1. Size of the Room

Air purifiers are designed to handle a limited space, typically quoted in square metres (m2). Therefore, the size of the room in which you want to use an air purifier, measured in square metres, is clearly a relevant consideration. We recommend that you always stay below the capacity limit. If you don’t, the results of using your air purifier may not be up to the mark, and you will not get the optimal air quality you could.

2. Power

The power of an air purifier is measured in terms of the speed at which it completely cleans a room’s air. This is one of the most important criteria to check when buying an air purifier. The device must filter the room’s air three times to guarantee a purification of 99.5%.

Our devices are equipped with a powerful integrated fan with speed gradations. Each device has four speed levels, reaching a maximum speed of, respectively, 120 m3/h for the P1211, 310 m3/h for P3001, and 510 m3/h for the P6006 air purifier, one of the most efficient in the industry. .

3. Noise

The sound produced by an air purifier is not the same as that of a conventional fan. The air purifier forces air through its filters, causing the molecules to collide, resulting in a low-grade, whistling-like sound. Because of all of these aspects, purifier brands have focused on implementing automatic sleep modes and light-off modes to provide more nighttime comfort for home users. These modes offer the user automatic settings to purify the air without generating annoying noise.

A medium power purifier averages 30 dB of threshold sound, which is like the delicate sounds of leaves in the wind. At full power, the sound level can reach a threshold of 55 dB, which is like the ambient sound of a television. . So we can conclude that it is important to consider the relationship between power and noise. The higher the power level at which you operate the purifier, the more noise it will generate..It is interesting to note that the minimum noise emitted by our purifiers is, on average, 10 dB, and it almost sounds like a whisper. This would be ideal for sleeping at night with the unit on.

All our Protech Allergy purifiers have a standby function which renders them silent

4. Types of filters

A key point not to be neglected is the filter – or, in any good purifier, the filters – used. We note that the mechanism on which air purifiers are based is the filtering of air through a semi-permeable barrier to eliminate harmful allergy-causing particles. The secret lies in the product's filters. But what types of filters are there? There are 4 basic filters that top-of-the-line purifiers generally have.

i. Nylon Filter or Pre-Filter: This is the same type of filter that an air conditioner has. It is simply a fine mesh that traps dust and very coarse particles. The function of these filters is to stop the larger particles to optimize the performance of the other filters.

ii. H13 High-Performance HEPA Filter: This filter is composed of a succession of microfine glass fibre meshes. It traps tiny dust particles and various types of germs and bacteria in the air. It manages to trap the particles either by their colliding directly with the mesh or their being trapped because the filter has a material that forces them to stay stuck. Its function is to eliminate the smallest impurities that appear in the air, so to optimize its performance it is advisable to have a pre-filter as described above to first eliminate the largest particles.

iii. Activated Carbon Filter: This filter is made of pure porous carbon that transforms gaseous particles into solids through a chemical process. Activated carbon is a combination of several carbon compounds and allows only particles smaller than 50 nm (nanometres) to pass. Its primary function is to trap the tiny biological particles that cause odours in the environment and other types of germs produced by pets in the environment.

iv. Photocatalytic Filter: This is a titanium dioxide filter that works in combination with a UV lamp to trap very fine dust particles and tiny bacteria in the air. This process conserves and accumulates energy from the UV lamp to destroy microorganisms, and transforms VOCs (volatile organic compounds, such as formaldehyde, toluene, xylene, ammonia, TVOC, and other pollutants) into H2O and CO2.

v. UV Function

The UV (ultraviolet) lamp contained in an air purifier can kill over 99.9% of germs, bacteria, and viruses in the air. Indeed, independent tests conducted on our P3001 and P6006 models, which have a UV function, have shown that they eliminate over 99.99% of H1N1 viral particles. . The UV function works in conjunction with the photocatalytic filter.

vi. Ionizer Function:

The ionizer function, or also known as negative ionization, is an electrostatic system that activates the movement of ions, causing the release of static anions. Its negative ionization system eliminates bacteria and micro-organisms that are sensitive to electrical contact with these ions.

To be a bit more technical, we would say that this function eliminates harmful particles by creating negative ions (anions). We live in the lower part of the atmosphere, where almost all chemical compounds are positively charged.When the anions are released by the purifier’s ionizer, they are attracted to the positively charged harmful particles, and they bind together. The harmful particle then becomes so heavy that it falls to the ground. It should be noted that the floor on which the device is used must then be cleaned.

More than six million ions per second are released by our P3001 model. These anions help to rebalance your environment. Research suggests that negative ions energize and soothe us, while positive ions stress and tire us. Ions: Where to find them? At the foot of a waterfall: 50,000 negative ions/cm3. In the mountains: 8 000 to 12 000 negative ions/cm3. By the sea: 4,000 negative ions/cm3. In the forest: 3,000 negative ions/cm3. After a storm: 1,500 to 4,000 negative ions/cm3. In the countryside: 500 to 1,200. . Large, dense cities have a very low concentration of negative ions.

vii. Maintenance

An important consideration is how often the units should be maintained. The maintenance of the air purifier is based on the periodic cleaning (and, eventually, replacing) of the pre-filter. It is recommended to handle the filter gently and to read the manual in case there are any differences with this basic procedure. Our purifiers (P1211, P3001 and P6006) generally work for 1,600 hours before their pre-filters need to be replaced.. If you have a polluted environment and use the purifier frequently, we recommend changing the filter twice a year. Otherwise, in environments with little pollution and normal use, changing the filter once a year may be sufficient.

Washing the Pre-Filter (only on models P3001 and P6006).

It is easy to access the filters by opening the housing of the unit. Carefully remove the pre-filter. With a vacuum cleaner, clean all the cavities of the filter. Then, wash it with plenty of water (only the pre-filter, of course). We wait for the pre-filter to dry completelyand then put it back in the unit exactly as it was before.

The other filters, such as the photocatalyst filter, the activated carbon filter, and the HEPA filter are not washable . When they have reached their useful life (1600 hours), they must be removed and replaced with a new filter, which can be purchased easily on our website.