Your home's air might not be as clean or as healthy as you think, some studies even found that indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air. Air scrubbers are a handy device that removes any contaminants in your indoor air.
It's a bit different than an air purifier but will often work hand in hand with one or even act as one to give you cleaner and healthier to breathe air. Here is a completely buying guide on air scrubbers and reviews on some of the best air scrubbers, plus everything else you need to know about them.
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What Is An Air Scrubber?
Not to be confused with air purifiers, air scrubbers take things to the next level when it comes to clearing out harmful pollutants. The big difference is that an air scrubber doesn’t have the limitation of cleaning only airborne particles. Air scrubbers remove mold, clean airborne particles, and other nearby surrounding surfaces. Plus they significantly reduce cleanup time when you’ve got an especially dirty job.
General uses include drawing air in to remove harmful particles, reducing allergens and odors. They are commonly used for fire-damage remediation, removing pet dander, sewage remediation, mold remediation, and provide more clean air in construction sites and homes.
With HEPA-compliant filtration and additional filtering options such as carbon filters to deal with smells, a top quality air scrubber makes sure a work environment is safe, clean, and meets air-filtration requirements. They're quite helpful for removing any indoor air pollution and help a home or construction site have fresh clean air.
Air Scrubber Buying Guide
Here are some essential factors to consider before you decide to buy an air scrubber:
Powerful Blower - Air scrubbers deal with a lot of air pressure, especially as filters start to dirty up. Part of this is remedied with the regular change of filters, but you’ll also want to make sure the product doesn’t skimp on the blower power. It’s a vital component, so this isn’t a factor you can ignore.
Variable Speed options - When it comes to getting the air on your site recirculated quickly, a multiple-speed air scrubber is the way to go. While a single-speed is cheaper, adjusting the speed can assist in noise reduction and provide the most efficient solution for the current job at hand. Being able to change the fan speed is quite useful to make things as efficient as possible, whether you're working in an industrial settings or smaller family homes.
Airflow considerations - The airflow rating of an air scrubber tells how much of an area it can generally cover. While an airflow rating of 500 or 550 CFM is going to be good enough for small jobs, you’ll want to check on the expandability of the air scrubber that you can choose as well. Quality air scrubbers are modular in that you can daisy-chain them together in order to increase your CFM as needed. This also expands the range of projects you can tackle with multiple scrubbers, so it’s an important consideration to keep in mind.
Filtration - It’s the most critical aspect of your air scrubber filtration. Most air scrubbers will come with two primary filters. The first standard filter is intended for capturing large particles. Meanwhile, the second filter, also commonly known as the HEPA Filter, captures the remaining ones like dust particles. While some air scrubbers offer two levels, you will want to see that there is at least an optional third. The addition of an activated carbon filter, for instance, is something you want to have as it helps remove smoke among other things.
You should also check to see if the filters your unit uses are proprietary. Since this limits filter purchases to that vendor only, which can cost more. However, this isn’t always a bad thing since proprietary filters may sometimes come in high-end models and improve efficiency. But, it’s a cost factor that you should be aware of. As a side note, some models come with a light indicator to let you know when you need to switch out the filters.
Portability - Air scrubbers are used in a wide range of environments. You might be filtering allergens in a house or removing paint smells. Drywall dust could be the problem, or maybe you’re tackling fiberglass in the attic. You want to make sure you can get your machine where you need it quickly and have a general idea of stacked size. With small, stackable air scrubbers, you can get high CRM in smaller areas when you need it.
Warranty - Some units may come with minimal warranties, which is often overlooked until you actually want to use them. Look for models with lengthy warranty periods and see what is covered with them. Generally, you’ll get a basic ‘out of the box’ warranty as standard against defective parts and perhaps some extended time on the housing. Still, if you can find any extra coverage that comes with the scrubber, this should get your attention. More often than not, it shows you that the company is strongly backing their product and that you’ll get the maximum amount of use for your purchase many years down the line.
Top 5 Air Scrubbers
1. BlueDri BD-Airshield-550
The BlueDri BD-AS-550-BL features a powerful 2-stage filtration system with an option for a 3rd active carbon filter that helps for odor removal. It works great for fire damage remediation (you can buy a charcoal filter for this specific job), mold remediation, sewage remediation, and general construction jobs as well. The first stage primary filter, it removes dust, pollen, and lint. In the second stage, it removes strong odors that are often the result of mildew, smoke, and cooking. At the third and final stage, the HEPA filter removes particles like mold spores, asbestos, harmful pathogens and other airborne particles. It can be used in a multitude of situations for homeowners and professionals alike.
The BluDri-BD-Airshield performs quite robustly and can be left on for long periods in order to effectively scrub the working environment, making it a top-notch commercial air scrubber to have at a construction site. The optional carbon filter is ideal for dealing with smoke damage, and it’s a quality unit for minimizing allergens.
The size of this quality air scrubber is convenient, and the design is stackable, so the BluDri is also quite efficient. It’s HEPA compliant and has an airflow rating that has a maximum speed of up to 500 CFM. It also comes with a 1-year warranty on the unit itself, with five on the housing.
While this air scrubber does its job quite effectively, replacement HEPA filters are a little costlier than in most models. This is due to a proprietary design on the filters, making them slightly larger instead of the standardized size. Still, it's the best air scrubber on the list.
2. ALORAIR CleanShield
The AlORAIR Cleanshield employs dual-level filtration by default and has a rugged roto-mold construction, so it’s hardy and long-lasting. It’s a HEPA compliant air scrubber and has GFCI Duplex for daisy-chaining with 550 CFM per unit.
The AlORAIR Cleanshield is built to last, and the company backs it up with a solid 10-year warranty that includes not only the housing but onboard components as well. As far as performance, whether you’re working with sewage, general construction work, or in other environments, it’s superb. With the variable speed control and regulator, you can adjust the settings to fit the job.
Changing the filters is pretty straightforward after the first couple of times. This air scrubber is rugged, practical, and gets the job done. It's a top-notch commercial air scrubbers and whole house air purifier that can capture particles of any size, including larger particles.
3. Dri-Eaz F284 DefendAir Scrubber & Negative Pressure Machine
The Dri-Eaz F284 air scrubber and Negative Pressure machine is a popular choice for getting all kinds of jobs done. Whether it’s sewage, attic crawlspaces, ripping up carpet, or more, this little workhorse has an airflow rating of 500 CFM. It's activated carbon filter also helps it remove smoke and odors from the area.
You can control the airflow to match the situation, as it can be used during mold remediation to get rid of mold spores, water damage restoration, and dust plus odor control. Just like the previous HEPA air scrubbers, it has a 3 stages of filtration, and it can be connected with 3 other air scrubbers to work in conjunction with them for difficult jobs. If air quality is a concern, you can place it in crawlspaces and attics.
The durable Dri Eaz f284 scrubber is housed in rotomolded polyethylene to provide long-lasting and dependable use. It provides excellent odor-filtering, which is quite helpful for renovation projects or other construction projects, and it impressively can get at most allergens.
While the air scrubber performs wonderfully, you need to separately order additional filters if you want to use it at full capacity. Whether you buy this to use for your contracting jobs or if any odors seep into your home with construction nearby this scrubber does its job well. Luckily there are several places online where you can order a pre filter for it, including another HEPA filter.
4. AlorAir PureAiro HEPA Pro 870
. The AlorAir Pure Airo Pro 870 is an excellently-priced 3-stage filtration system air scrubber that adds UV-C light along with the purification factors like the activated carbon filter. This portable air scrubber & air purifier has 550 CFM, which can be changed to adjust to the environment it’s needed in. It's also easily transportable for your convenience and has a HEPA filter.
Its control panel gives you multiple options for complete control like variable speed control switch, circuit breaker and off/on switch plus more. Compared to other similar air scrubbers it can intake more air, tends to weigh less by around 4-6 pounds making it more portable, and has a lower sound pressure of 69 DBA.
It’s powerful, a bit lighter than other options, and you can stack it together with two additional units when you need to, all with one power outlet. A change light is there to remind you when the HEPA filter needs to be replaced, and the UV-C filter gives you some additional efficiency when using it in moldy areas like concrete basement walls or other places with mold infestation. It's perfect for getting rid of pesky mold spores. With a 3 stage filtration system, the AlorAir PureAiro HEPA Pro 870 is one of the top HEPA air scrubbers out there.
5. MOUNTO AF500 Air Scrubber & Negative Air Machine
The modestly-priced Mounto AF500 is a portable air scrubber and negative pressure machine that comes with up to 500 CFM power. It’s the perfect HEPA air scrubber for water damage jobs, mold remediation, fire damage restoration, and in many other settings.
The air scrubber is compatible with standard Dreiaz Hepa 500 filters, saving you money by avoiding paying for specialized filters. It’s pretty efficient when it comes to performance, and you can always stack it with an additional air scrubber if you need more CFM. It essentially functions as commercial air purifier.
Just don't forget to buy more pre filters or replacement filters in the future, if you plan on using it a lot. This negative air machine with a 2 stage filtration system does an amazing job at cleaning the air, removing large particles like dust particles and other air particles you don't want in your home or business.
The air scrubbers mentioned above provide a wide range of professional contractor and home DIY enthusiast selections. Whether you want a little additional efficiency with novel features such as UV-C, want the lightest model, or simply the most cost-efficient air scrubber that doesn’t sacrifice performance, those are all some quality options. Remember to keep those filters regularly changed for maximum efficiency.
Although they work in different settings, dust extractors also help improve the air quality by removing dust.
