Most of the time when a vet, kennel, 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 for customers and employees. Unfortunately, most people look for an air purifier that says “pet air filter” or “for pets.” And while there are a couple of units that do a decent job of removing dander, hair, and odors, they’re generally inadequate at handling the amount of dander and odors 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 vet 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 of the odors you experience are organic in nature or VOC (volatile organic chemical) 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 your air purifier has a true HEPA filter that removes more than 99% of all dander, dust, and hair down to 0.3 microns, or 0.1 microns if possible. Some air filter manufacturers try to get away with ‘HEPA style’ filters, which are not as efficient. And don’t buy an electronic air purifier with electrostatic plates (no HEPA), most of these require constant cleaning to keep them removing even 80% of particles, and that’s not very efficient. Unit output and square footage 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 waste of time. kind of a waste of time. You need a unit with an output of at least 400 CFM or higher for an average 10 x 10 or up to 10 x 20 room.
So far, we’ve been talking mostly about portable air purifiers, and in many pet store and kennel situations, a combination of several portable or floor air purifiers and a unit connected to the HVAC system are needed, all with a lot of power. 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 filter 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 run through its air filtration system.
Our top recommendations for very clean air in any pet store, kennel, or veterinary facility are an Electrocorp HVAC-based industrial air cleaner (such as the I-6500 AH 120) and one or more of Electrocorp’s MSW floor units. , Aller Air 5000 or Vocarb 6000 Series, 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 vet office, stick with air purifiers that have copious 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.