Filterless air purifier options

A filterless air purifier or air cleaner is a purifier that does not use a filter in its cleaning mechanism.

Why would you care about whether your air cleaner uses filter or not, as long as it does its job well? Perhaps you do not want to spend extra money on buying replacement filters, and do not want any surprises with filter costs. You may also want to be less dependent on the availability of replacement filters in you local shops. Or you want to avoid the situation when the needed filters for your model are phased out of the market, just to push you into buying a newer model. Finally, you may simply hope that a filterless air purifier needs less maintenance in terms of your time and effort.

If you want to go filterless, then your main option is an electronic or electrostatic air purifier (also known as ionic air purifier or electrostatic precipitator). How does this no filter purifier work? First the air is ionized in a wire-plate section of the cleaner. Then the charged particles of contaminants are attracted by static electricity and trapped in a plate-to-plate collection system. The action of such a device can also be enhanced with a fan, though a fan is not a necessary part for such a filterless air cleaner to work. Note that in a filter-based air purifier, such as a HEPA air cleaner, the fan, with its noise, is the essential part of the cleaning mechanism.

Practically any air cleaning device, even a filterless air purifier, still needs some maintenance sooner or later. With an electrostatic air cleaner you will need to clean the plates of the electrostatic precipitation system. How easy is this task depends on the specific model of your air cleaner.

Centralized air purification with a whole house air filter
Advantages and disadvantages of a whole house air filter compared to a portable air purifier.