Importance of the Pre-Filter for Air Purification

When talking about air purifiers we generally focus on ionic air purifiers, HEPA air purifiers or possibly even the more controversial ozone air purifiers. These represent the basic technology behind air purifiers and are critical to air purification, but protecting your air purifier with a pre-filter will ensure that your air purification system is efficient and cost-effective.

No matter how advanced an air purifier is, it needs to have a pre-filter. The pre-filters are built to capture particulates floating in the air that are bigger than 5 microns. But why do we need an air filter if these particulates can be easily trapped by a normal filter? To protect the filters and help them do their job properly. The filters built in any air purifier are built to trap much smaller particulates than the size of 5 or 10 microns. While they will of course trap particles that the pre-filter catches, relying on the air purifier to catch them can significantly reduce its efficiency and limit its effectiveness.

Conversely, having a pre-filter isn’t enough either. Particulates larger than 5 microns are a small portion of the allergens an air purification system is meant to filter out, only about 400-800 out of every 100,000 particles. The real job of removing particulates like dust, molds, pollen, and other allergens still lies with the pores of the actual filter. The gas or carbon filters are therefore lined after the pre-filter so that it can more efficiently gather these smaller particles.

Call AAA to learn more about pre-filters and how they can improve the efficiency of your air purification system.