IMHO the benefit is less “things are cleaner in my house” and more “I’m breathing less PM10” and such

Air purifier? That's a less than ideal term since it gets applied to stuff like ionizers that are of dubious efficacy.

But a straight up filter, hell yeah they work. Just check the filter on your furnace/heater sometime. Same with any AC unit.

If you have something that has a filter, it will reduce dust, period. Without a filter, you aren't going to reduce dust worth a damn, if at all.

But you also need to make sure it's turning the air over often enough. I haven't looked the info up in ages, but if you want a decent reduction in particulates, the device has to move air fairly significantly it it isn't going to about to much.

Like, my house is right around a hundred years old. Four humans, and various animals over the years. Shit is dusty what with the dead skin, particles from things like carpet, pollen, dander, etc. Enough stuff gets produced that even with the regular furnace/ac filter, and a handful of one-room filters spread throughout the house (which tends to be better than one big one imo) we still get dust buildup on everything. But if we don't run the filters, you can both visibly and nasally tell the difference.

A newer house isn't going to have as much, so you can likely get away with less air turnover, short term, and need to dust less. But you'll never be totally dust free just because you can't move enough air to prevent at least a little settling.

They help, and they can take out airborne pathogens. Look up "Corsi-Rosenthal box" if you want to DIY a very powerful and cheap but noisy one.

• Only dust in the air that passes through it
• Only if the filter is maintained
• Surface dust is unaffected

Its a noticeable amount, but not likely all of it

You also need to get a good brand too. There are a lot of "air filters" out there that are just fans

Hell yea! Gotta go big to get a real effect. Put the filters in rooms that are 1/2 or less the rates size .

I have Honeywell filters in each bedroom . So much less dust. the pre filters catch most of the dust and they can be cleaned and reused.

My understanding is that the types that are ozone generators don't remove particles from the air, they charge the particles so that they stick to surfaces and aren't floating in the air

Yes they absolutely do.

I didn’t even know how much until I analyzed data from multiple particulate sensors! But yeah I switched from having my hepa filter off at night to running 24/7. And this is with an extremely good whole house filter.

ymmv I suspect homes with ERVs/HRVs wouldn’t be as affected since they’re introducing outside air regularly. I don’t have one and wish I did.

Reminds me I need to reset mine again. Big mistake to buy a “smart” air filter. I thought I was getting remote monitoring of air quality data, but I have something that makes too many assumptions about your home network so doesn’t work on mine, support that gave up, and a purifier that needs to be reset every couple weeks

Anecdotally, yes. I was able to go from dusting my PC every 3-6mo to every year.

The filters are completely fuzzy on the air filters every 6-12 mo. I still vacuum and dust, just way less frequently. I also don't wear shoes in the house.

I run them 24/7 in my bedroom and office.

You know how sometimes when you do a bunch of loads of laundry and forget to clean the lint trap you can just peel the lint out like it's a thick sticker?

You can do that same thing on a large air purifier. It's pretty gross because it's all hair and dust.

Winix makes some nice full room air purifiers.

what would be a good one that is not too expensive?

Not really. For us, the noticeable difference is the robovac with wet mopping.