I wasted $2000 on HEPA purifiers (here's why)

Have you ever bought an expensive air purifier, turned it on, and still found yourself sneezing, itchy, and miserable?

Here's what nobody tells you: the metric used to sell you that HEPA air purifier - 99.97% filtration efficiency - has almost nothing to do with whether your air actually gets clean. You could have a filter that captures virtually every particle that passes through it, yet still be breathing dirty air all day long. The problem isn't the filter's efficiency. The problem is that most HEPA units barely move any air through that ultra-efficient filter in the first place.

Today, I'm going to expose why most HEPA air purifiers fail at their one job - and reveal the metric that actually matters for clean indoor air. This is Part 1 of 3 in a series on the science and practice of air filtration.

Let's dive in.

The moment I realized I'd been scammed.

I spent years suffering from mold illness and environmental sensitivities, so when an indoor environmental professional came to my house and said, "Those DIY filters are pretty bad at capturing tiny particles - you need a HEPA," I listened.

I researched obsessively and found this EPA chart showing MERV-13 filters only capture 50% of particles between 0.3 and 1.0 microns, while HEPA captures 99.97% of 0.3-micron particles. The choice seemed obvious. I bought three premium HEPA units recommended by mold inspectors. When they arrived, I was thrilled. I immediately shut off my DIY MERV-13 units and turned on my shiny new HEPAs. Within days, my nose started itching more. After a week, my allergies were raging. My soft palate would itch in the middle of the night and wake me up. At first, I couldn't believe it was the air purifiers - they were supposed to be incredible! But when I turned them off and switched back to my DIY units, my symptoms improved within 24 hours.

That's when the anger set in.

The metric that actually matters: CADR.

After my HEPA disaster, I had one burning question: how can a filter capture virtually all particles that pass through it, but still leave the air dirty?

The answer is Clean Air Delivery Rate, or CADR. CADR measures how quickly clean air is supplied to a space - essentially, how fast pollutants are removed from your room. It's measured in cubic feet per minute (CFM) or liters per second. Here's why CADR is the only metric that matters: particulate matter is continuously being introduced into your home from cooking, outdoor air, mold, skin cells, and movement. To significantly lower particle concentration, the removal rate must be high enough to counteract the generation rate.

Think of it this way: a filter with perfect efficiency but terrible airflow is like having a sponge that absorbs every drop of water it touches - but it's the size of a postage stamp trying to soak up a flooded basement.

Extensive research proves MERV-13 destroys HEPA in real-world performance.

A 2022 study by members of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of California Davis tested DIY Corsi-Rosenthal boxes built with MERV-13 filters against commercial HEPA purifiers in home offices and classrooms [1]. The results were shocking: the CR box on its lowest speed achieved around 600 CFM CADR, vastly outperforming two commercial HEPA purifiers running on maximum speed. The CR box also cost one-tenth the initial price per unit of air cleaned compared to the HEPA units.

Another study by Devabhaktuni Srikrishna tested numerous configurations and found that a MERV-13 CR box on low speed significantly outperformed a best-in-class HEPA on high speed for 0.3-micron particles - the most penetrating particle size that filters struggle with most [2]. The upfront cost of the CR box was five times cheaper than the HEPA.

A third study by the EPA demonstrated that MERV-13 DIY purifiers vastly outperformed commercial HEPAs at capturing wildfire smoke, which mostly measures 0.3 microns, while costing less upfront and using less electricity per unit of clean air delivered [3].

What the HEPA marketing doesn't tell you about efficiency.

Here's a quote from HVAC engineer Joey Fox that perfectly captures the issue: "A CR box uses MERV-13 filters, which can only remove 60-80% of particles, but the fan on the CR box is much bigger and can clean more air. All you care about in the end is the total rate at which the air is cleaned. What the CR box lacks in efficiency, it makes up for in airflow."

The dirty secret of HEPA marketing is that efficiency is measured at low velocities in controlled lab conditions. But when HEPA units run at turbo speed to achieve their marketed CADR numbers, air rushes through the filter so fast that actual capture efficiency drops significantly below that 99.97% promise. Meanwhile, MERV-13 filters in CR box designs have much larger surface areas, so air velocity stays low and efficiency remains consistent.

Most HEPA makers do not even publish CADR, and again, those that do measure it at the loudest turbo setting. So if a HEPA is advertised at 250 cfm CADR, that number is from its noisiest speed; at a usable medium speed, its real CADR is often closer to half that.

The bottom line: you've been sold the wrong metric.

Indoor air quality companies have convinced consumers that filtration efficiency is what matters. It's not. CADR is what determines whether your air actually gets clean. Study after study shows that simple DIY air purifier designs using MERV-13 consistently beat commercial HEPAs in CADR, cost per CADR, and energy efficiency per CADR.

Your $1000 HEPA purifier might capture 99.97% of particles that pass through it - but if it only moves 100 CFM of air, while a $65 DIY MERV-13 unit moves 600 CFM, guess which one cleans your air faster?

That's not a hypothetical. That's literally what the research shows.

Click the link to part 2 below, where I'll reveal the science behind why MERV-13 can even capture ultrafine particles as effectively as HEPA, and give you practical solutions for actually cleaning your air.

Stay rebellious,

Alex Kessler

P.S. If this opened your eyes about air purifiers, share it with someone who's struggling with allergies or asthma. The research on indoor air quality and health outcomes is staggering - this is literally life and death.

[1] Characterizing the performance of a DIY air filter
Rachael Dal Porto, Monet N. Kunz, Theresa Pistochini, Richard L. Corsi, Christopher D. Cappa
medRxiv 2022.01.09.22268972; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.09.22268972

[2] Srikrishna D. (2022). Can 10× cheaper, lower-efficiency particulate air filters and box fans complement High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) purifiers to help control the COVID-19 pandemic?. The Science of the total environment, 838(Pt 1), 155884. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155884

[3] Holder, A. L., Halliday, H. S., & Virtaranta, L. (2022). Impact of do-it-yourself air cleaner design on the reduction of simulated wildfire smoke in a controlled chamber environment. Indoor air, 32(11), e13163. https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.13163