In this review we’re gonna be looking at recommendations for air purifiers for mold.
Mold spores tend to be larger particles. It can be anywhere from two to 40 microns in diameter, and that is very large in the world of air purifiers.
This also makes mold spores large enough to really be filtered by any type of particle filter at all. For most other particles we recommend a HEPA filter. However because mold spores are so large, you can really use any particle filter at all.
You can purchase an air purifier with a proprietary particle filter, you can purchase a air purifier with a permanent filter. You really don’t have to look for anything special for the air purifiers particle filter, if you are primarily concerned with filtering out mold spores.
We definitely still prefer units that are equipped with HEPA filters because the air contains much more than mold spores, even if you have a mold issue and there are mold spores in the air that you breathe, there are still other particles that need to be taken care of. And a HEPA filter is going to do much better with those other particles than those proprietary particle filters.
There is also the fact that mold itself feeds off of dust particles. Dust particles can be anywhere from 100-plus microns all the way down to less than one micron in diameter. Those dust particles in the home are going to be filtered much better by a HEPA filter.
If your concern is continued mold growth and you want to prevent that from happening as quickly or you want to prevent it from happening at all, then removing dust from the air and therefore removing particles in the range of anywhere from less than one micron all the way up to more than 100 microns, is going to contribute heavily to reducing the amount of mold in your home.
We specifically recommend HEPA equipped units with about 250 CFM of air processing power. The 250 CFM benchmark is there for many reasons, but really at 250 CFM, we see sufficient air processing power for most applications.
We also see very good value and great energy efficiency. And we also see really good noise output for the amount of processing power that is there. Around the 250 CFM benchmark that’s where we would recommend that most consumers look for an air purifier.
The higher air processing power is also going to allow the air purifier to lower particle concentration in the room faster. It’s going to be able to bring the overall particle concentration in the room to a lower threshold and because of all that processing power, it’s going to be able to attack new particles coming into the room much quicker, because it is processing that air so quickly.
So high CFM, high output is definitely important and right around 250 CFM you see a great value for high output.
One of the best 250 CFM air purifiers on the market is Winix 5500-2.
This just serves as an example unit of something you definitely want to look at if you are buying an air purifier for mold.
This Winix unit actually is equipped with two different filters that are going to help with that mold issue.
This unit is equipped with a washable pre-filter and a true HEPA filter.
The pre-filter is there to take care of larger particles and in this scenario, it is actually going to filter out a lot of mold spores themselves right there on the washable pre-filter.
That washable pre-filter on is washable and that is important because there are many units on the market that do not have washable pre-filter. Those pre-filter saturate with large particles and they’re going to saturate fairly quickly, because large particles are large and therefore they tend to saturate those filters very quickly.
As those filters are saturated they need to be replaced. Because they need a replace, that is going to be money out of your pocket, because you’re going to have to pay for those filter replacements for those pre filters.
On a unit like Winix, the pre-filter is washable, so you can take the pre-filter out of the unit, you can wash it, you can vacuum it, you can remove those large particles from the filter, and it’s going to be just as good as a new after you do that without needing to pay to actually replace the filter.
Click here to buy Winix 5500-2!
All of the smaller particles, and we’re talking about those dust particles we talked about earlier, those smaller particles are going to make their way all the way to the HEPA filter.
In between there is a gas filter. There is an activated carbon filter but that activated carbon filter is going to do absolutely nothing for mold. It’s going to do absolutely nothing for any type of particle. It is there solely for gaseous molecules. So things like VOCs and odors, they’re going to be taken care of by that activated carbon filter.
However the particles are going to be taken care of by the true HEPA filter and true HEPA filters are really the gold standard for air purifiers for particle filtration. They are used even on upwards of $901,000 air purifiers. There you still find true HEPA filters used.
These are very high quality, very effective filters. The HE in HEPA actually stands for high efficiency and they are extremely efficient.
A true HEPA filter is going to give you 99.97% efficiency for particles 0.3 microns or larger.
What that means is that for every 10,000 particles that is contained within a particular quantity of air, that comes through this air purifier, only three particles out of that ten thousand are going to make it through the filter, are going to make it pass the filter up and out of the unit.
This unit, equipped with that true HEPA filter, is extremely efficient in removing particles from the air and so that is definitely something that you want to look for.
There is a HEPA filter if you are concerned about filtering particles, like dust that the mold can feed off of from the air.
Again this Winix 5500-2 is one of the better examples out there of a 250 CFM unit that comes equipped with a true HEPA filter and a washable pre-filter.
It is our main recommendation as the best air purifier for mold.
Click here to buy Winix 5500-2!
