How to choose an air wash for an apartment or house

In order to breathe easily and freely, the air in homes, offices and apartments must be clean and moderately moist, free of dust, bacteria, asphyxiating odors and allergens dangerous to health. Alas, in reality it is not so: cat's hair and dust often flies through the apartments, no-no in the office, and someone sneezes generously sharing their viruses. And in winter, the included heaters make the air so dry that it is constantly twitching in his throat. Air cleaning will help to get rid of the listed troubles - we will tell you how to choose such a useful household appliance.

What is air washing, its use and difference from humidifiers?

Air washing is a multifunctional device that makes the air cleaner and also moistens it at the same time . Thanks to the work of washing, the microclimate is significantly improved, which makes our life healthier and more positive. Air washes effectively clean the air of harmful dust mites, flower pollen, as well as other allergenic components, cats and dogs wool, kitchen soot and cigarette smoke.

How a wash differs from a humidifier

Air cleaners are devices using “cold evaporation”. The presence of a unit that produces air purification makes them more “advanced” and functional than humidifiers, which only saturate the air masses with moisture.

So look for your needs. A healthy microclimate is needed - then the wash will be just right. And if the flowers are diluted in large quantities, then think about an alternative or two different units.

Who should think about purchasing an airwashing

A device that cleans the air and brings its moisture content back to normal is often simply an indispensable and valuable assistant. Before we proceed to the choice of this device, it is necessary to understand in what cases you need it and what problems it will help to solve.

1. For the ecology of the home.

Every person who is attentive to their health (relatives and friends) tries to create favorable climatic conditions at home. And this is the air filled with purity and freshness. Heating devices and electric heaters deprive him of useful properties, and the urban environment does not shine with a healthy environment. Buying a car wash is a way to fix a problem.

2. We cherish the fragile children's health.

If the nursery is too dry, the baby can become capricious, get tired quickly, sleep badly and get sick more often. It becomes difficult for him to breathe, and immunity can often fall. Putting in the corner of the room a small neat sink, you can normalize the microclimate. Then the dream will get better, the diseases will probably become much less likely to “stick” to the child, who will cheer up and stop being capricious.

3. Increase office efficiency.

Here, the result of dirty and dried air can be a reduction in employee efficiencies. After all, they will get tired much faster, making mistakes more often and working more slowly. So the presence of a washroom in the room is a direct benefit for the management and a benefit absolutely for everyone.

4. We take care of expensive furniture and parquet.

If you dearly love the antique grandmother's dresser, admire the patterned parquet floors, and put a piano in the room for the delight of the soul, then you can not do without washing either. It will protect all these valuable things from drying out and cracking (inevitable when the air is too dry). This device is also invaluable in the presence of a large library - books also do not welcome too dry air.

5. Relax and relax.

When deciding which air washer is better to choose for a good rest, you should prefer a model with an additional option - a flavoring.Such a device will perfectly help to rest after a hard day’s work, spreading a pleasant fragrance around the room, calming the nerves, toning and relaxing. And adding pine aromatic oils, you can get rid of germs at the same time.

What do the standards

say about it? GOST did not fail to define the favorable microclimate in various rooms: this parameter consists mainly of humidity, speed and temperature of air masses. There are indicators that are considered optimal in which the immune system is in a calm state, without working to exhaustion, which is very important for health.

The optimal indicators are as follows:

• temperature limits - from 20 to 22 ⁰ C;
• relative humidity limits - from 30 to 60% (optimum - 45%);
• compulsory ventilation providing fresh air.

How air washing works, its design

Inside the device there are a fan of low power, as well as lamellar drums that are moistened with water from a special tank.

Air cleaning device: 1. Dirty air; 2. Fan; 3. Ionization of air; 4. Clean air; 5. Rotating drum; 6. Pallet with water.

Dirty particles get wet from water droplets and fall down and then sink in a water tank. Simultaneously, the air molecules are saturated with moisture. The air masses, already clean and moist, leave the device and move into the room.

The principle of operation of the air washing on the example of Boneco air washing.

The amount of air admitted depends on the power of the electric fan. As a rule, in one hour, air masses are passed through a filter twice or three times. The device works quietly, without consuming much electricity and without creating condensation or splashes. So the floor and furniture remain dry, they do not precipitate salt from the water.

We select the device according to the area of ​​the room

In the passport of each device it is always indicated what area it is capable of processing. So before you buy should be well thought out, where there will be a new car wash. Preferred by many option - accommodation in the bedroom. Indeed, in this room we spend most of our lives. In addition, our mood and well-being during the day and in the morning strongly depends on the usefulness of the night’s rest.

Even the most powerful device will not be enough for several rooms. If you install a sink in the hallway, for example, then it will not be able to process at the same time the living room and bedroom located nearby. The walls, as you know, do not let air through, and the door openings are too small for effective air exchange. So each device must be designed for the size of a particular room.

And the second mistake made by inexperienced users: using the device as a portable moisturizer. Perhaps someone will find this option the most convenient and profitable. However, do not rush - the principle of operation of the device (natural water evaporation) limits this possibility. After all, evaporation by natural means is not a very fast process.

Transferring the sink from one room to another, you disrupt the moisture balance in the first room, and in the second it will not have time to get better in this period. So we get: that in the first room it will already be too dry, and in the second - it is still not wet enough. That is, everywhere instead of the expected comfort, we feel discomfort.

So, knowing the area of ​​our room, we select for it a specific model of washing. At the same time you should not make a large margin of power. It is irrational and costly for the consumption of electricity. But a small device, placed in a huge room, is also a bad option. It will not be able to create the desired microclimate, only partially cleaning and moistening the air masses.

Example: devices with a power of 25–35 watts are designed for rooms no more than 50 square meters. If the area to be treated is more impressive, then you should pay attention to the models of greater power, since the device with these indicators will not cope with the task.

Which device is the quietest

Noise in the device, only one moving part is the fan. Since it is rather weak, it does not emit strong sounds when working. Most of the air washes are so quiet that even in the children's bedroom they will not disturb the sleep of the baby.

Specific data on the noise level is indicated in the passport of each device. Despite the general small limits, these characteristics are different for all washes. Note that they also depend on the technology on which the device operates.

These two technologies:

Hydrofiltration is the formation of a kind of curtain of water consisting of several tiers. This is due to the rotation of a special cone, placed in a tank of water and lifting up small droplets of water.Devices with this technology are noisier. When purchasing a device equipped with this cleaning technology, be prepared for a noticeable level of noise. It certainly will not be superfluous, but it will be quite difficult for particularly sensitive people to fall asleep while the device is operating.

Cold "water bath" - here the disks placed in the water tank spin. Due to this, a thin water film is created, evaporating by blowing a fan. Such a principle of operation has devices from the brands Electrolux, Ballu, Boneco. They are quieter than those described above and their noise level is more influenced by the fan, and not the cleaning system.

Air washing performance

Since the water evaporates during the operation of the device, the washing performance is important to us. It shows how much water, in grams, goes from washing to air in a room in one hour. The volume of the water tank is also important - it should not be too small, otherwise you will have to add water too often.

Be guided by the fact that with an air washing capacity of 300 to 500 grams per hour, the volume of the water tank should be from 5 to 7 liters.

How to understand if an air ionizer is needed in an air wash

For devices to work for a long time without requiring repair, manufacturers simplify the construction of sinks to the maximum. This allows the Venta brand, for example, to give a ten-year warranty on their car washes (and on a number of models even a twenty-year-old). The more complex the unit, the less the warranty.

For example, electronic control allows you to guarantee only five to seven years of reliable service. Additional options - catalysis or ionizer, also complicate the design and do not contribute to an increase in warranty. Therefore, the models of such sinks produced not too much.

However, an ionizer is a very useful thing, especially in modern conditions. After all, the negative ions created by the device, which we are completely deprived of in our confined spaces of apartments, have a good effect on the immune system, and also improve memory and attentiveness. Therefore, when choosing an airwash, decide what is more important for you: buy a model with this option, but less reliable, or purchase a separate ionizer and an ordinary sink without unnecessary “bells and whistles”, but more reliable.

Pre-ionization is provided in some air washes. In this case, it serves, first of all, for more intensive removal of dust than saturation of air with negatively charged ions. The fact is that the saturation of air with ions in such washes occurs before its contact with water. After the air passes through the water, most of the ions will collapse and the process of air ionization will not be as effective.

Aromatization and air disinfection functions

Protection against bacteria and viruses

It would seem very tempting for the consumer. However, the beautiful stories of manufacturers have not yet been confirmed by a sufficient amount of data. And what about the reality is unknown. So, we advise you not to "be driven" to advertising tricks and not to overpay for an expensive additional option, the usefulness of which is still in question.

Flavoring

There are models of sinks that have a special separate compartment in the water tank. It is small and is designed for inserting a lump of cotton soaked in aromatic oil. This feature gives you the opportunity to enjoy not only clean and moist, but also pleasantly smelling air. This function will not be superfluous.

Operating modes, their number and control methods

The most simple models of sinks are equipped with just one operating mode. When switched on, the maximum power is consumed. More expensive devices are able to work in several modes. For example, such: fast and intensive, slow and economical, fully automated. The presence of modes gives more options to the user, but their absence is not a big disadvantage.

The device can be controlled in one of two ways: mechanical or electronic. Sinks of the first type are simpler, cheaper and more reliable - the simpler the design, the less reason for breakdowns.

But electronic components can be much larger. On the display they can see how the process of cleaning and moistening takes place, monitor the main parameters. And they also allow you to set different modes, including automated, to change the power level.

The optimal choice of cleaning depending on the problems that need to be solved with the help of it

When deciding how to choose an air wash for an apartment or house, you need not only to measure its capacity and area of ​​rooms. It is necessary to clearly prioritize. In particular, decide which problem is more troubling: too dry or too dirty air, odors, allergens.

After all, these devices, although they do two jobs at once (cleaning and moistening), but do it in different ways. There are, for example, those who better saturate the air with moisture, but cannot cope with odors. Others, with the help of ions, make the air completely clean and disinfected, but they moisten it more weakly. Therefore, we single out for ourselves the main problem.

Problem one - dry air

If the first place for you is to achieve optimum humidity in the room. In this case, it will be nice to look at the devices of the brands Electrolux, Venta, Air-O-Swiss, Boneco. You get a sink with good performance, evaporating from 200 to 500 milliliters of water per hour, equipped with a fairly powerful fan.

The wetting discs included in the design allow you to create a large area for evaporation. The characteristics of such devices are close to the characteristics of ultrasonic type humidifiers and are rightly considered the most effective.

Problem two - dustiness, abundance of wool, sensitivity to pollen

Apparatus equipped with the option of preliminary ionization copes with such tasks. After all, they clean the air at the same level as the best HEPA filters (which miss only 0.03 percent of microscopic particles) built into high-quality air purifiers.

Pre-ionization imbues the contaminated air entering the sink with ions. Due to this, the dirty particles, even of a very tiny size, perfectly adhere to the moistened spinning disks, flushing from there into the water. If you are interested in such models, pay attention to the devices of the brand Air-O-Swiss.

Problem three - unpleasant odors worry ("chemistry", organic matter, cigarette smoke)

If the smells that bother you are not persistent, then virtually any sink will help. After all, the water that purifies the air at the same time absorbs odors naturally. By the way, our grandfathers and great-grandfathers knew about it: they put a bucket in the room filled with water if it smelled bad.

However, in the presence of persistent unpleasant "aromas" you will have to arm yourself with a more efficient device. The best option in this case is a sink equipped with a photocatalytic function. Its design includes an ultraviolet lamp and a special photocatalytic filter. The interaction of ultraviolet radiation with a catalyst results in oxidizing agents that can effectively destroy odor molecules.

Care for the device carefully and correctly

Choosing a place for washing

A lot depends on where the device is placed. In particular, the quality of cleaning with moisture, as well as the effectiveness of these processes. In addition, you need to put the sink in such a way that it can not be accidentally dropped or turned over during their daily business.

Here are the basic rules that should guide you in choosing the right place to wash:

• We retreat at least 50 centimeters from the furniture and accessories in the room.
• We leave the upper part of the device free without installing the device under a table or in a cramped niche.
• Set the unit on a horizontal plane - clean, dry, flat. Best of all, of course, on the floor, since it is in the area of ​​a meter above the floor that is the dirtiest (particles of dust settle down).
• In winter, when heaters that dry the air strongly work, it is recommended to install air washers near them. So it will be possible to eliminate air dryness more quickly.
• You should not place the device where there are always pets or people (for example, near your favorite chair or sofa).

Regular maintenance

How to choose an air wash, we decided. Now you have to learn how to properly care for her. Clearing the air, it pollutes itself, so it must be periodically cleaned. Further we will tell how to do it with different details.

Case and fan.

The case must be wiped with a wet cloth, and then use a dry cloth or napkin. Contaminated fan blades are perfectly cleaned with a damp cloth.

The pallet and the water tank

The water tank is my ordinary clean water, and to remove deposits on the pallet, I need a special tool that removes scale. You can buy it at the hardware store. Pour water into the pan, add funds and wait for some time. After that, we crank the bag with the disks several times, pour the water out of the pan and rinse the discs well, removing their entire bag.

In the presence of strong deposits formed on the pallet, the same anti-scale agent will help. It should be slightly diluted with water and poured into the pan. After waiting a bit, brushing off deposits.

Moisturizing Discs

Note that a weak lime build-up contributes to more effective moisturizing. If you want to clean the surface of the disc, again take the tool from scale, you can also use vinegar. After applying the tool, rinse the discs well.

Remember: the disk surface is plastic, so in no case do we apply abrasives and chemically active solvents to it.

General recommendations.

How often the sink will need to be cleaned depends on several factors. In particular, from the time of its service, as well as how dirty the air in the room is. Equally important is the quality of water poured into the device.

Well, the average figures are as follows:

• the case with the fan should be cleaned once a year (or six months);
• the water tank with the tray should be cleaned once in 14 days;
• we take care of the disks monthly.

Optimum time for continuous operation of the air wash.

As a rule, you can do it yourself. Many models are equipped with a built-in timer that allows you to adjust the duration of work without interruption (usually from 8 to 12 hours). And then there are sinks that can work around the clock. They, as a rule, consume very little electricity.

In general, work time depends on the quality of the air in the room, as well as on personal preferences. Suppose you bought a car wash for the first time - in this case, in the first days you need to let it work longer. The device will quickly give the air and objects in the room the necessary amount of moisture, as well as cope with major pollution.

In principle, the longer the sink works, the cleaner the air in the room becomes, being saturated with moisture in optimal proportions. Due to the natural principle of work, over-humidifying of air will not work - and this is a plus.

Thus, one can completely trust the unit. And in two or three days you will already feel how much easier it became to breathe. A healthy microclimate will surround you and loved ones constantly.