What causes the odor in the air purifier? Can I wash the HEPA filter in water?

What causes the odor in the air cleaner? It can be washed in water.HEPA filterWhat? - I don't know.

Just as we enter the sweltering summer months, many people are bringing out the air purifiers in their homes. As a device that can continuously improve indoor air quality, air purifiers have gradually entered millions of households in recent years. In the process of our use, we gradually learned that air purifiers need to regularly replace the filter, depending on the use of the environment and the frequency of use, the replacement time of the filter is also different. But many friends reflect open air purifier a sour smell comes to the nose.

Why the sour taste?

This is actually a problem with most filtered air purifiers.

Because the air purifier will adsorb all the particles and microorganisms in the air on the filter when it is working, the filter will breed bacteria and produce an odor under the right temperature and humidity. In addition to this, the activated carbon filter in the air purifier will also produce a sour odor when it becomes damp.

In this case, we recommend that you take out the cartridge and place it in a sunny, ventilated place to dry, and the "sour odor" may fade. If this doesn't work, we recommend replacing the cartridge.

Why can't HEPA filters be washed?

Replacing the filter is the most direct approach, but some friends are concerned that the cost of replacing a filter is too high. Indeed, air purifier HEPA filters are priced from 200-1000 yuan, to Beijing's air conditions, for example, if you open 8 hours a day, basically the first half of the year will have to replace a filter, then a year of replacement of filters alone will have to spend 400-2000 yuan.

Air purifier filters include pre-filters, activated carbon filters, and HEPA filters. Of course, more and more manufacturers are now choosing composite HEPA filters with activated carbon particles sandwiched inside the HEPA filter to enhance the filtering effect.

Among them, the pre-filter is used to filter large particles in the air and dust hair and other pollutants, you can directly wash or vacuum cleaner to suck away the dirt. Activated carbon filters are mainly used to adsorb odors and formaldehyde in the air, as long as regularly put into the sun, can also be used repeatedly.

Only HEPA filters can neither be washed nor cleaned by exposure to sunlight, and cannot be reused.Why can't HEPA filters be washed directly?

First let's understand the material of the HEPA filter.

There are a variety of materials that make up HEPA filters, which can be categorized into PP (polypropylene) high efficiency filter paper, PET filter paper, PP and PET composite high efficiency filter paper, and glass fiber high efficiency filter paper. Among them, PP (polypropylene) is paper, so it is generally not washable.

Another part of HEPA filters are made of PET or PTFE, which is where many of the claims of washable HEPA filters come from. However, the efficiency of these HEPA filters is very low and they are not recommended.

In addition, HEPA filter purification principle is not simply like a sieve to filter out particles larger than the mesh to purify the air, HEPA filter rely on fine particles and filter Van der Waals force between the formation of adsorption effect, water scrubbing also destroys the electrostatic adsorption capacity of the filter, fine particles can be easily passed through the loss of adsorption capacity of the filter, air purifiers have become an electric fan.

So, HEPA filters really can not be washed, if you feel that the home of the HEPA filter after a long period of time has become dirty, then it is best to be good to change a new piece of it, don't hurt the money.

If you're still concerned about the cost of using a filtered air purifier, then you can also consider an electrostatic dust accumulation air purifier.