Do Air Purifiers Cause Dryness In Your Indoor Air?

When you get a new appliance for your home use, you want to know whether it has any downsides. Thus, if you have bought an air-purifying unit, you might ask: can air purifiers make the air dry?

While you want to purify your air, you surely do not want the air to be too dry. Just as there are so many effects of damp air, with too much humidity, there are also many side effects of dry air. For instance, you might start to experience sore throat, sore airways, and other side effects of dry air.

So do air purifiers dry the air? An air purifier has a fan that whips the purified air back into the room. Because of the air movement as it blows out, it might feel as if it is a little drier. But the air purifiers do not make your indoor air dry, since they do not draw moisture out of the air.

If you are using the air purifier during winter, the air inside your rooms is going to feel quite dry. That is what happens when you turn on the heat.

As you can see, there are so many side effects of dry air. However, first, we need to establish whether an air purifier can cause dry air.

It makes the air dry. For this reason, in winter, we use the humidifier to increase humidity in the air. The only thing that you need to worry about then is humidifier pale dust.

Do air purifiers reduce humidity?

Since they are entirely different in structure from the dehumidifiers, there is no way that the air purifiers are going to reduce humidity.

A dehumidifier has condenser coils, compressors, and other units that the air purifier does not have. The difference in structure is evident, since these two appliances do not function in the same way.

If you are using an air purifier in summer, you will also need to run the dehumidifier so that it can lower the amount of moisture in the air.

Some people ask: what do you need between a dehumidifier and an air purifier? Well, you might need both of them depending on the circumstances.

Image of dehumidifier to decrease humidity
dehumidifier

If you live in a place like Florida with its damp air, you need a dehumidifier. At the same time, if there is pollution, you need an air purifier.

At the same time, if you are using the air-purifying unit in winter when the air is already too dry, you might need to run the humidifier so that it can increase humidity to the required levels.

Dry places such as Nevada, Utah, Wyoming or Arizona might have polluted air. In such places, you might need a humidifier and an air purifier.

How air purifiers can be harmful and aggravate health conditions

Can air purifiers be harmful? Well, in many instances, they are considered safe even for people with asthma and other respiratory issues. However, there is a little problem with your air purifier producing ozone.

Can air purifiers make you sick?

If you have been asking: can air purifiers make you sick? Well, they can. But, this mostly happens in small rooms with minimal or poor ventilation.

Most air purifiers release very small amounts of ozone, which can accumulate in small and poorly ventilated rooms.

Ozone can cause many issues. For instance, it can cause throat irritation. This is one of the reasons why some people ask: Can an air purifier cause sore throat?

You might experience minimal throat irritation from the small amounts of ozone that the air purifier releases into your indoor air.

Ozone can also make you experience shortness of breath. It can also give you coughing bouts. If the coughing ceases when you get out of the room where the air purifier is running, it must be the ozone.

If you have a family member with a chronic respiratory illness such as asthma, you might want to be more cautious about using the air purifier.

For instance, avoid using it in a small and poorly ventilated room. Place the air purifying unit close to the doorways so that it can pull air from the rest of the house.

This will enhance air circulation, and it will prevent the accumulation of ozone, which can cause serious lung disease if someone is exposed for too long.

Do air purifiers make the room cold?

Along with asking whether air purifiers make the air dry, you might also ask whether they can make the air cold.

Well, if you just want to cool the air in your room by a few degrees, the air purifier can do that for you. However, generally in the hot season, you are better off using an air conditioner.

The air purifier just removes the impurities from the air, but it does not cool it. However, as the fan whips the air, it makes it move around. This air movement cools it, but only by a slight margin.

Even when compared to other appliances that enhance indoor living conditions, a cool mist humidifier can cool the air better than an air purifier.

Image of a cool mist humidifier
Humidifier

Once again, if the room in which you are using the air purifier is too small, you might feel the cold effects of the air purifier making the air cold.

If you are using it in a big room with proper ventilation, you will hardly notice a drop in the temperature.

What do air purifiers do?

Air purifiers cannot cool the air in the room, and cannot increase or decrease humidity, what can they do?

These devices draw in the air that is contaminated, that is, the air in your room. They then pass it over the HEPA filters.

These filters capture dust mites, dust, pollen, mold spores, and other contaminants. If the air purifier has activated charcoal, it will also cleanse the air of odors.

After it removes these impurities, it whips the air back into the room using its fans. Thus, you enjoy cleaner air.

To know that the air purifier is working, just place your palm against the ventilated front. You should feel air coming out of the appliance.

You will also notice that this air is neither warm nor cold.

Conclusion

As you have seen here, an air purifier is not going to make your air dry. However, it is important to keep the windows and doors closed so that air from the outside does not come in.

If it is winter, the cold air is going to be dry. If it finds its way inside your house, it will make all of your air dry.

Also, it makes no sense to purify your indoor air, only to have it swamped with contaminated air from outside again.

So, do air purifiers dehumidify the air? They do not. Thus, you will need to get a dehumidifier if the humidity is too high.