Air filters are currently in vogue; they are supposed to remove pollutants in the air we breathe.
But can they filter even the smallest particles such as aerosols from the air?
In times of
Corona
*, air purifiers are very popular for your own apartment, office or classroom.
Stiftung Warentest
asked itself whether
air purifiers
can filter even the smallest particles such as
aerosols
and viruses from the air.
Air purifiers
can reduce the risk of
corona infection
, but they do not replace the known measures.
Kassel -
air purifiers
are supposed to remove various types of pollution from the air in the apartment with their filters.
Modern devices remove, for example, pollen, fine dust, cigarette smoke and chemical compounds from the room air.
At the beginning of 2020 has the
Stiftung Warentest
seven
air purifiers
tested, including products from Philips, Rowenta, Dyson, and Beurer Soehnle.
But now another point is considered an important criterion for air filters: Can the products also
filter
viruses
out of the air?
Companies |
Stiftung Warentest |
founding |
4th December 1964 |
CEO \ t |
Hubertus Primus (since 2012) |
Number of employees |
359 (in 2018) |
The experts from
Stiftung Warentest have
currently
dealt
with this question
in a
corona
follow
-up test and had
aerosols filtered by
the three best devices from the
air purifier test
2020, because the aerosols emitted by breathing can spread the
Sars CoV-2 virus
.
The result: "The performance of the three air purifiers was quite different, especially one model
showed a marked decrease
in its cleaning
performance when it came to
aerosols,
" says the current article in the consumer magazine.
+
Stiftung Warentest has examined air purifiers: Can the air filter remove even the smallest particles and aerosols from the air we breathe?
(Symbol image)
© Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
Stiftung Warentest: These air purifiers were tested for filtering aerosols
Stiftung Warentest
*
has sent the
following three models from the
air cleaner test
from the beginning of 2020
to the test laboratory for a current examination:
Philips AC2889 / 10 (around 350 euros)
Rowenta Intense Pure Air Connect PU6080 (around 350 euros)
Soehnle Airfresh Clean Connect 500 (around 250 euros)
The result: The tiny virus-sized particles got stuck
in the fibers of the filter
during the
test
.
Converted to a room with 16 square meters of floor space, 2.5 meters in height and thus 40 cubic meters of room volume, most
aerosol particles
with a diameter of 0.12 micrometers are gone
after 20 minutes
, according to
Stiftung Warentest
.
This makes up 95 percent for the devices from Philips and Rowenta, and 90 percent for the Soehnle brand air purifier.
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Air purifier in the test: performance decreases over time
According to
Stiftung Warentest
,
air filters decrease
in their performance over time.
The air purifier from Philips put up with aging well: in the
test,
after 20 minutes in a 40 cubic meter space, the number of smallest particles fell by around 90 percent.
In the case of the Rowenta product, it was still around 80 percent, but only 46 percent of the Soehnle brand air purifier.
According to the test results, its filter slackens so significantly that it would have to be changed far more frequently to reduce viruses than the provider intended.
Stiftung Warentest examines air purifiers: residual risk remains
However, according to information from
Stiftung Warentest
, there is
always a residual risk
despite
air purifiers
.
“In a much larger living room, where some people spend a sociable evening, this residual risk would be higher,” the
test
results say
.
The
experts also advise against
using small air purifiers in classrooms as part of the
corona pandemic
.
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An
air purifier
can reduce the risk of infection with
corona
, but additional measures such as keeping your distance and wearing mouth and nose protection are still necessary.
Regular ventilation for at least five minutes is just as important, as this largely exchanges the air in the room.
(Helena Gries)
* hna.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editorial network.
List of rubric lists: © Sebastian Gollnow / dpa