Cat hair is the bane of many cat owner's existence. The very soft silky hair that makes them such wonderful pets can at best cause your home to be less than tidy, and at worse trigger allergy and asthma flare ups for you. Here are 7 features that an effective air purifier must have to get rid of cat hair for good.
1. Removes Cat Hair-While this may seem a pretty obvious point, the reasoning behind it is not. Cat hair attracts all kinds of other smaller pollutants such as household dust, dust mites, pollen, and dander, all of which cause huge problems for anyone with allergies and asthma, and can even cause respiratory problems for those who were previously healthy. So by removing the hair you are also removing many other allergens as well.
2. Remove Cat Dander-While airborne cat hair is a nuisance and breathing it constantly for prolonged periods of time (like all of your cat's life) is unhealthy, it is the protein in cat dander that usually triggers asthma and allergy symptoms such as watery eyes, burning throat, sneezing and the like. This dander or dead skin is invisible to the naked eye, but if you're at all sensitive to it, your nose knows it's there immediately. Because dander is microscopic in size, your cleaner needs a filter that is capable of removing sub-micron size particles.
3. HEPA Filter-Because the dander is so small, the purifier you choose should have a filter that can trap tiny particles you can see and invisible ones that you can't see. By definition a high efficiency particle arresting (or HEPA) filter can remove particles as small as .3 microns with 99.97% efficiency. This means that for every 10,000 particles of dander and other household pollutants that can attach to your cat's hair, a HEPA will remove all but 3 of them. That puts the odds heavily in your favor for clean air.
4. On Duty 24 Hours-To be effective your cleaner needs to filter the air 24 hours every day. It doesn't take much to make your cat's hair fly. Everyday activities such as climbing, chasing a ball, or going wild over cat nip is enough to send hair airborne. Your activities also send it airborne when you walk around, sweep or vacuum, or even flop on the couch. Since your cat will always produce and shed hair and dander, your air cleaner should be able to be left on 24 hours to literally keep the hair and dander count down.
5. Safe for All-Your purifier should produce only fresh clean air as a by product (no ozone), and should have a high capacitor motor that is designed to run constantly and will not overheat when left on day after day. It should also be made of steel rather than plastic. Many times when the motor heats up a plastic air purifier it will off gas fumes into the air, and that is bad news for your cat and you.
6. More Than One Filter-Cat hair is relentless and one filter will just not be effective for very long. To avoid frequent filter changes, look for an air purifier that has multiple filters, several of which should be pre-filters. Any cleaner that contains prefilters insures a longer filter life. This means less money spent on replacements, and more time enjoying your cat.
7. Filter for Gas and Odor-Having a cat as part of the family comes with some odor. If the purifier you choose has a carbon based filter that can also absorb odors, you will have chosen one air purifier that can multi-task which will save you time and money, while giving you the most flexibility of space in your home. Rather than having to have multiple cleaners to address all the pollutants, having one purifier with multiple filters will mean you have the best possible air purifier for cat hair.
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