How Does An Air Scrubber Work?

What is An Air Scrubber, and How Does An Air Scrubber Work?

An air scrubber is similar to an air purifier but on a smaller scale for a house or a family. It has two main parts: a fan and a filter. The fan draws in contaminated air from within your home. This air passes through filters that capture dust, pollen, pet dander, and smoke. Some air scrubbers even use unique lights to kill germs and bacteria trapped in the filter. 

Purified air is again sucked back into your house. There are two broad categories of filters that air scrubbers use for maximum performance. HEPA filters trap tiny particles, as small as a particle of dust, which is hardly thicker than a strand of hair! Carbon filters hold gases and odors. There are models of air scrubbers that use both types of filters to achieve as high an air quality as possible.

What Are The Benefits Of Using An Air Scrubber?

Reduced Allergy and Asthma Symptoms:

The air inside your home contains tiny particles that cause your airways to become inflamed, such as dust, pollen, pet dander, and mold spores. These can cause allergic and asthmatic reactions such as sneezing, coughing, itchy eyes, and breathlessness. Air scrubbers are like miniature vacuum cleaners for the air in your home, drawing the air into itself and capturing these allergens using filters. 

Such filters as HEPA, for example, can filter particles of dust that are only slightly larger than a thousandth of a hair! Less bacteria in the air that circulates in your home means fewer allergy and asthma symptoms, which can lead to improved health and the ability to breathe easier.

Improved Sleep Quality:

Polluted air can interfere with your sleep cycle and make you exhausted and irritable during the day. Airborne particles such as allergens and irritants can cause allergic reactions at night, leading to difficulty falling or staying asleep. Air scrubbers eliminate these allergens and irritants, making the bedroom a cleaner and healthier place to sleep in. 

Eliminating allergens that affect sleep quality makes air scrubbers effective in ensuring you sleep better at night. The benefits of a good night’s sleep include increased energy levels, improved concentration, and enhanced emotional health.

Reduced Exposure to Harmful Chemicals:

Many household cleaning products, paints, and air fresheners release gases called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air. VOCs can irritate your eyes, nose, and throat, and some may even be harmful in the long term. Air scrubbers, particularly those with carbon filters, can effectively trap and remove VOCs from your home's air. This reduces exposure to these potentially harmful chemicals, creating a healthier indoor environment for you and your family.

Elimination of Odors and Smoke:

Unpleasant smells from cooking, pets, or smoking can linger in your home, making the air stale and unpleasant. Smoke from fireplaces or wildfires can also enter your home and irritate your lungs. Air scrubbers with carbon filters work like tiny sponges, trapping and neutralizing odor and smoke molecules. This helps eliminate unpleasant smells and creates a fresher, more breathable atmosphere in your home.

Improved Protection Against Airborne Germs:

People might get sick as indoor areas are filled with germs and bacteria that may lead to sickness. Although air scrubbers cannot eradicate all airborne germs, some incorporate ultraviolet (UV) light technology. UV light works like a mini zap that will either kill or immobilize the germs and bacteria that may be present in the air scrubbers’ filters. This minimizes the circulation of germs within your home, which may translate to a healthier living space for all inhabitants of your home.

Improved Efficiency of HVAC System:

Many elements, such as dust, mites, molds, pet dander, and other pollutants, can accumulate along the ducts and filters of the HVAC system. This can hamper airflow and cause your heating and cooling system to struggle to do its job. Consider your HVAC system's frustration with blowing air through the blocked filters! 

Air scrubbers can be placed inside your HVAC to trap these elements before entering the ducts. This lessens the workload of your HVAC system and can help save on energy costs and extend the system's lifetime.

Components of an Air Scrubber and Their Functions

Fan:

The fan is the component that is central to the air-cleaning process and is located in an air scrubber. It is a powerful yet almost silent fan that constantly drawing in contaminated air from your home environment. Just picture in your mind a small vacuum cleaner constantly drawing dust, pollen, pet dander, smoke, and other undesirable particles from the air in your home. The strength of the fan is significant. A strong fan can draw a larger flow of air and can clean larger rooms more effectively. 

However, a more robust fan will also consume more power to operate than a weaker one, other factors held constant. Most air scrubber models include a fan speed control feature that allows you to choose the appropriate setting depending on the size of the area you are treating. This enables you to strike a balance between the effectiveness of the cleaner and the amount of energy it consumes.

Pre-Filter

The pre-filter serves as the air scrubber's initial barrier of defense. It is a rough sieve like a net with larger holes to capture bulky items before they reach the main sections of the air scrubber. These may include hair, dust balls, pet shedding, and even larger bugs and insects. The pre-filter helps prevent the primary filters from being overwhelmed by the bigger particles in the air. 

It also makes the more expensive HEPA and carbon filters last longer and makes the air scrubber work better. Pre-filters are generally either washable or replaceable, depending on the make. Prefilters are less expensive in the long run, but they must be cleaned to maintain their effectiveness. Disposable pre-filters are less hassle and do not need refilling as often; however, you will need to replace them occasionally to improve their performance.

HEPA Filter:

Airborne particle removal is where high-efficiency particulate Air (HEPA) filters take center stage in air scrubbers. They comprise a very close weave that captures tiny particles as small as 0.3 microns in diameter. To get an idea of how small that is, a single grain of dust may be as tiny as a thousandth of a hair; still, the HEPA filter can capture it! 

These filters efficiently capture dust mites, pollen, pet dander, mold spores, and some bacteria. As HEPA filters effectively remove most of these allergens from the home’s air, they can alleviate allergies and asthma symptoms and provide cleaner air.

Carbon Filter:

Carbon filters work differently from HEPA filters. They don't trap particles; instead, they target gases and odors—the secret lies in the activated carbon within the filter. Activated carbon is a unique material with many tiny holes and crevices on its surface area. These holes and crevices act like traps for gases and odors. As air flows through the carbon filter, these gas molecules get stuck inside the carbon's structure, effectively removing them from the air. 

Typical targets for carbon filters include smoke, cooking smells, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from household products like paints and cleaning supplies, and even some airborne chemicals. Carbon filters help create a fresher-smelling and potentially healthier environment in your home by eliminating these unpleasant smells and potentially harmful gases.

Housing Unit:

The housing unit is the box that holds all the other components of the air scrubber together. It serves several important purposes. First, it protects the internal parts of the air scrubber, such as the fan, filters, and control panel, from dust, dirt, and accidental damage. This helps to ensure the air scrubber works properly and lasts a long time. 

Second, the housing unit keeps the machine looking neat and tidy. Air scrubbers are often placed in living spaces, so a clean and attractive housing unit helps them blend in better with your home decor. Housing units are typically made of metal or strong plastic and may have vents or openings strategically placed to allow air to flow efficiently through the air scrubber.

Control Panel:

The control panel is the user interface for your air scrubber. It allows you to operate the machine and adjust settings to suit your needs. The control panel typically features buttons or knobs that let you control functions like fan speed, set timers for the air scrubber to turn on and off automatically, and even activate additional features like UV light technology (on some models). 

Some models may also have indicator lights that show when it's time to replace filters or clean the pre-filter. An easy-to-use control panel makes it simple to operate the home air scrubber and get the most out of its features.

Conclusion 

Air scrubbers are like air purifiers for your home, but even better. Air scrubbers can help you breathe easier by reducing dust, pollen, pet dander, smoke, and even some germs in your home's air. This can improve your comfort and potentially create a healthier environment, especially for people with allergies or asthma. Abestorm sells high-quality air scrubbers with HEPA filters. These filters can trap particles as small as dust mites, pollen, and some bacteria. Abestorm HEPA air scrubber 500 can help create a cleaner, fresher-smelling, and healthier home environment for you and your family.