Can You Run an Air Purifier and Essential Oil Diffuser at the Same Time

Can You Run An Air Purifier And Essential Oil Diffuser At The Same Time?

ByOrganic Aromas

We often hear from customers who are interested in purchasing an aromatherapy diffuser but note that they already have an air purifier in their home. Many of today’s air purifiers contain High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters.

Many people believe that their air purifier with a HEPA filter will counteract the effects of the essential oil diffuser. Below, we’ll clarify whether this is the case, allowing you to determine if you can have both an air purifier and aromatherapy diffuser in your home at the same time.

What Is A HEPA Filter?

A HEPA filter is a state-of-the-art system that is known for capturing tiny particles in your air. Air purifiers that contain HEPA filter are often more efficient when cleaning the air than other filtration systems. Many people use air purifiers with HEPA filters to reduce common allergens in the air, such as:

  • Dander
  • Dust
  • Pollen

Many companies falsely market their products as containing a HEPA filter. A “true” HEPA filter will have been tested and proved to reduce 99.97 percent of particles the size of .3 microns or greater. HEPA filters should have test results printed on the filter. Manufacturers may also use “HEPA-type filters.” While these products are similar to true filters, they tend to reduce approximately 85 percent of particles one micron or greater.

What Is A HEPA Filter Made Of?

HEPA filters feature a modern design that allows them to filter a large number of impurities from the air. When air passes through a purifier with a HEPA filter, it will first pass through a pre-filter. This works to remove larger particles and allergens from the air, such as those that are visible to the human eye.

The air will then pass through an electrostatic precipitator. This tool grabs hold of tiny dust particles with electrostatic force. The precipitator ionizes the air as it passes through as well. Lastly, the air will likely pass through an activated carbon filter, which pulls gaseous pollutants and other odors from the air. Activated carbon filters are useful for removing heavy odors, such as the smell of bacon or tobacco smoke. However, carbon filters do not remove finer particles.

The Benefits Of A HEPA Filter

An air purifier with a HEPA filter could seem a bit gimmicky, but it has long-term, substantiated health benefits. For instance, an air purifier could allow you to live a much healthier lifestyle because it is proved to remove cigarette smoke from the air.

Cigarette smoke contains more than ten human carcinogens and 4,000 chemical compounds. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control indicate that those exposed to secondhand smoke are up to 30 percent more likely to develop lung cancer.

Furthermore, an air purifier can boost your immune system by filtering bacteria and germs from the air. Removing these particles will ensure that you’re breathing clean oxygen so that you can live a healthier life.

Can You Run An Air Purifier And Essential Oil Diffuser At The Same Time?

Won’t An Air Purifier Counteract The Point Of An Aromatherapy Diffuser?

Fortunately for you, no! HEPA filters are designed to pull negatively-charged ions from the air. The essential oils that you would use in an aromatherapy diffuser are not allergens that the HEPA filter seeks to remove. Where some of your concerns may come into play, however, is with the activated charcoal portion of the HEPA filter, since this is designed explicitly to remove strong odors from the air.

Obviously, fresh odors are one of the primary reasons you’d run an aromatherapy diffuser. There is no need for you to worry when using an air purifier with a charcoal filter and a diffuser. Manufacturers design activated charcoal filters to remove large odor particles from the air. Remember, we mentioned above that activated charcoal is not meant for finer particles.

The particles of an essential oil diffuser are very refined. This allows them, for the most part, to pass through the charcoal filter without a problem. While it’s true that the activated charcoal will indeed remove some of the strength of the scent, a majority of the odors from the oil should pass through the filter.

This Seems Too Good To Be True

You can rest assured that it’s the truth! At Organic Aromas, we continuously seek to deliver results to our customers. When our customers began asking about air purifiers, HEPA filters, and their aromatherapy diffusers, we conducted experiments to see how efficient these machines would be when working with one another.

During experimentation, we found that the air purifier did not remove all the essential oils scent from the air. Some particles may have been trapped, but when we smelt the exhaust from the air purifier machine, we noticed that it smelled exactly like the essential oils we had released from the diffuser. Much like any other time you use your aromatherapy diffuser, the scents from oils will eventually evaporate and collapse.

We found that when running the air purifier long enough, the scents eventually dissipated. However, it took much longer for this to happen than we had initially anticipated. In fact, we concluded that the HEPA filter did not remove the essential oils scent from the air at all and that it did not accelerate the dissipation time, at least not in a substantial way.

Many members of our team now use air purifiers and aromatherapy diffusers in conjunction with one another to maximize the air that they’re breathing. It’s also worth noting that the essential oils will in no way harm your air purifier. We’ve heard this mentioned often by our customers as a concern, but remember that your HEPA filter is strong enough to filter the toughest of allergens. However, we don’t recommend putting the oils inside of your air purifier directly.

If you do happen to find that your air purifier is too potent for the diffuser and that your essential oils are not as pungent as you’d like, we recommend using them with one another consecutively. For instance, perhaps you can run the purifier for an hour to help clean the air in a room. Then, when the air is clean, you can turn your purifier off and run your aromatherapy diffuser for a while. Completing this cycle throughout the day will maximize the health benefits of both.

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51 Comments

  2. I use Nebula and Dyson Air Purifier. They don’t work well together, as my HEPA filter will turn on at highest speed (I set as auto) every time my diffuser is running. Best to cycle one after another rather than turning them on at the same time. So I set my Purifier on the day and diffuser at night.

  3. This article is false – unless you have a poorly rated HEPA filter. The article seems to bank on it’s consumers owning cheap “falsely marketed” poor preforming HEPA filters. BUT – if you own a good one – like a BlueAir, then this article is completely false for two reasons. First – Essential oil diffuser mist particles are 1-3 microns in size. Good HEPA filters remove particles as small as 0.1 microns in size! That means a good air purifier will eliminate your essential oils from your air easily and within an hour – and the particles will clog your HEPA filter. Lastly – a good air purifier will easily negatively charge the essential oil particles prior to them hitting the HEPA filter – which means the filter will easily remove the now negatively charged essential oil particles from the air. I hope this helps. Cheers

  4. Great article. I have both air purifier and essential oil nebulizer. I run the air purifiers at night and the nubulizers during the day. It works well using them this way.

  19. Very informative article. I’ve never seen articles about using HEPA filters & diffusers at the same time but I bet a lot of people are doing just that.

  27. So glad you could clarify this concern. I would imagine the HEPA filter would not counteract the effects of the oils, but good to know the information.

  46. Wow! Great article about a really good question. Perfect solution, too! How come I never thought about running the purifier first then the essential oils? Dur, dur. dur. I know now though! Definitely gonna try this, too!

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