Residential Air Purifier

Over one third of air cleaner purchases are of units priced over $200.

First time air cleaner buyers tend to enter the market at the lower end, below $150, where one quarter of residential air purifier sales are made. When they told Henry Ford II he needed to build more 1970's mini-cars, he is said to have retorted: "Mini-cars make mini-profits." These low end air cleaners sell at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, e-Bay, and Amazon, with thinner margins. The majority are Asian made.

The bigger money is made with mass market air purifiers selling in the $350-$400 price area, where very substantial markups can be tacked on. This is also where demand can be focused, so medium sized air cleaners, sold in upscale shops, malls, and on TV and the web are the target business, "bait" for consumers.

This competition is focused on "high-tech" air purifiers marketed aggressively on TV and/or through multilevel marketing, represented by Sharper Image's Ionic Breeze, Oreck xl, Brookstone, and EcoQuest International's Fresh Air. These have done well, establishing significant market share. Partly because these purifiers are technically inferior, their fat margins are shark bait.

Their cash flow has caught the eye of large appliance makers (AHAM), with capital behind them, established marketing channels, media connections, and substantial outsourced manufacturing in China. Names in this group are Honeywell, Whirlpool, Hunter, Holmes, Friedrich, Hamilton-Beach, and GE.

High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) products dominate this group, which has a conservative corporate culture. AHAM is Washington D.C. lobbyist focused.

The last residential marketing group is the high end, limited volume, allergy specialty air purifier vendors. Their lower volume means brick and mortar allergy specialty shops are small, few and far between. Most struggle to maintain adequate air purifier inventory to offer consumers floor display models and variety. It also means high markups and prices. This market segment includes IQAir Purifier, NQ Clarifier, Austin Air, and T.R.A.C.S., among others.

Blueair air purifier, in an attempt to break out of this bottleneck, has built a CADR friendly machine and placed it in trendy Brookstone, a Sharper Image competitor.

One of internet's greatest benefits is it's ability to overcome the urban critical mass factor: we don't need to live in Manhattan to experience the esoteric, now we have online allergy specialty and dedicated air purifier outlets (and air-purifier-power).

Rising Sun

The competition to sell clean air in a box is getting dirty. Attacks on the ailing Sharper Image purifier have come from every quarter. Who'd expect a store selling plastic talking monkeys, massage chairs, and other seasonal impulse gifts to succeed selling air cleaning devices?

As usual, American industry focuses on legal wrangling; lawsuits, lobbying, "tort reform" and FTC complaints burn cash. In Asia a tsunami of technology entrepreneurship builds.

In the land of the rising sun, a shift in distribution and market trend leadership is taking place. Japan, Korea, and Taiwan have begun to build residential air purifiers for domestic use as well as export. Critical mass has been achieved in Japan, where over 20% of residences have an air purifier.

Demand for the components used in these groundbreaking Asian air purifiers is high, with spot price fluxuations and shortages. Photocatalytic and Ion Plasma technologies, marketed stateside in vacuum and electronics channels, have the potential to revolutionize air cleaning. Electronic sensor driven true automatic operation is more than gadget, it will become indispensable.

When the dust settles around the ozone issue, negative ions as a health device will have another run at the FDA/big pharma blockade. I think this technology has the most to offer asthma and allergy sufferers. In Asia this is taken as a given, thousands of shops build air ionizers.

As regular readers already know, I use several purifiers. I have become very fond of the ozone free negative ionizer on my favorite mid priced air cleaner: Sharp Plasmacluster FPN-60CX. I am reviewing the extensive literature on ions and health for a possible e-book project.

Great, but what does this mean to today's buyer?

I think it is perfect for the Air-Purifier-Power oasis concept. My approach is to buy residential indoor air quality insurance in the form of a big, quality, carbon filter air cleaner, and experiment with the newer tech gadgets coming out of the east.

Personal Oasis

First, I suggest a comprehensive plan rather than a series of independent product purchase and return cycles. The air purifier business has very high "buyer remorse" returns.

Based on a design life of ten years for my IQAir, I expect to use several tech innovations in the plasma and neg ion area as complements, and less expensive HEPA purifiers as particle removers. I use the 14" round Honeywell purifier (garage sale) for particle suppression, to prolong the life of IQAir pre-filters. The Sharp ionizer never leaves my side. Morning, noon or night, I am in its negative ion breeze (not in plasmacluster oxidizer mode).

Consumers should begin with a complete evaluation, removing all easy pollutant sources. So many make the mistake of an air purification purchase without prior source removal. Then, depending on budget, a larger perspective, based on incremental change over a period of years, should develop.

Home owners and buyers should proceed with caution, inspecting HVAC duct work, coils, condensers, and drip pans. Unfortunately, today’s antiquated central HVAC systems are not easily converted to quality air providers. While the "room" air purifier will eventually disappear from the scene, the current obstacles to central integrated residential HVAC/air purifier systems are considerable.

Any purchase should have a product life expectancy plan, which anticipates future additions. Survey research shows many American residences have more than one air purifier. The average life expectancy of many cheaper products is often just a bit longer than the warranty, making them expensive to own.

I always advocate significant carbon VOC chemical capability on the first air purifier you buy. Once this baseline protection is installed, ionizers, HEPA-without-carbon or other additions are acceptable.

With respect to the industry groups, my rankings are;