WINIX Air Purifiers and Your Pets

Do you have pets in the home like dogs, cats, rodents or birds? Are you constantly finding dust, hairs or feathers all over the place? Do they drive your allergies crazy?

Well, if you have answered ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, a top-quality Winix air purifier could be a great solution for both your pet & yourself!

There’s nothing worse than not being able to spend time with our best friends because of a potential sneezing-fit. Many of our pets will often shed hair, tiny flecks of skin (pet dander) and feathers. They can also do a marvellous job of whirling up the dusts in the home during ‘play time’. For those of us with allergies & hay fever, these can be big-time allergens (allergy triggers), which can be a BIG problem. A Winix air purifier can do a great job of actively removing these allergens straight from the air. They also remove many other airborne household pollutants (dust, mould spores, pollens, smoke and VOCs) from the air in your home, making for a healthier indoor environment for yourself AND man's best friend!

Many of our Ausclimate friends are already using our Asthma Council Australia Sensitive Choice approved Winix air purifiers just for this purpose, to the point that they have become known in some circles as "Winix Pet Air Purifiers". So we thought that we’d put together a handy guide to help you get the most out of your Winix air purifier specifically for this purpose.

So here’s a few tips about how you can best use your Winix air purifier to help you and the pets that we all love so much.

Air Purifiers Pet User Guide & Tips

• Which Room: Make sure to use your Winix Air Purifier in the rooms of the home that are occupied by your pets the most frequently (i.e. bedrooms and communal areas such as the lounge/kitchen area).
• Fan Speed: Run your Winix Air Purifier on the highest fan speed that’s practicable. - Turning over as much air as possible helps your machine to capture as much of those pollutants as possible – and quicker!
• Bedroom: Make sure to use your Winix Air Purifier when you or the pets are in the room. Yes, we know how easy it can be to let our furry friends sleep in the same room as us (and sometimes demand our attention during sleep time too!) This makes it even more important to run your air purifier throughout the night. A good tip is to run your air purifier on ‘turbo fan speed’ for an hour or so before bedtime, then turn down to ‘medium fan speed’ or ‘auto fan speed’ when it’s time for bed for light sleepers.
• Lounge/Kitchen Area: Protect your pets AND yourself by running your air purifier ALL DAY LONG in these areas: the higher the fan speeds the better. As main thoroughfares of the home, these can be prime spots for fur & feather shedding. The ‘Auto mode’ of our units do a great job for this kind of ‘Set & Forget’ use.
• When Away From Home: Leave the Winix Air Purifier running while you are at work, particularly if your pets spend a lot of time indoors. That way, your pets can continue to breath clean air while you are out.

The indoor air in our homes can be as much as 10 times more polluted than the outdoor air, so if your pets do stay indoors while you are away, it becomes very important to ensure the quality of the air that they are breathing. A good quality air purifier will remove common indoor airborne household pollutants such as dust, mould spores, pollens, smoke and VOCs. It’s also nice to come home to a ‘surprisingly’ fresh smelling home when you say hello to your pets.

• A Contained Environment: For best efficiency, we recommend keeping the rooms and windows closed up where practicable. But, as we know Australia has a wide-ranging climate, so we need to be flexible, so having the internal doors and the odd window ajar is okay – we all appreciate SOME fresh air. Use your ceiling fans and air conditioners as usual.
• Filter Cleaning: Keep an eye on the filters within the Winix Air Purifier. When using your air purifier with pets, these filters can understandably get dirty at a faster rate than usual. The front filter is the ‘pre-filter’, which is the first filter to capture the larger airborne particles, so make sure to give it a regular vacuum while still in the machine. It’s also a good idea to remove it completely every few weeks and run it under water to wash off any pet hair, fluff, lint, dust and grit. Doing this will also prolong the life of the HEPA and Carbon filter!
• Filter Replacement: You can normally expect your filters to last about 12-18 months when used under standard conditions, perhaps a little less if you are intensively using it for your pets, as recommended in this guide. This is understandable given the extra work in capturing pet dander, hair, feathers and even airborne cat saliva produced when cats clean themselves! Make sure to keep an eye on your ‘Replacement Filter Indicator’.
• Running Times: Be generous with your running times – consider even running it 24/7. You don’t need to be overly worried about running costs of the Winix Air Purifiers. They are relatively inexpensive to run (tested at around 0.2 cents per hour). To us, the benefits of continual operation far overwhelm the running costs, particularly when considering all the health benefits that you and your pets will receive.
• User Manual: Lastly, it pays to have a good look over the User Manual – it has some easy to read information about the filter upkeep and maintenance to help you get the very best results.

You also need to make sure you’ve got the right air purifier for the job, with the right features:

Winix 4 Stage Air Purifier (AUS-5500) or Winix ULTIMATE 5 Stage Air Purifier (AUS-9500)

• True HEPA filters: Both models have certified Winix HEPA filters, so they will both remove those tiny airborne particles that may affect you or your pets’ health. These HEPA filters will even remove 99.97% of those ultra-fine particles (including pet dander) measuring as small as 0.3microns (wow, our eyesight is generally good for 40-50 microns!). As a rough guide: pet fur is around 50 microns, dust & mould spores 10 microns, pet dander 2.5 microns, bacteria 1 micron and smoke, a very tiny 0.3 micron.
• Carbon filters: Both models have high quality carbon filters – great for removing cooking smells as well as those unpleasant pet smells. The Winix 5 Stage air purifier actually has an ‘activated carbon filter’, which means it will reach the next important step of capturing hazardous gases and vapours found in the home, such as formaldehyde, acetone, benzene – even those vehicles emissions entering the home from outside. All things that we really don’t want our pets breathing in!
• PlasmaWave: Both Winix Air Purifiers utilise this ‘No Ozone’ air purification technology*. Great for neutralising harmful viruses, bacteria, odour-causing compounds and chemicals and vapours – leaving only fresh, clean air for yourself & your furry best friend.
  * In tests by global independent safety science company UL LLC, WInix Air Purifiers produced 3 part per billion ozone - a nearly undetectable level that is substantially lower than the FDA’s allowable level of 50 part per billion.
• Anti-Bacterial Protection: Both Winix Air Purifiers remove tiny particles such as viruses and bacteria. However, the Winix 5 Stage air purifier also has an ‘Anti-Bacterial Mesh’ within the ‘activated carbon filter’ which provides you and your pets additional protection by neutralising viruses and bacteria on contact.
• Air Quality Sensors: Both Winix Air Purifier models have sensors for monitoring the air quality and once these sensors detect dander, pet odours and other pollutants they will react and increase the fan speed on ‘auto setting’ to quickly get rid of these particles. This even includes those ‘accidental’ stinky pet moments that we know all too well!

We hope that this Pet Air Purifier User Guide has been helpful, as always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch with a phone call or email. We’re always here to help!

Please take a look at our website to find out all about our full Ausclimate WINIX air-purifier range & feel free to get in touch with any questions that you may have. Always happy to help!

Cheers,

Russell Bryan
Ausclimate Co-founder