An air purifier is a handy device to tackle the contaminants, pollen, dander, and allergic element in the air for healthy living. However, when you bring your 1st air purifier home, you will need to learn a few things about it. Also, a few questions might develop in your mind. For instance, “How long should I run an air purifier at home? Or, is it safe to run an air purifier all day?”
You can run your air purifier all day without any break. It means you can run the device for 24 hours to purify and clean the indoor air. Also, many air purifiers allow you to set a schedule. Some also come with indicators. When the indicator shows the interior air is clean and pure, the device will stop automatically.
Nonetheless, there’s no harm in running the air purifier for as long as you want. It shouldn’t bring any health consequences at all.
How Long Should You Run an Air Purifier
Although an air purifier works brilliantly in cleansing and purifying indoor air, its functioning and performance will depend mostly on its specifications. Also, the time an air purifier needs to remove pollutants from the air will depend on its coverage, displacement ability, CADR rating, and the type and quality of its filters. It also depends on the pollutants in the indoor air.
Nonetheless, an air purifier will need around 30 minutes to 2 hours to purify the air of a small to medium room. When the room size becomes bigger, the device will require more time to reach every corner of the room. Consequently, it will need time to purify the air.
This statement might force you to think that you can run an air purifier for 30 minutes to 2 hours to remove contaminants from the indoor and then switch off the device. But that’s not right. Although the indoor air will get rid of the pollen, dander, allergic elements, and germs after a while, you run the device, pollutants from the outside environment can still enter the room.
As a result, exterior pollutants will quickly contaminate the indoor environment. Therefore, you should keep the air purifier running for 24 hours. It will always soak the pollutants and keep the indoors free of any possible pollutants.
Nonetheless, the time required to clean air for the device will depend on a few factors, as we mentioned above. So, you should know these factors to run your air purifier properly.
Room Size:
All air purifier has a specific range. It will determine how much area it can cover at a given time. The coverage will also depend on its size. For instance, a mini air purifier can cover around 100 square feet to 200 square feet area with ease. So, it will work perfectly when you keep it in a small room.
Nonetheless, when you keep the air purifier in a bigger room than its coverage ability, its efficiency will reduce considerably. Consequently, it will need more time to clean the room environment and remove any elements appropriately.
Thus, when you get an air purifier at home, you must consider your room size and the device’s coverage. When you get the right-sized air purifier for your room, it will deliver optimum performance. So, you can run it for around 2 hours to get pollutant-free air.
If you use a whole-house humidifier, ensure that it covers at least 2000 square feet of space. Or else, it won’t be efficient and deliver the performance you expect.
CADR Rating:
The CADR rating of an air purifier refers to the multiplication of air purifier efficiency and its airflow rate (CFM). CADR rating also stands for Clean Air Delivery Rate and refers to how much air it can clean at a given period.
Thus, the equation stands as:
CADR rating= Air Flow (CFM)× efficiency of the device in percentage (%)
For instance, if your air purifier works at 100% efficiency and has an airflow rating of 200CFM, its CADR rating will be 200. If the air purifier has a 200CFM rating and its efficiency is 75%, the CADR rating of the device will be 150.
As a thumb of rule, the higher the CADR rating, the faster the device will work. When your air purifier has a higher CADR rating and is placed in the right-sized room, it won’t need much time to clean the indoor air properly.
Thus, you should look at the CADR rating of your device when you buy it. It will be useful in maintaining the indoor environment better.
CFM Rating:
Since the cleaner’s ability to deliver pure air depends on its CADR rating, you also need to look at its CFM performance. It is important as CFM rating will directly impact the CADR rating. So, what is the CFM rating of an air purifier?
CFM stands for cubic feet per minute and refers to the device’s ability to purify the air in one minute. The higher the CFM rating, the more air it can purify in one minute. Consequently, its CADR rating will increase, and the device will deliver more purified air in the interior environment.
Technically, an air purifier should have at least a 100CFM rating for a small to medium room up to 200 square feet size. If the room size is bigger, the CFM rate should be more. For instance, if your room size is 400 square feet, you should get an air purifier of at least 150CFM. Or else the device will fail to deliver optimum performance. As a result, it needs more time to purify the room’s air.
Also, the CFM rating depends on the type of device you have. Usually, a battery-operated or rechargeable air purifier has a better CFM rating than the mini ones.
Room Size:
An air purifier will need to remove pollutants from the interior environment depending on your room size. If you place a small air purifier in a bigger room, its efficiency will degrade, so it time to purify the room air will increase. Therefore, you need to run the device longer to remove contaminants from the air.
We have already described the coverage ability of the air purifier in the previous segment. It has a direct correlation with the room size. Thus, it would help if you never placed an air purifier in a room bigger than it can cover. It will not only reduce its efficiency but also will fail to purify the air properly. It won’t reach every corner of your room. Consequently, some parts of your room will remain unfiltered and contaminated.
Air Filter’s Quality and Number:
The time an air purifier needs to cleanse the indoor air will also depend on the type and quality of its filters. Also, the number of filters used in the device will determine the time it will need to clean the air from different elements.
But, this is a tricky consideration. It is because the number of filters in the device will work oppositely for the device. It means the more filters the device has, the more time it will need to clean the air, while in reality, it should be the opposite.
So, why does it happen?
It happens since the air drawn by the air filter fan will need to go through all the filters before it releases back to the environment. As the air goes through multiple filters inside the device, it takes time to get back into the room. So, an air purifier with multiple filters will often need more than 2 hours to cleanse and remove the indoor pollutants.
Also, you need to consider the quality and type of the filters. Usually, most residential air purifiers come with HEPA filters. It will remove the germs up to 3 microns from the air. Also, it might have carbon activated or charcoal filters. In general, the charcoal or activated carbon filter is used to soak the odor from the environment.
When your air purifier has better filters, it will work faster and better. So, you will enjoy the purest air inside the home for healthy living.
You can follow this YouTube video to know about the filters better.
Air Extraction Rate:
Air extraction rate will control the device’s ability to clean air in a given period. Usually, it is measured in one hour period. The air extraction rate is quite similar to the CFM rating. However, many air purifier manufacturers will use the extraction rate instead of the CFM rating. So, we thought putting it on this list would be useful.
The higher the extraction, the faster the device’s cleaning speed will be. It is expressed in the air change unit.
When you buy an air purifier, you need to compare the air changeability of multiple devices to know which fits your necessity. For instance, a 2 air change rating device will work 2X faster than a device with 1 air change rating. Also, a higher air change facility will be useful in larger rooms.
Thus, the device with a 2 air change rating will need only 1 hour to cleanse the air. On the other side, the device with 1 air change rate per hour will need 2 hours to remove contaminants from the air.
Pollutants Presence in The Air:
Finally, the time you should run your air purifier will depend on pollutants in the air. The device is designed to remove pollen, dust mites, dander, and germs from the air. Thus, its efficiency will depend on how much pollutant is present in the air.
For instance, if you live in a highly polluted area near industrial regions, the device will need more time to remove the errant from the air. It happens because polluted air will have more germs, dust mites, pollen, and dander in the air.
Also, if you have pets at home, it will leave dander in the air. Thus, the runtime of the air purifier will increase considerably. Finally, the presence of pollen during summer and winter will also affect the time you should run an air purifier at home.
Can I Run Air Purifier Always?
If you live in a highly polluted area, you can run the air purifier all the time. It is 100% safe and won’t do any harm. However, when you run the device for 24 hours, it will consume more electricity. Also, a battery-operated device will need faster battery replacement.
Other than these minor issues, there’s no harm in running your air purifier always. It will provide you with 100% pure air for healthy and happy living.
Tips on Reducing the Cleaning Time of Air Purifiers
Although running an air purifier 24 hours a day isn’t bad, most people won’t do it in real life. Also, people would look for ways to minimize the cleaning time of the device to enjoy fresh air quickly indoors.
- The first rule of thumb to increase the cleaning speed of air purifiers is to choose the right size and coverage for your room. It will also increase the efficiency and performance of the device significantly.
- When you run the air purifier, you should close the door and windows of the room. Thus, outside pollutants won’t enter the room. Consequently, the device will clean the air quicker. When you cook, smoke, or clean the room, you can turn off the device for the time being and open the window for fresh air.
- You should maintain the air purifier regularly. It means you need to clean and refill the filter timely. If the filter gets too dirty, it will, in fact, develop a funny odor. Also, it will lose efficiency dramatically. It will, in turn, fail to remove as much contaminant as you want.
You see that none of these three ways speed up the cleaning time of the air purifier. So, always opt for these methods to enjoy the best performance from the device.
Final Words
You should now get the straightforward and detailed answer to the question, “How long should you run an air purifier?” Well, you should run the air purifier as long as possible to keep the indoor cleaner and healthier.
Technically, a cleaner will need 30 minutes to 2 hours to clean the air from a room. However, we suggest you run the device for an extended period as pollutants continuously enter the room. Also, running the device for 24 hours isn’t bad for your health. It is also good since keeping the air purifier sitting idle in the corner is no point. You have spent your hard-earned money on it. So, let it show its air-purifying magic.
