There’s so much information about molds and their control measures that it’s easy to get lost. While some of these are myths and misconceptions, others are proven facts that can help eliminate molds from your apartment.
If you’ve come across information about air purifiers and molds, you might wonder if these devices genuinely help with mold. This article will answer this common question and provide general advice on the best mold removal techniques to help you and your family stay safe and healthy.
Do air purifiers help with mold?
Yes and no. When the mold is in its seed phase, air purifiers can help prevent its reproduction and spread. However, when the mold has matured, become active, and is present on surfaces, air purifiers can’t help to eliminate them. Here’s the breakdown.
An air purifier (also called an air cleaner) is a device that improves indoor air quality by eliminating pollutants, contaminants, allergens, and toxins from the air.
Air purifiers can capture mold spores from the air and prevent them from spreading throughout your home. Mold spores are tiny reproductive cells that molds need to reproduce and spread in an environment. These cells are tossed around in the air and will reproduce once they find the right conditions, such as wet surfaces.
Typically, mold spores cannot be seen with the naked eye, even though they are naturally present in outdoor and indoor air. Although mold spores are merely reproductive cells and not actual mature mold, they can be dangerous to our health and cause specific allergic symptoms when present in large quantities. Allergic mold spores symptoms include watery eyes, sneezing, runny nose, coughing, wheezing, itching, difficulty breathing, fatigue, and headache.
So yes, air purifiers can help prevent the spread of mold in your home by trapping and destroying mold spores that enter the room before they get the chance to reproduce.
On the flip side, if you already have mature molds on specific surfaces in your home, air purifiers cannot treat or eliminate these active molds. As a result, you’d need to hire a house mold removal professional for mold inspection and treatment.
So no, air purifiers can’t treat active molds in your building, but they can help prevent their continuous spread by eliminating their seeds.
Since molds can only enter your home in their seed form and through indoor-outdoor air exchange, having an air purifier can help prevent the seeds from growing, thus keeping your home mold-free. Suppose you don’t have mold in your home and are worried about it becoming a problem later. In that case, air purifiers can help maintain the situation by capturing any spores that enter your home before they grow into mature molds.
But if you already have a mold issue, you’d need to treat the issue first, alongside using an air purifier to eradicate the seeds from your home.
Molds can sometimes be difficult to detect; it’s advisable to work with mold removal specialists, especially when unsure whether you have a mold issue. These professionals conduct mold testing by taking a sample of indoor air or a surface, helping them determine if you have a mold problem.
The ideal air purifier for mold
If one of your main reasons for purchasing an air purifier is to keep your home mold-free, you want to make sure you buy one that’s up to the task. The best air purifiers for mold so far are the True HEPA filters. HEPA represents High-Efficiency Particulate Air, and these filters are designed to effectively capture microscopic particles in the air, such as mold spores.
It’s important to mention that HEPA filters are of two types: True HEPA and regular HEPA. True HEPA filters are the most effective models for tackling molds because they capture at least 99.99% of particles that are 0.1 microns or greater in size. Regular HEPA, on the other hand, captures 99.97% of particles that are larger than 0.3 microns.
Since molds are often between two and ten microns in size, True HEPA filters are the best solution for eliminating airborne mold spores and keeping you and your family safe.
Finally, some general tips for keeping molds far away from your home include:
- Keeping your home’s humidity under control.
- Checking your kitchen sink regularly for leaks
- Increasing the ventilation in your kitchen by opening the doors and windows
- Opening bathroom doors and windows for ventilation
- Not storing items in damp rooms
- Reaching out to mold removal experts for personalized tips based on your home’s needs.