[♪♪♪] [Nil] Mold,
bacteria, and viruses. Can pricey purifiers
really clean your air? It's overwhelming. How would you even know
which of these works? What's going on? [Nil] Are you ready to
find out the results? Yeah. That's not good. [Nil] Top brands
under the microscope. Your Marketplace starts now. [Nil] We're on a mission. Investigating your indoor air
And testing these five popular air purifiers: Dyson,
Honeywell, Blueair, Germguardian and Levoit. Hi, Jeff, so great to meet you. Yeah, good to meet you too. Thanks for doing this. [Nil] And to get it right we're
teaming up with leading indoor air expert and university
of Toronto engineering professor
Jeff Seigel. This is exciting because
you are going to test these filters for us and tell us which
ones work the best. How many tests like
this have you done? Too many to count,
lots and lots and lots. [Nil] This pandemic has us
all asking questions about the quality of the air in our
homes and if purifiers can actually make a difference. And they have a lot of
pretty big claims on these. Some of them are completely
false, but a lot of them kind of have a grain of
truth, they just don't turn out to be that important. So, an example of a claim is a
lot of people say look at how high the efficiency of
this air cleaner is. So, you could have a very high
efficiency and a very low flow and that would be a
terrible air cleaner. A lot of people
rely on those claims. It might be the only thing
that's helping them make their decision. Absolutely. I call it the air
cleaner marketing jungle. [Nil] A marketing jungle
with pretty wild claims. And our marketplace fans
are in the middle of it! How is it going to fight germs? [Nil] But do they
live up to the hype? And does price
make a difference. The Dyson the only purifier,
heater, and fan to clean a whole room properly. How about this one here? This one has a UV
light technology. Kills germs. Yeah, but I'm just not
sure about the light. I read something not
good about the UV light. I don't know. I would have to confirm that. [Nil] And can air purifiers
actually "kill" or "capture" viruses like COVID? Purifier sales are up right now. So are prices. I'm just guessing the least
expensive out of all of these. [Nil] She's right. Levoit is the
cheapest of this lot. The Dyson, most
expensive at about $800. And the rest, fall somewhere in
the middle in terms of price. I guess my main concern with all
of this is how would you even know which of these works
and does what it claims to do? <i> It's overwhelming.</i> [Nil] That's a good question! Here's how our test
will help answer it. We're going to burn incense,
the concentration is going to be high, and then we're going
to put in these air cleaners to see what would
be actual reduction. [Nil] PHD students
Amy Li and Bowen Du put the purifiers to work! What we are testing is the clean
air delivery rate of these air purifiers. [Nil] Like many portable
purifiers, these are fitted with a HEPA filter the gold
standard in filters, capable of capturing tiny particles of
dust, smoke even ones your eyes can't see. But if all of these purifiers
are equipped with HEPA filters, what
sets them apart? We need to have airflow carrying
those particles going through the filter. If there is no airflow, it
doesn't really matter how efficient your filter
is because it's not going to capture anything. Right. So that's why both air flow and
efficiency, they're important. [Nil] So is knowing what's
lurking in our air to begin with! Especially during a pandemic. Hi there, I'm
Frank from Verify. How are you? [Nil] Frank Haverkate is
a certified air quality consultant. He'll assess three homes for us. Brenda Nicholls'
Hamilton back-split. She lives here with her
son, two cats and a dog. How long have you lived here? Almost thirty years. A lot of upgrades have
happened over that time. [Nil] Nikkie Saltz's
downtown Toronto apartment. She's been renting here for 7
years and is starting to wonder if it's
time to move out. She's not a smoker but... I frequently come home and my apartment reeks of
cigarette smoke. [Nil] And Imro and Bernadette
Lieuw's home, a bungalow in this east Toronto
neighbourhood they live here with
Imro's 83-year-old mom. She has a bedroom
in the basement. I think it started when my
mom developed this cough. I started thinking about
the air quality in the house. [Nil] And how has COVID
factored into your concerns? Not that much actually. For me it was
because I'm so paranoid! And because I'm working from
home and the room where I'm working is small, so I even
bought an air filter, air purifier, but I don't
know how effective it was. [Nil] You invited us here, the
inspections going to happen, how are you feeling, ahead of it? We're excited. Yeah, we want to
know what's going on. [Nil] Frank's ready to start! He's going to be checking Co2
levels which will tell us how much fresh air is or
isn't, coming into the home. Chemicals in the air,
such as VOCs & formaldehyde. Humidity and temperature. Hidden or airborne mold. And proper filtration. While he's inside we're keeping
our distance and following along on Facetime. So, we'll have a look at the
carbon dioxide monitor that's been placed... ..yeah that's not good. So, the house is not
getting enough fresh air. You can see here that the C02
or carbon dioxide levels are way over a thousand parts per
million, they should be well
below 800 ideally. [Imro] Surprising. [Bernadette] It's scary. [Nil] What are
you worried about? [Bernadette] How it will affect
us in the long term. [Nil] Like many of us Bernadette
is working from home, she's turned this bedroom
into a home office. So, before the assessment
starts, we set up a Co2 monitor. In a matter of just 45 minutes,
we're seeing levels hit 1550 parts per million. Frank just said they shouldn't
be higher than 800. Nikki's working long
hours in her apartment, too. Sometimes spending 24
hours straight in here. There's a lot of dust
accumulating in the door frame, so the dust, the pollution from
the hallway is making it's way to the door and
getting stuck. It's also indicating not a
lot of fresh air coming. [Nil] So how do we bring
more fresh air into our homes? Frank says,
open your windows more often. In apartments make sure you feel
some air coming through the front door, even
when it's closed. In homes mechanical ventilation
systems are a good option and keep your vents on and clean. It's fairly clogged. [Nil] A lot of times though in
condos, the vents make a lot of noise when you flip the
switch, but how do I know it's actually
doing something? Yeah, sometimes they make noise
and just eat up electricity, but a good very inexpensive test
is take a square of toilet paper and hold it up to a vent. If it holds it there or tries
to suck it in, then obviously there's airflow. [Nil] Next, we go from
ventilation to filtration. Frank checks the furnace to make
sure the air that is circulating is clean. Imro's all good but
Brenda's, not so much. We move into the furnace. The furnace filter that's there
is not made for this type of cabinet. When air can flow past the
filter or over it, it isn't going to force
itself through it. So, this filter in this kind of
configuration isn't doing much of anything. Didn't know that. [Nil] Frank's got some advice. Furnace filters can be quite
confusing for a lot of people. Change out that cabinet so that
you can buy a readily available filter that fits it properly. [Nil] As Frank weaves
his way through the home... there it is... ..mold. Here we have a cabinet that
seems to have some spotting on it as well which
appears to be mold growth. [Nil] Spots on paintings. And books too. [Nil] that mold you saw,
Frank, is it dangerous? Or is there-- is a
little bit okay? Well, I mean, mold-free doesn't
exist, there's always some mold activity indoors, but
it should be more or less similar
to outside levels. Too soon to tell, we'd have to
look at our laboratory results. [Nil] Back at Imro's place, down
in the basement, no visible mold but they've had some leaky
pipes, so he collects some samples here too. Before we go we've got something
for Imro and Bernadette. [Nil] If you had to pick one
right now, what would you pick? I like the look of the Dyson. [Nil] You get a Dyson. Wow. [Nil] All three families choose
different purifiers to try out. Nikki, the Levoit. I like this one. This to me is like looks
like R2-D2, it's like cute and friendly.
-[Nil] Brenda. It says it's a True HEPA
allergen Remover. I've heard of Honeywell. [Nil] We're going to
let you take that one and try it out. Alright, we'll see what happens. [Nil] So, do they pick
the best or the worst? We're about to find out. Hey Jeff, welcome to
our house for the day. [Nil] The professor in-charge
drops in and he comes bearing results from
our purifier test! So how are air
purifiers supposed to work? What should they
be doing for me? So, what they should be doing is
they should be removing things from the air so
that you don't breathe them. [Nil] The key thing he's looking
for, the clean air delivery rate, the CADR. Jeff says the higher the better. Because you can remove a little
bit and it won't make much difference or you can remove
a lot and that's desirable. [Nil] You've tested five for us. So, what did you find? From a cleaning performance
perspective, the Blue Air, it's more than twice as good as
any of the other air cleaners. [Nil] Twice as good! The blue air, by far is the
best purifier in this bunch. Its clean air delivery rate,
more than 550 cubic meters per hour. Wow. Because I remember seeing that
one and thinking it's just a big, ugly cube. That's always how it goes
with men and air purifiers. [Nil] So, what about the rest? Including that
$800 Dyson. My money's on the big boy Dyson. [Nil] Those
results are coming up. [Nil] Oh, wow.
It's jumping fast. Look at the other
particle counter there. [Nil] And what you can do to
keep the air in your home clean. If you have a story you think
Marketplace should investigate next, tell us all about it. You'll find us on
email, Twitter, and Facebook. [Nil] This is Your Marketplace. We're testing air purifiers. So, if we could see what was in
this air at a microscopic level, we would see all
kinds of things. It's a chemical soup. [Nil] We're about to find out
how they performed in our test including that sleek Dyson. But in these pandemic times
there's another big question we need Jeff to answer. Can these air purifiers that are
sold on the market, can they get rid of the virus? So, the short answer is yes,
they can get rid of the virus. The longer answer is that when
we're thinking about COVID-19, we're really thinking about
this multilayer approach. And so, I think about masks,
of course, hand-washing, keeping people apart and then air
purifiers can if they work and if they're sized appropriately
for the space, they're in, they can reduce the risk further. [Nil] Jeff also has a warning. There are a lot of air purifiers
on the market, ion generators, plasma air cleaners,
photo catalytic oxidation. They can emit ozone, which is a
respiratory hazard and can cause serious health effects. And we don't want
that in our homes. [Nil] The ones we
test, are filter-based. We set them up and bring our
marketplace testers back for more results!
[Laughter] We've now tested five brands. Three of the same
models for each one. Including this Honeywell. Are you ready to
find out the results? Sure. Honeywell gets an average CADR
of 180 cubic meters per hour. So still some cleaning power but
a lot less than the blue air. Big difference. So, can I take
this one home now? [Nil] Not this time! The Honeywell purifier
falls in the middle and costs about 200 dollars. So, I would have expected a
little bit better for the money. [Nil] Honeywell did not respond
directly to our test results, But says their purifiers are
independently tested against international standards. Next. This looks nice. [Nil] Looks nice but how
does the Germguardian perform? On average it hits the 200 mark
that Jeff recommends for small to midsize rooms. Slightly better
than the Honeywell. But what about its claim of
killing germs with a built-in UV-light? [Nil] Do we need a UV light? So, I would say that, no, we
don't really need a UV light. [Nil] While UV lights can kill
germs, experts say the small dose on this purifier
isn't doing much of anything. You can drop that
feature from your list! Germguardian doesn't give
us a straight answer on their UV-light but says its purifiers
are independently tested and get rid of over 99%
of airborne germs. We've got two more to go, the
least expensive and the priciest coming up! First, remember the air samples
from the homes we assessed? They're in, and
it's not pretty. This is what indoor air
looks like under a microscope. Cloth fibre, dog dander,
human skin cells and mold. The mold we saw on
Brenda's belongings. Turns out, it's not the air. And that's a good thing. Wow. I'm totally
surprised about that. [Nil] But Imro and Bernadette's
home though pristine and spotless, we find
airborne mold and a lot of it. I was hoping it
wouldn't be there. [Nil] It's not just
mold that concerns Jeff. Any and all particles can be
bad for our health. If there's things in our water, we all know how
serious that can be. And so indoor air is
exactly the same thing. There's stuff in it and some of
that stuff, the more there is, the more harmful it is. [Nil] He says it's all
about source control! So, Jeff's about to show us
how to keep air in our home's cleaner. The bigger those numbers,
the more there's in the air. [Nil] He sets up particle
counters, and takes us room by room. Listen up!
These are good tips and most don't cost a thing. Put the meat on and we'll see. [Nil] The meat is sizzling, and
the numbers are jumping for sure but we're gonna cook a lot of
things, and we gotta eat. What could we
possibly do to mitigate it? I know we all like to think
about the granite countertops and the nice appliances and
so on, but the range hood fan doesn't cost that much and
makes an enormous difference. [Nil] So, number one kitchen
purchase should be a fan. Yeah, absolutely. Another thing I do at home is,
you know, when I cook, I start using the back burners first. Almost all range hoods work
better for the back burners. We keep ours running for 30
minutes to 45 minutes after we're done cooking. [Nil] Next up, the living room. [Nil] Most people don't love to
vacuum, they do it because they want a clean home. What should we be
doing differently? So, we're wearing a
mask for pandemic reasons. It's not a bad
idea to wear a mask. If you have someone who's
compromised, that maybe they shouldn't be there
when you're vacuuming. Also, people who clean for a
living, they get exposed to a ton of things. And so, I think we should really
be thinking PPE and protection
for them as well. [Nil] Would keeping
windows open as you clean-- Is that good or worse? No, absolutely a great idea. [Nil] What's not a great idea,
Jeff says, is using one of these. A lot of people have
essential oil diffusers. It's really seen as
a wellness product. In a second or two, you can
almost see the mist coming out of it there. Oh, wow. It's jumping fast. This number is
going up amazingly. Look at the other
particle counter there. [Nil] It was at seven. It was now at
almost 1400. I'm amazed at how
big sources they are. [Nil] Jeff sees nothing wrong
with essential oils but suggests turning those diffusers off! Next the bedroom, for
some surprising advice. This is a pretty
typical bedroom humidifier. Again, we're seeing
that reading go up. So, all the minerals in the
water, they end up coming out as
little particles. In quite high amounts,
as you can see here as well. [Nil] But doctors are telling
people to use humidifiers. Sometimes the medical community
or the aerosol science community don't
communicate very well. So, we probably
have to work on that. [Nil] Do you use a humidifier? I do not use a humidifier,
because I know what serious particle
generators are. Jeff says those who really want
one could use distilled water or opt for a
steam humidifier. [Nil] Do you really think it's
something you should unplug and put away? I think it's something you
should unplug and put away. Wow. [Nil] And this next
tip is a great deal. So, I went to the hardware
store, I bought three things, the fan, a pretty good
filter, actually, and some tape. And that's all you need
to make an air cleaner. And by you, you mean me. You're going to put me to work? Absolutely. [Nil] It's a
do-it-yourself purifier. Because of the pandemic it can
be tough to find a good one. So, Jeff's showing
us how to make one. So, let's just see which side
is the inlet, which side is the outlet. We're going to put it on and put
the filter on the inlet side. [Nil] Make sure to tape all of
the sides tightly so the air flows through the
filter and not around it. And there's another twist. We just made this, it took,
I don't know, five minutes and you're saying it's better than
some of these devices comparable to others? Yeah, absolutely. [Nil] Not only does this box
fan plus filter cost about $70. Jeff's team tests a similar
one in their lab and finds it outperforms two
of the purifiers. Which ones?
Really? Yeah. Okay, so I'm very surprised. [Nil] That's coming up next. [Nil] Are you saying all of
the experts all of the tests are wrong?
-No, certainly not. [Nil] This is your Marketplace. [Nil] We built our own
purifier, costs about 70 bucks. Takes 5 minutes and a similar
one outperforms two of these purifiers. Wow. [Nil] What's the average CADR? The DIY purifier
comes in just under 200. The Levoit? Comes in at about 60. That's really disappointing to
me and everyone who gave it 5 stars and
it's a ton of people. [Nil] Levoit says its purifier
are top-selling products and this one is made
for smaller spaces. That leaves the most
expensive purifier in our lot. The Dyson. It's average CADR? About 140. Which means this DIY purifier
actually delivers more clean air than the Dyson! Really? Usually, consumers would think
of Dyson as a very good quality. It's disappointing
as a consumer. [Nil] So, we have some questions
for Dyson and one of its engineers, David Hill. He's at the company's HQ
in Malmesbury, England. [Nil] David, the results we're
talking about won't be news to you, but they
will be news to a lot of viewers and customers. Why are some Dyson purifiers not
cleaning the air so well? We aren't engineering our
products to specifically have an enormous CADR because we believe that that's
just one metric. [Nil] Our experts say it's the
most important metric. So, are you saying all of
the experts all of the tests are wrong
and Dyson is right? No, certainly not. I think what we're trying to do
is pull back a little bit from the CADR metric, not
everyone needs an enormous CADR, not everyone has huge rooms
or incredibly dirty air. Why do you think people
should spend $800 on a product when there are cheaper
products that clean the air better on the market? I think cleaning the air better
is probably, at least, a more holistic view rather than
only looking at the CADR metric. Obviously CADR is an important
part of purification, but we need that product to
sense, to capture, and project. [Nil] Dyson insists its devices
do all that offering good value for price and this model
has a built-in heater. [Nil] If someone is just looking
to clean their air, maybe this isn't the right
device for them. I think we would believe that
we've designed a good device to purify
in anyone's home. But we'd always encourage people
to look at the market and make sure that they're informed
before their purchase decision. [Nil] That is
something we can all agree on. But remember: If you're shopping
for an air purifier, check for the CADR. Sometimes listed by
feet rather than meters. Now you know. Consider the air...cleared. [♪♪♪] [man] He's trying to get away.
[Engine revs] [David] Has COVID made
aggressive driving worse? [man] It's basically opened the
streets up for people that are into this racing culture. [David] A national spot-check. We see aggressive
drivers every day. They're walking
away with small fines. What's wrong with our system? [David] And what fuels some
risky driving? It's a popularity contest. Posting them on YouTube, they're
getting some revenue from that. [David] Keeping our roads
safe on Your Marketplace.
TL;DW: No. The Dyson performs poorly, Blue Air the best. Lots of good tips throughout about improving indoor air quality: don’t use humidifier, use range fan when cooking, etc.