HEGA And HEPA Filters---What’s the Difference?

If you are trying to improve indoor air quality HEGA and HEPA are terms you will encounter again and again.

Knowing what these terms mean will help. And matching them with your needs will put you on the right track towards effectively cleaning your air.

HEGA is an acronym for high efficiency gas adsorption. The first letter of each word is used as a shortened knick name. This type of filter is able to eliminate gaseous pollutants such as gases, odors, and airborne chemicals. This is great for removing noxious chemicals, smoke, and cooking odors to mention a few.

HEPA is an acronym for high efficiency particle arresting. To be designated as such, it must be able to remove 99.97% of airborne particles that are .3 microns or greater in size. A micron is defined as one millionth of a meter which is a lot smaller that the period at the end of this sentence.

The benefit of this type of filter is that for every 10,000 airborne particles, it will remove 99,997 of them. This is a good filter for removing airborne dust, dust mites, mold and mildew spores, pet dander, bacteria and viruses. These are all pretty typical indoor pollutants and so this filter can substantially improve indoor air.

Some purifiers come with one or the other type of filter. This means that the cleaner can remove gases but not particles, or particles not gases. The best type of cleaner is one that can multi-task by removing both solid and gaseous pollutants.

PurerAir.com offers such a cleaner. And because of its ability to remove a wide variety of pollutants it’s a great way to manage allergies. See it now at http://purerair.com/allergy_machine.html

Take good care,

Debbie Davis, President
PurerAir.com
(800) 997-298

Austin Air HEGA or HealthMate? ---That Is the Question

If you have an Austin Air purifier that was made after 1995, you are one of the lucky people who have the wonderful option of interchanging your filter.

And so the question often arises—which replacement filter is better—the HEGA or the HealthMate? The answer is that they are different. Let’s explore their similarities and differences.

Both filters have a medical grade HEPA or high efficiency particle arresting filter. This means that both will remove airborne particulates as small as .3 microns including dust, dust mites, mold and mildew spores, pet dander, as well as bacteria and viruses.

Both have large and medium particle pre-filters that are important in prolonging the life of the inner filter.

The difference between the two filters lies in the inner filter. The HealthMate contains carbon zeolite—6.5 pounds in the junior size unit, and 15 pounds in the standard size unit. The carbon zeolite has proven to be excellent at removing odors, gases, and some airborne chemicals making it great for all purpose filtration.

The HEGA (or high efficiency gas adsorption) contains military carbon cloth which is best at removing smoke and the fine particulates that are a by-product of combustion whether from a cigarette, a wood burning stove, or a wildfire. It is also super efficient at removing gases and odors—superior in this aspect to the HealthMate.

If you are at all sensitive to carbon, the HEGA filter is a better choice because it contains less carbon. This also makes the filter lighter in weight if that needs to be a consideration in your decision.

Successfully filtering your air depends on matching your filter with the airborne pollutants you need to remove from your air. If you have more question about these or any other Austin Air replacement filters (http://purerair.com/replacement_filters.html), please give us a call at our 24 hour toll free number--(800) 997-2989. We’ll look forward to helping you choose the best filter for you.

Take good care,
Debbie Davis, President
PurerAir.com