Dust Free Active Air Purifier Review | 2021
Updated May 2024.
Dust Free Whole House Air Purification System Review.
Hello. Today we're going to take a look at the Dust Free Active Air Purifier. I'll give you a little background on why Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is important and talk about what the Dust Free Active is and how it works. Let's get started.
Why IAQ Matters
Indoor Air Quality is becoming an area of increasing focus for health experts and most now agree that one of the best things we can do for our health is to maintain good air quality when we are inside. Now I don't want to bum anyone out, but the average person spends about 90% of their time indoors, at home and work, shopping, entertainment, physician visits, etc.. Some more and some less, but the fact is that we almost all spend the majority of our time inside. So, it makes sense that we would want to make sure that the air we breathe during these times is as clear and healthy as possible. Unfortunately, Some EPA studies have found that air indoors can be anywhere from 2-5x up to even 100x more polluted than outdoor air. Not good at all!
The CDC breaks down air/environmental pollutants into three categories: Germs, Gases, and Particulates, each being about 1/3rd of the total pollutants in the air. Germs are things like bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Gases are toxic fumes, odors, and VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Particulates are things like dust, pet dander, pollen, smoke, and mites.
Now breathing all that stuff in on a regular basis is not good for anyone, but it can be especially hazardous for certain groups like those with asthma, those with respiratory diseases or illnesses, those with suppressed immune systems, and even just folks that wear contact lenses. Now, if this is you, purifying your indoor air should be a top priority. And if you are a contractor or technician, this is an outstanding service to offer people. Filtering and purifying indoor air and improving IAQ is beneficial to anyone and something you can feel good about providing to your customers. And if you're a homeowner, seek out a qualified professional to get a home air purification system installed for you; your body will thank you.
The Dust Free Active Air Purifier
Let's do a quick bit of background on this product now, starting with the name. Dust Free is just the name of the manufacturer of this air purification system. The system itself is called the "Active Air Purifier". Now there is a lot of significance to that "active" tag, so I'll go into it quickly but try to keep it short and interesting.
Many filter systems and indeed anything designed to kill off germs or pests are made as "passive" instruments. A good example to think of is a bug zapper or a mousetrap. These two devices certainly work to an extent, but they require waiting for the pest to come to the machine before they can take it out. Many air filtration and purification solutions work in this same way. Essentially you have to pass all the air through the filter to get the desired effect, and getting all the contaminated air to flow through one filtration point is actually pretty tricky (if you're an HVAC tech, you already know this).
Enter the "active" technology. Again, I'll try to keep the heavy science to a minimum and use some good images to think about this whole house air purification system. The first way to think about the active design is to think more like "search and destroy" versus the "wait for the bad thing" design of a trap or bug zapper. The way that the Dust Free Active does this is by pro-actively producing ions that oxidize pollutants, effectively killing them off or inactivating them.
Time for another image. For me, the easiest way to conceptualize the Dust Free Active Air Purifier is like an "immune system" for your house or office. Interestingly enough, this isn't really a metaphor. See, the way that your body neutralizes dangerous intruders, generally speaking, is by oxidizing them by introducing an extra hydrogen ion to the germ or contaminant. This process more or less "blows up" the invading particle (exceeds the energy capacity of the cell). This is precisely what the Active Air Purifier does in your home or building.
Using dual technologies, the Dust Free Air Purifier employs hydro-peroxides that eliminate all three types of contaminants by the process I just described. The first of these dual technologies is called MX4 Photo Ionic Oxidation. That might sound a little complicated, but essentially it is a specially designed ultra-violet (UV) light combined with a metal core that produces those active "scrubbing" or "search and destroy" ions that we've been talking about. Now, when you have a UV light creating ions, the most important feature to do that effectively is the photo surface area. When it comes to this crucial design feature, the Dust Free has 8 times the photo surface area of most competing designs. So science aside, in the case of UV photocatalytic cells, more is definitely better, and this unit has tons. Simply put, this UV air purification system is often 8 times better than the competition!
The second technology employed is Carbon Fiber Brush Ionization. The Dust Free Active Air Purifier features 10 carbon fiber assemblies, which ends up equating to about 5 times the ionization output of the nearest competitor. The carbon brushes significantly increase the production of ions by targeting sub-micron particles at a way higher rate than a standard filter. The carbon fiber brushes are especially useful in targeting VOCs and various biological materials, thereby increasing the overall output of ions to a higher rate than would be possible with just the MX4 UV technology we just discussed.
Installation, Price, and Conclusion
As far as installation, you do need to have this unit put in by a qualified HVAC professional, and if you're a homeowner, the dealer that you buy from can often recommend a good installer in your area. You don't want to take the risk as a DIY project of damaging your home's air system or making bad connections with the power supply. That said, the install is fairly straightforward, and so it should take much time or hassle. All that your installer needs to do is cut and drill out a hole in the duct and insert the Dust Free Active so that the building air flows through it. Four heavy-duty mounting plates and toggle bolts hold it in place. Then your technician can run the power supply to the appropriate source. If you are an HVAC tech yourself, this Dust Free Air Purification system is a great way to increase the sale of your install services, and it's a product you can feel good about getting set up for customers. Let me stress again that you should not install the unit yourself without a qualified technician.
Now, the price. Unfortunately for this review, Dust Free won't allow the price to be posted except by distributors to buyers who have expressed an interest in purchasing. However, I will say that installing this UV purification system set up in your home will only cost you half of a competing system, maybe even only a third. Do inquire with a distributor to see for yourself.
Overall, in my opinion, this is the best air purifier with UV light that you can get on the market right now. All the benefits we've already discussed, but for a relatively low price, you can rid your home of all the toxic and unhealthy contaminants we mentioned above. I recommend getting one as soon as you can.