Desktop Air Purifier

Hepa Filter

One of the things that you will see manufacturers of air purifiers advertising heavily is the quality of the filter.  One of the best filters available is the hepa filter, this is a great filter and is probably the industry leading filter in the home air filter business.

So what exactly is a hepa filter?

While the technical definition is that they remove at least 99.97% of airborne particles 0.3 micrometers in diameter.  What this basically means is they take most of the dust mites and other debris at of the air.  This is particularly beneficial for asthma and allergy sufferers.

The way hepa filters work is they are composed of a mat of randomly arranged fibers – they are typically composed of fiberglass.  A common misconception is a hepa filter works very similarly to a sieve – this is in fact incorrect.  Hepa filter as a designed to actually have the particles stick to the fibers of the filter.

Hepa filters are not a new invention the original was designed back in the 1940s and was used in the infamous Manhattan Project to control the spread of radioactive particles.  It wasn’t until the 1950s that they became a commercial product.

Today you can find hepa filters in many many different appliances around the home and in industry.  You can find them in vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, home furnaces and even in airplanes.

So if you want the best in a desktop air purifier you should probably look for one that utilizes a hepa air filter.