Most of the time, when a veterinarian, breeder, or pet store owner starts looking for an air filter, it’s because of odor, dander allergies, or simply a desire to make sure the air stays clean. clean for customers and employees. Unfortunately, most people look for an air purifier that says “pet air cleaner” or “for pets.” And while there are a couple of units that do a decent job of removing dander, hair, and odor, they’re generally inadequate to handle the amount of dander and odor produced by multiple pets in an indoor area, or it would take a while. army of these air filters, which can be expensive and take up too much floor space.

For pet stores, indoor kennels, and veterinary offices, your best bet is to take a close look at the carbon filter in the air purifier. You’ll need the best, strongest activated carbon you can get (industrial strength is best) and a lot of it, a minimum of 15-20 pounds and more if possible, to adequately remove odors created by multiple cats, dogs, and other animals. The reason for this is simple: most odors you experience are organic in nature or VOCs (Volatile Organic Chemicals) and strongly activated carbon is good at removing these compounds. You need a lot of carbon because carbon becomes saturated, and more carbon means the filter removes and controls pet odors longer, with fewer filter changes, etc.

Next, make sure the air purifier has a true HEPA filter that removes over 99% of all dander, dust, and hair down to 0.3 microns, or 0.1 microns if possible. Some air purifier manufacturers try to get away with ‘HEPA-style’ filters, which are not as efficient. And don’t buy an electronic air filter with electrostatic plates (non-HEPA), most of these require constant cleaning to keep removing even 80% of the particles, and that’s not very efficient. Unit output and square foot coverage is also important – buying an air purifier with too low an output won’t be able to remove dust, dander, and odors before they reach your nose, making it a kind of a waste of time. You need a unit with an output of at least 400 CFM or higher for an average room of 10 x 10 or up to 10 x 20.

So far, we’ve been talking primarily about portable air purifiers, and in many pet shop and kennel situations, a combination of several portable or floor-standing air purifiers and a unit connected to the HVAC system is needed, all with a large quantity high quality charcoal. and true HEPA filters. All that heavy urine and other odors are loaded with VOCs and really need the HVAC based air cleaner for general removal and portable units to remove them where customers and employees are standing, for the best remarkably clean air. Portable units remove a good deal of dust, dander, and odors quickly without having to wait for the air conditioning system to go through its air filtration system.

Our best recommendations for very clean air in any pet store, kennel, or veterinary facility are an Electrocorp HVAC-based industrial air filter (such as the I-6500 AH 120) and one or more of Electrocorp’s RSU floor units. , Aller Air 5000 or Series 6000 Vocarb, or Austin Healthmate Plus. We have had great success with this combination and by using both, you have the best high performance, industrial strength carbon, HEPA filters, not to mention 5-10 year warranties.

So if you’re really looking to properly solve a pet odor and dander problem at a kennel, pet store, or veterinary office, stick with air purifiers that have large amounts of high-quality carbon, true HEPA filters, and think in industrial power. In many cases, that’s what it takes to handle large amounts of pet dander and odor.