purifiers can handle. For instance, the SwitchBot Air Purifier can clean 236 cubic feet of air per minute. This is enough for a room that’s around 10 feet long and 10 feet wide.
Tip: Choose an Air Purifier For Pet hair that’s at least 20 to 40 percent bigger than the area where you’re going to place it.
2. Filtration System
By selecting the right combination of air filtration technologies, you can significantly minimize the amount of pet hair and dander present in the air circulating inside your home. An air purifier for home, in its most basic form, should have at least a pre-filter, HEPA filter, and activated carbon filter.
Air purifiers that can remove air contaminants as small as 0.3 microns are also recommended. This helps ensure that you don't inhale disease-causing particles, which are easy to breathe in but difficult to breathe out.
3. Noise Level
It’s not only pet owners who would appreciate a quiet air purifier for home. For families, especially those with babies, young children, and elderly members, these air purifiers help maintain a calm and relaxing home environment. Ideally, you’d want an air purifier that has a noise rating below 60 decibels (dB).
4. Energy Efficiency
The common advice is to run an air purifier for home all the time to ensure a consistent indoor air quality. But with the cost of electricity continuously rising, we understand why you would be worried about this.
Fortunately, there are many energy-efficient air purifiers on the market today. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re shopping for an Air Purifier For Pet hair:
- Energy Rating or Label: In the United States, this would come in the form of an Energy Star label. In Europe, the EU energy label indicates an appliance’s energy efficiency through a color-coded scale ranging from A to G. A represents the highest energy efficiency, while G the lowest.
- Power Consumption: Look for the purifier’s power consumption, which is usually listed in kilowatt-hours (kWh) or watts (W). The lower the figure, the less electricity it uses.
- Energy-conserving Features: For instance, some air purifiers automatically shut off after a set period or when they detect the air quality is already at the desired level.
Conclusion
An Air Purifier For Pet hair would greatly help improve indoor air quality and the health of both humans and pets, especially when used with other devices and best practices. But not all air purifiers are created equal. That’s why it’s important to do your research to find the right one for your needs. If you want to be sure, invest in trusted brands, such as SwitchBot.
