124 guides in total.
124 guides· Page 4 of 7
Air conditioning dries the air as a side effect of cooling. In damp basements and mild, muggy weather it does little; a dehumidifier does the job. In humid summers, many homes need both.
A sealed crawlspace with a properly sized, ENERGY STAR whole-home dehumidifier is the standard fix in humid climates. A portable basement unit is usually the wrong tool. Here is why.
In an ultrasonic humidifier, distilled water is what EPA recommends to stop white dust. In an evaporative or steam unit, tap water is workable; the minerals stay in the wick or the heater.
A HEPA purifier sized for the room can reduce virus-carrying particles in the air. It cannot stop transmission on its own, and some technologies sold for germs carry risks of their own.
UV-C lamps aimed at the cooling coil keep mold and bacteria off it; that is what they do well. For cleaning the air you breathe, EPA says a typical home unit's dose is too low. Use them with a filter, not instead of one.
Dyson's Purifier Cool PC1 replaces the TP07 in Dyson's US range. It is a well-built fan with a sealed HEPA filter, but Dyson publishes no CADR, so you pay a premium without a certified number.
The HP1 is Dyson's current heater, fan and purifier, sold in place of the HP07. It earns its price only if you will use all three jobs; as a purifier alone, certified machines do more for less.
"Electrostatic" covers three different things: disposable pleated filters with charged fibers, washable MERV 8 panels, and powered electronic air cleaners. They perform very differently.
All three sell MERV 13 filters. Filtrete publishes the most performance detail, Nordic Pure sells MERV-rated multipacks, and Honeywell's strength is 4-inch media filters for its cabinets.
The old FFAD5033W1 is no longer in ENERGY STAR's current list. Frigidaire's current 50-pint-class unit, the FHDD5034Y1, matches the Midea Cube's certified numbers; buy on price and features.
The AC4825 is one of the cheapest AHAM-listed towers, and its filters are cheap too. But its certified airflow fits a small bedroom, and its UV-C bulb adds upkeep without adding to the CADR.
A bypass HEPA unit pulls part of the return air through a HEPA filter with its own fan, so it does not choke your furnace. EPA says most MERV 13 filters get close to HEPA results anyway.
The listing says 4,500 square feet and 80 pints max. ENERGY STAR says 32.46 pints a day under the DOE test. It is a good mid-size unit, as long as you size it on the certified figure.
The HCM-350 is a long-running evaporative bedroom humidifier with a dishwasher-safe tank. It needs a Filter A wick every 30 to 60 days, and Honeywell's own store now lists the white version as discontinued.
The HPA200 is the HPA300's smaller sibling: two R filters instead of three, 200 cfm of certified smoke CADR, simple buttons. Honeywell still sells it, but Amazon now lists only its filters.
The HPA300 is the plain-box classic: lots of certified airflow for the price, simple buttons, no app and no sensor. Its catch is filter upkeep: three HEPA filters and four pre-filters a year.
Some home monitors track a reference instrument closely; others barely at all. Here are South Coast AQMD's independent PM2.5 results by model, and what makers' accuracy claims really cover.
Most purifier HEPA filters last 6 to 12 months; a few last four or five years. The right answer for you depends on run time and how dirty your air is. Here are the makers' own figures.
