You’ve probably been sleeping peacefully, thinking that the polluted air outside doesn’t affect your home environment in any way. Let us get this straight: you’re wrong.
The indoor air you breathe in is 50% more polluted than the outside air. Shocking? That’s why you need to increase your indoor air quality by using an air purifier or humidifier, but what is the difference between air purifier and humidifier?
The basic difference between an air purifier and a humidifier lies in their names itself. While an air purifier works to clean the air from smoke, pollen, and animal dander, a humidifier doesn’t do all that. The latter simply works to add moisture to your indoor environment to reduce dry air and static energy in the air around you.
Wait, don’t go just yet. You need to know the complete differences and various uses for both appliances to get the perfect one for yourself.
Air Purifiers and Humidifiers: Basic Differences
Air purifiers and humidifiers are different machines designed for entirely different purposes. However, both of them can increase the air quality around you, which is why potential buyers tend to get confused.
Let’s clear the mist around them to give you some insight on the subject.
Air Purifier
The basic job an air purifier carries out around your home is the effective removal of airborne contaminants. It works by trapping minute particles of dust, mold spores, pet dander, smoke odors, bacteria, and other allergens present in the indoor air.
Mainly, the machine sucks up the air inside your home and passes it through a range of different filters. In the highest quality air purifiers, you’ll get HEPA filters which can filter out even the smallest of impurities in your air.
Besides that, if you have a family member who has asthma or other respiratory conditions living with you, a true HEPA filter will work well for you. It can remove almost 99% of all airborne contaminants that irritate allergic and asthmatic patients.
Air purifiers strip the indoor air out of its natural moisture while performing these functions. The air gets dry after the contaminants are filtered out, and the air purifier can’t do anything to solve the problem.
Types
Two main types of air purifiers cater to different types of contaminants and impurities in the air around you.
- Mechanical Air Purifier
These are the most basic versions of air purifiers. They use mechanical filters of a variety of micron levels to filter out the air they suck in. Similar to a water filter, they have a straightforward working mechanism.
- Electrostatic Air Purifiers
Electrostatic purifiers are more advanced and high-end machines as compared to mechanical air purifiers. These machines use electrostatic methods that help trap a wider range of contaminants.
Like their mechanical versions, they’re not restrained to pollutants and smoke. They work with ionizing agents to negatively charge the minute particles in the air. This makes the particles stick to the nearest surface they come into contact with.
- Ultraviolet Air Purifiers
Ultraviolet air purifiers are high power machines used to eradicate bacteria and impurities. These purifiers work well at hospitals and daycare centers to ensure clean air. Nowadays, UV purifiers have also become commonplace in residential apartments.
Humidifier
A humidifier works to restore the ideal moisture level into your indoor air. The machine is designed to develop water vapor inside itself, and pump it into the air when required. They are best used in dry areas for households with individuals who have asthma and allergies.
To make the humidifier produce water vapor, you’ll need to add water manually into the reservoir so that it keeps running. The internal mechanism converts the water into pure, fine steam and expels it out.
Also, humidifiers can help improve dry skin problems, nosebleeds, throat irritation, and sinus problems. In short, any health issues related to arid climates can be effectively solved by getting a humidifier for your home.
Before you place a humidifier in every room, though, you should know that it will increase your indoor humidity level considerably. While low air moisture has its problems, high humidity levels can encourage mold growth.
We know what you’re thinking. To make sure you maintain the goldilocks level in your home, you need to make sure that the humidity levels don’t rise more than thirty to fifty percent. Anything below 30 percent will be too dry, while over fifty percent can leave your home at risk of dust mites, mildew, and mold.
Types
There are various types of humidifiers designed for different purposes, including:
- Ultrasonic Humidifiers
Ultrasonic humidifiers use the latest, high-end technology to maintain humidity indoors. They use ultrasonic waves to produce mist.
The machine extracts water from the reservoir and turns it into a fine mist, which is further expelled out into the room. What makes this the best humidifier is the noiseless operation.
- Impeller Driven Humidifiers
These humidifiers work by producing mist from water as well, but they use rotating impeller discs to do the job. The impellers work effectively but produce some amount of noise, which can be a nuisance around your home.
- Evaporative Humidifiers
Evaporative humidifiers or cold humidifiers use heavy-duty fans to evaporate the water fed into their reservoirs. This produces a cool mist that decreases the air temperature while increasing its moisture level.
- Steam Vaporizers
As the name suggests, steam vaporizers produce steam to create humidity around your home. The machine uses electricity to heat the water until it turns into steam. If you’re using this humidifier in a warm climate or area, you should get ones with cooling mechanisms before the air is expelled.
Air Purifier or Humidifier: What Is the Ultimate Solution for You?
Now that you know all the details about both air purifiers and humidifiers, you must’ve figured out that they cater to completely different aspects of air quality improvement.
Additionally, there are other differences between the two in terms of productivity, functionality, and other benefits that will affect the decision you make.
Here’s an evaluation of these aspects in detail to the difference between air purifier and humidifier.
When Should You Get an Air Purifier?
Air purifiers act as filters and cleaners for the air around you, similar to the water filter you have at home. They’re a must-have in homes with plant and pollen exposure, pets, and children. Also, they help you get rid of dust mites, spores, and bacteria to create the ideal breathing environment for you and your family.
If you’re looking for something specific, here are the situations where an air purifier will be the ideal appliance for you.
- Your home has lots of volatile organic compounds and toxic particles. These substances are often found in furniture varnish and disinfectants.
- Your indoor’s environment feels stuffy all the time.
- You suspect a dust mite infestation at your home.
- You have family members with allergies, asthma, or serious chest and breathing disorders such as emphysema or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
- Some of your family members have a constant congestion problem. This can be a problem if they often snore or stay sick.
- If you smoke or you often have smoking guests over.
Mainly, an air purifier does everything to clean out your air from any harmful substance that can take a toll on your health. You will need to check out the type of air purifier that suits your needs because different models have different specifications for their filtering abilities.
You can also get your air purifier tested if you already own one. This will help you know what substances it filters out of your room.
When Should You Get a Humidifier?
Humidifiers create a fresh, pleasant environment where the air is particularly dry and stale. Unlike air purifiers that clean the air up by filtering it, this appliance loads it with moisture to make it clean and refreshing.
You see, when you live in an arid climate, your house is more likely to be full of dry air. Meaning, there are more pollutants and toxins in the air you breathe in. Increasing the humidity in the air can help improve its quality and make it cleaner for you and your family.
Similar to air purifiers, there are specific uses that make humidifiers tailor-made air treating solutions for certain homes and buildings. Here are the reasons you should choose a humidifier instead of an air purifier.
- You or your family members have a serious sinus or congestion problem.
- You’re facing sore throats, colds, allergies, and asthma attacks. During these conditions, dry air can cause more irritation and discomfort. On the contrary, moist, humid air can be comforting to breathe in.
- You have dry, chapped skin throughout the winter, along with dry hair and red, irritable eyes.
- You’re prone to nosebleed due to dry nasal canals.
- You have dryness issues such as eczema and dry cough.
You’ll see that some of these factors overlap with the reasons to use air purifiers. Nonetheless, you should know that if you’re regularly sick because of dry conditions instead of airborne allergens, an air purifier won’t solve the problem, and vice versa.
To be sure about that, you can get a humidity test done for your home to figure out whether your air is dry or dirty.
Difference Between Air Purifier And Humidifier: The Final Comparison
We’ve explained the user-based features and anomalies for both air purifiers and humidifiers. Nevertheless, there are other aspects which set them apart as well. Here’s a showdown to give you a clear representation of the same.
Application
Both air purifiers and humidifiers have completely different applications. As we’ve mentioned, the former caters to the removal of impurities and harmful particles in the air around you. In contrast to that, the latter adds moisture to your indoor air to eliminate the inconveniences caused by dry air.
Health Benefits
Air purifiers and humidifiers both have health benefits of their own. That said, you’ll need to figure out which one is perfect for solving your particular problem.
If you’re sick and have breathing problems, identify whether or not they are caused by the weather. You must also determine if they are due to impurities in your environment.
Air purifiers will benefit people with allergies and asthma. On the contrary, humidifiers will provide a comfortable breathing experience for people with sinus and nasal dryness.
Filtering Ability
If you want to filter out pollutants like tobacco smoke from your indoor air, getting a humidifier is a downright waste of money. That’s because it won’t do anything to filter the contaminants from your indoor air. Also, it’s inefficient in filtering particles, such as pet dander and mold spores, from your air.
Moisture Maintenance
If you’re facing a dry, parched environment around your home, an air purifier won’t do much to restore the ideal humidity levels. If anything, the filtering process will strip your indoor air out of its current moisture. That makes it even more uncomfortable to breathe in.
To maintain proper moisture levels indoors, a humidifier is the best option.
Noise Level
The humidifier wins this round. The rigorous filtering systems in the air purifier make it louder during operation. On the contrary, the humidifier is almost silent when at work.
If you use your purifier at the lowest setting, though, the noise it makes is negligible. If you need high filtering power, you’ll have to deal with the noise.
Price
Air purifiers are high-end appliances that can cost you over a hundred bucks depending on the technology and type of purifier you’re buying. Thus, the humidifier wins this round. It is a relatively cheaper appliance and is usually priced under a hundred dollars depending on the brand name and type.
Conclusion
The difference between air purifier and humidifier is crystal clear at this point. The air purifier is for people who need a cleaner environment while the humidifier is for those who want to maintain humidity levels. Still, if you believe you need a solution for both, there are air purifier and humidifier combination units available that give you the functionality of both in one appliance.