EnviroKlenz Mobile Air Purifier System Review: How Does It Compare?

In this review of the EnviroKlenz Mobile Air System I look at how this technologically advanced air filter compares to other leading home air filters on the market. Plus I share my own personal feedback after using the EnviroKlenz home air system for the past month and cover the good and the bad about this air filter.

If you are looking at purchasing an air filter for your home, this review is going to help you make an informed decision.

But first, why do you need an air filter? Let's take a quick look at the dangers of air pollution on our health.

Why Use An Air Filter: The Dangers Of Air Pollution

Did you know nearly 9 million people die from air pollution every year! ^[1]

And sure, the majority of these deaths are in developing countries, but the effects of toxic air pollution are still alarming in first world countries.

For example, 30,000 people in the UK die from air pollution each year. A third of these deaths are related to nitrogen dioxide poisoning.

Deaths are the worst case scenario from air pollution exposure, but air pollution is also having a massive effect on our health.

Asthma, for instance, is directly linked to nitrogen dioxide exposure.^[2]

Issues like throat, eye and nasal inflammation are linked to volatile organic compound exposure (these are emitted from paints, new furniture, gasoline and other synthetic products). 

Breathing in flame retardants bound to dust particles has been linked to endocrine disruption and various health issues.^[3]

Toxic mould, carbon dioxide and particulate matter are all other concerns when it comes to air pollution dangers.

For an indepth look at the health concerns around air pollution, I recommend you read my articles The Crippling Effects Of Air Pollution On Human Health and Everything You Need To Know About Air Filters.

No we know the risks of breathing toxic air, let's look at how effective the EnviroKlenz Air System is at cleaning this air.

EnviroKlenz Mobile Air System: What You Need To Know

EnviroKlenz is an American company based in Florida. 

Before entering the air filtration market, the company manufactured cleaning products for chemically sensitive individuals. Based on their experience with cleaning products and the health dangers of breathing in chemicals, the company decided to build their own air filter units.

They now sell two in home air filters - called the 'EnviroKlenz Mobile Air Systems'.

Here is what you need to know about these air filters:

• The EnviroKlenz mobile air system uses 'hospital-grade air filtration technology'
• This includes a HEPA filter and the companies own patented 'Air Cartridge' filter to remove additional VOC's, mould, dust and odours
• The HEPA filter is medical grade and filters particles up to 0.3 microns
• Their mobile unit is designed to filter a space up to 1000 square feet (92m2)
• There are 4 fan speed options - to suit your filtration and sound level needs.
• The HEPA filter has a life expectancy of 18-24 months. The EnviroKlenz air cartridge is designed to last 6 months.

Design, Cost & User Experience

How much does the EnviroKlenz Mobile Air System Cost?

The base model (which is what I have) costs $700. For an extra $200 you can get the UV model - which as the name suggests - includes a UVC light filter.

The HEPA filter lasts 2 years and costs $150 to replace. The Air Cartridge lasts 6 months and costs $100 to replace. 

On the design front, there are 3 colour options - white, black and grey. I have the grey unit - which I must admit is rather dull and boring. Not really something you want in your living room, white would be a much better option.

The unit itself is a solid powder coated metal case weighing 38lbs and measuring 22" by 15.5" by 15".

It sits on wheels and can easily be moved around on the floor.

The controls on the back of the unit are pretty basic - a light showing if the unit is on or not, and an old school dial with 5 settings. Off and 4 fan speed options.

These fan speed options range from Whisper Mode (which emits 54 decibels of sound) up to High (which emits decibels of sound).

Those are all the controls on the unit. There is no Bluetooth or wifi function, there is no remote control function and no inbuilt timer (though you could use your own plugin timer switch in the wall power point).

As for how to operate this air filter - it's super easy. Plug it in and turn the dial to the fan speed of your choice. I guess this is an upside of having minimal controls!

Changing the air filter cartridges is also very simple. There are only two filters - the big HEPA filter and the slim EnviroKlenz filter. There is no need to undo any screws, you simply slide the back panel up and slide the cartridges out to remove them.

The cartridges are labelled to ensure you fit them the correct way.

All in all, the EnviroKlenz Mobile Air System is a simple (but rather plain) design that is extremely easy to use.

EnviroKlenz Unique Filtration Technology

As mentioned above, EnviroKlenz uses two filter technologies. A HEPA filter which filters 99.97% of all particles down to .3 microns.

And the unique EnviroKlenz Air Cartridge - which has been designed by EnviroKlenz.

We know that HEPA filters work great for capturing particles in the air. I covered this in my article Everything You Need To Know About Air Filters. And the 0.3 micron filter that the EnviroKlenz uses is the standard for all major air filter products on the market.

It's the EnviroKlenz Air Cartridge that I don't know much about. 

Their website has this statement around their patented cartridge:

The EnviroKlenz (Air Cartridge) technology is composed of three earth minerals (Magnesium Oxide, Zinc Oxide, and Titanium Dioxide) that work together and are processed to be highly reactive against a broad spectrum of air pollutants and contaminants and breaking down/ neutralizing these contaminants completely – with no threat of re-release back into the environment.

The technology undergoes a patented process that increases the surface area of the metal oxides, making it highly effective in chemical neutralization capabilities, adsorption of chemicals and/or fragrances, and allows it to be highly effective against many common irritants and particulate matter in the air.

 

Carbon is a commonly used material in odor control applications. It absorbs odors; however it does have several serious disadvantages. Most significantly, carbon only physisorbs toxic, noxious, and other odor causing molecules, meaning that the unwanted chemicals do not react chemically with the carbon and can be released them later and cause the re-emergence of an odor believed to have been initially neutralized or eliminated. Changes in humidity or temperature can hasten this process, causing the odors and other unwanted chemicals to be released back into the air.EnviroKlenz® products have proven to be highly efficient “adsorptive neutralizers” for chemicals making them not only competitively advantageous over carbon, but ideal in multiple chemical sensitive situations. When the EnviroKlenz materials come into contact with the airborne pollutant, the metal oxides’ active sites first capture the chemical then initiate the neutralization process. This type of action is needed for the numerous types of pollutants that possess a variety of different functional groups. The increased surface area, unique physical morphology, high chemical reactivity, and functional porosity, all contribute to the enhanced chemical adsorption and neutralizing characteristics of EnviroKlenz. 

 

EnviroKlenz vs Molekule & Other Popular Air Filters

The main thing you want to know when buying an Air Filter is - does it work, and does it work better than the other products on the market.

Now the best way to answer these questions would be for me to setup a highly controlled experiment where I had a sealed room full of pollutants, an air quality meter, and an air filter from all the main players.

This way I could run a test for every product and see which one worked the best.

Unfortunately, I don't have the money, time, know-how or resources to do such an experiment.

But EnviroKlenz does, and they have done this exact test.

I know this isn't the most trust-worthy of experiments - as it was carried out by EnviroKlenz - they obviously want their product to be the best. 

But it's the best data I have, so I will include it in this review - but please know that this data was provided by EnviroKlenz.

You can actually all the data for yourself on this page - https://enviroklenz.com/enviroklenz-mobile-systems-comparison

Below I have included the key findings from this comparison.

• The EnviroKlenz Air System, IQAir, BlueAir, MoleKule and carbon technology
  were evaluated.
• Three different chemistries were used to show the capabilities of the systems.
•  A corrosive gas (hydrogen sulfide), a nitrogen compound (ammonia), and a volatile organic compound were used 
• In the studies chamber studies, the systems were all subjected to the same amount of gas and were monitored using an appropriate detector.
• The EnviroKlenz Air system was the quickest against ammonia and had the best removal rates of all units.

• The EnviroKlenz Air system was the quickest to remove all hydrogen sulfide, with IQAir close behind. Note - the MoleKule also filtered (and neutralised) all hydrogen sulfide, but it took a few hours to do so.  

• The IQAir was the fastest against the organic chemistry (VOCs) and had a 100% removal rate (though their unit does not neutralise the VOC's like the Molekule and EnviroKlenz filters)

• The IQAir was also the fastest at removing all Formaldehyde - doing so in under 10 minutes!

• The EnviroKlenz Air System has the highest amount of particulate matter filter media (HEPA) with over 56 square feet, IQAir has approximately 50 square feet, Blue Air approximately 28 square feet. The MoleKule does not use a HEPA filter.

• In regards to noise output, the Blue Air was the quietest, with EnviroKlenz and Molekule in a close second.

• Finally, we have a cost to run comparison (this looks at power consumption, not replacement filter costs). Molekule was the cheapest with IQAir being the most expensive to run at $18.83 a month.

The testing report also included a comparison overview showing the strengths and weaknesses of each system. Remember this is a bias comparison but does include some good points hence why I included it here.

Please read on to see my own pros/cons of the EnviroKlenz system.

Overall these tests reveal some interesting data.

From a performance point of view, the IQAir is the standout performer. But, and it's a big but, if EnviroKlenz claims about regular carbon filters having the ability to re-release these captured pollutants when the machine is turned off, and the certain environmental conditions are reached (pressure, humidity, temperature) then this is of big concern.

I do not know if this is an issue or not - or a hyped up marketing ploy. If anyone has more experience on this matter please leave your comments below.

If we assume this 're-release' problem is real, then we have to look at the Molekule (which uses unique oxidation technology to neutralise these pollutants) or the EnviroKlenz (which uses a unique filter composition to neutralise the pollutants).

And out of these two systems - the EnviroKlenz is a clear winner.

If you're not worried about the potential for captured pollutants re-entering the air, then the IQAir unit does look great - however it is very expensive and very bulky. So much so that many wouldn't go for this option.

In which case you would have to look at something smaller and cheaper, but still had a great performance - and again you would end up with the EnviroKlenz as being the most obvious choice.

Finally, it would be very interesting to see how the upcoming Sqair would perform in these tests. The Sqair is currently a Kickstarter campaign and I have covered it briefly on my site HERE.

The manufacturers claim to outperform some of the big players in the air filter market and have created something that is pleasing on the eye (not many air filters look good!) and comes in at a great cost. 

The Sqair doesn't use any fancy technology - just a simple (yet effective) HEPA filter and Carbon filter. It will be interesting to see how their filter compares in tests like these down above. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until late 2019 to see such results.

My Feedback & Experience With The EnviroKlenz Mobile Air System

 I've covered the technical details about the EnviroKlenz Mobile Air System, but what about my personal thoughts on this filter?

I've been using this system for a few weeks now and have some insights to share with you all. The first thing that I should mention is that my air quality is really good, to begin with.

I live in rural New Zealand, surrounded by hills and native bush. You can see a typical indoor air quality reading in my office from the photo below:

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

Ahhh the joys of having an office in the middle of no where surrounded by native bush 🥰🌲 Super clean air 🙌🏽 Got this air quality meter from @iqair to check out the air quality in my home 🏡 What did I find - it’s bloody good! Anything under 100 (left side number) is really good. In fact I sent some photos to a mate who has one in China 🇨🇳 he had never seen figures so low! #GoNZ 🇳🇿 Oh and I’ve got some epic articles on air quality and air filters coming up over at AlexFergus.com so keep and 👁 out for those. . #airquality #pollution #cleangreennewzeand #cleangreennz #cleanair #biohacker #offgrid #lifestyleblock #homeoffice #entrepreneur #nosmoking

A post shared by Alex Fergus (@alexfergus_coach) on May 24, 2019 at 12:51am PDT

But since I've had this air quality meter, I have noticed that cooking and keeping our fireplace door open for too long can send the air quality levels to dangerous numbers.

I'm also very concerned about off-gassing and flame retardants in the air. So having an air filter in my home is useful - I just don't need to have it running 24/7.

Anyway, enough about me, here are my thoughts on the EnviroKlenz system after a month of use:

• No timer function built into the unit - not a major issue, but it would be nice to have it going for a few hours in a room and then it automatically cut off to save on power. I could use a separate timer, but it would have been good to see it built in.
• It is pricey. I know it's cheaper than the IQAir unit, and the Molekule Purifier ($799) but after looking at the Sqair Kickstarter campaign (under $200) spending $700 on a filter does seem steep.
• It is rather plain looking. I'll be honest - the filter has a very 'commercial' look to it. I can see it in a hospital or an office, but I don't think it will go well in a home space. My wife said it was 'ugly' and I have to agree. I have the grey unit - which doesn't help. A nice white would fit in better. The grey looks like it belongs in a warehouse. 
• It's also very bulky - again, not an issue for an office space, but for people who have a small living space it could simply be too big (though the IQAir units are even bigger)
• It is rather loud. I am blessed to live in a very remote and quiet place, so maybe the sound won't bother everyone. But I hate having fans running. Even on the 'WhisperQuiet' setting it still annoyed me (though looking at the above data, it looks like all air filters are rather noisy!) I should mention my wife never complained about it, and even left it running in the room one night when I wasn't there.

 

 

 

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A post shared by Alex Fergus (@alexfergus_coach) on Jun 20, 2019 at 4:00pm PDT

Concluding Remarks

So let's summarise what we know:

• Air pollution is a serious health issue and a home air purifier can help address this issue.
• Though not the best performing, the EnviroKlenz Air Mobile System is a well priced, well-rounded air purifier.
• The EnviroKlenz not only captures pollutants, but it neutralises them as well - eliminating the possibility of re-release into the air. If this is a big of a concern as EnviroKlenz make it out to be, then their purifier system is a top performer.
• If it's not such a big deal, then it is still a good purifier - better than a lot of their competitors, but nowhere near as good as the large IQAir.
• All the above points are based on the testing provided to me by EnviroKlenz - so there are potential issues there.
• From a design and aesthetic view - the EnviroKlenz Mobile Air System is rather ugly and you may not like it in your living room.
• The EnviroKlenz does not have any advanced controls or wireless connectivity - some may see this simple design as a plus, others as a negative.

Whether you should purchase an EnviroKlenz unit really depends.

It depends on where you want to use the system. It depends on your budget. It depends if you like the look of it and it depends how much credibility you give towards the data and claims EnviroKlenz have provided.

Personally - I would love to see how the upcoming Sqair purifier performs. Not only is that unit a really nice looking home purifier, but it comes in at a fraction of the cost.

But often price reflects performance, in which case EnviroKlenzs system - with their unique Air Cartridge system - may be your best home air purification choice?

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Items Mentioned:

•  EnviroKlenz Mobile Air System

Found This Interesting? Then You Might Like:

• The Crippling Effects Of Air Pollution On Human Health (+Best Solutions)
• Everything You Need To Know About Air Filters (And The Best For Your Budget)
• How To Detoxify Your Home Using These Amazing Indoor Plants
  
• Toxins and Fat Gain: What You Need To Know
• Everything You Need To Know About Water Filters (And The Best Filter For Your Home)
• Confused About What's Healthy And What's Not? Read This

References:

1. World Health Organization. 9 out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air, but more countries are taking action. 

2. Phys.org. German government calculates deaths from nitrogen dioxide. March 2018.

3. https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/are-you-being-exposed-to-dangerous-flame-retardants

This blog post was written by Alex Fergus. Alex is a ISSN Sports Nutrition Specialist, Fitness Professional and certified Superhuman Coach who continues to expand his knowledge base and help people across the world with their health and wellness. Alex is recognized as the National Record Holder in Powerlifting and Indoor Rowing and has earned the title of the Australian National Natural Bodybuilding Champion. Having worked as a health coach and personal trainer for over a decade, Alex now researches all things health and wellness and shares his findings on this blog. Learn more about Alex's Credentials HERE.