For anyone who deals with the annoyance of allergies, sinus conditions, asthma or other respiratory problems, a home air purifier should be strongly considered for your household. If it happens that you are someone who likes to have the most high-tech devices in your home, then you will want to check out an ionic air purifier to address your air purification needs.

The ionic air purifier first took center stage with a huge marketing effort by the large cataloger and retailer Shaper Image with their Ionic Breeze Air Purifier. While similar technology for air purification had existed before, Sharper Image made some advancements in design and had the marketing muscle to make it their air purifiers a household name in no time.

Once Sharper image brought the ionic air purifier to market with a bang, other manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon to bring their brands out, with some differences, but based on the same idea. One of the main distinctions between HEPA air cleaners and ionic purifiers is that the ionic machines do not rely on filters that get clogged and have to be replaced.

Instead, ionic air purifier technology relies on the use of electrostatic plates to apply charge to the pollutants in the atmosphere of the home. When the charged particles pass through the unit, they are electrostatically attracted to collector blades inside the unit. Then the indoor pollutants can be simply wiped off the collection blades for easy disposal of the contaminants.

Another difference between the ionic air purifier technology that the typical HEPA air cleaners is that these units do not depend on fans to circulate the air, but instead use the electrostatic technology to pull air through the device. This allows the air purifiers to operate virtually silently, so they can run continuously without adding to the noise level in the home, and without causing any interference with sleep.

Because of the lack of fans in the ionic air purifier systems, these machines are also extremely energy efficient, using much less electricity to operate on a daily basis than their counterparts with blowers. This helps to greatly lower the cost of operating these units, and since air purifiers must be run everyday around the clock, this can add up to significant savings over the course of a year.

Another area of savings that you will enjoy using an ionic air purifier is in filters. With HEPA air purifiers, the filters must be replaced on a regular basis in order to maintain a high level of efficiency and effectiveness in pulling the dangerous pollutants from the air. This cost can add up greatly over the life of the machine.

The ionic air purifier units are more expensive than the HEPA filtered units, but over time, you will save money in ongoing operation and maintenance costs. There are some refurbished units available that can save you some money, and there are also smaller units that are less expensive that could be used in the area of the home where you spend the bulk of your time. There are also other ionic air purifiers on the market that claim to offer better value, such as the Ionic Pro purifier.

To get the best results from the ionic air purifier in your home, you should be sure to keep the doors and windows closed up tight. This will allow the purifier to remove the highest concentration of particulates from the air in your home.