Why do air purifiers (set on auto) seem to work harder randomly for longer periods of time? Where does the dirty air come from that triggers it to work harder to clean the air?

Question

I notice my nose tickles more when the purifier is an angry red color and auto-running on high power.

I’ve tried to find correlation between when the purifier is working on overdrive and my actions that may cause larger amounts of dust.

In: Technology

Answer 1

A lot of air purifiers create ozone which is a breathing irritant which is why your nose tingles.

Answer 2

When the purifier runs, it clears the area immediately around itself. Over time, dusty air seeps back in and it kicks back on. Unfortunately, if the area around the machine is not clean, when it runs it can kick up more particles. If things like carpets are trapping dust, the purifier may never be able to clean the air and will keep turning on and off, kicking up dust, and running again. Often times there is no advantage of running these devices.